What is Identity Verification?

Identity verification is a global challenge that comes in many shapes, sizes and flavors. In many developed countries, a plethora of identity-associated data and sources are available, whereas some countries may only have a few reliable sources and fewer types of data.

Identity Verification is ensuring in real-time that you are dealing with real people by matching their data with reliable sources across the globe to corroborate their information.

Data should be verified according to each country’s standards; a valid identity is qualified differently in some countries. Identity verification is a real-time check against these criteria which is performed prior to onboarding a new client, without storing personally identifiable information (PII).

Types of ID Verification

The types of identity verification vary with the compliance requirements and the type of industries this verification process is used for.

For example, there is Proof of Address (PoA), which requires a name and address to ensure your customer lives where they claim.

Why are there different requirements for each country? Most sources require an additional identifier such as National ID and DOB, and this requirement will vary with each provider and country. For example, credit sources within the US rely heavily on National ID (such as SSN) while some international credit sources rely on DOB as a required supplementary field. Coverage and the required data elements will change based upon the country. In some cases, additional B2B screening will be required in the form of a consent. Some countries will have different data security regulations that will need to be followed.

Some other identity verification methods are more stringent, requiring a match across at least two different sources (2+2 Match), especially to adhere to Anti Money Laundering (AML) regulations. This proof is critical for banking, government, and other organizations that are handling sensitive data. Matching rules vary based on the objectives and compliance requirements.

The Role of KYC/AML

Primarily, AML is composed of the policies introduced in the Bank Secrecy Act. The objective of AML regulations is to identify and prevent the hiding of ill-gotten money. These regulations are most notably present in the financial sector, but financial institutions are increasingly requiring their clientele to comply with AML practices as well. AML compliance increases trust between you and your customers and protects you from liability that could result in heavy fines.

KYC refers to “Know Your Customer”. With identity verification, you can have confidence in onboarding new clients by verifying individuals against reliable data sources in real time (credit, government, etc.).

Why Melissa?

Identity verification is performed in real time to match contact data, including name, national ID, address, and date of birth to reliable sources.

Identity verification can quickly become complicated on a global scale; different countries have different information available, different types of national ID, and provide their data in entirely different formats. Adhering to KYC and AML regulations is critical to avoid liability.

While these are important considerations, we at Melissa have already handled it for you, including proprietary contact data cleansing/validation services. We continue to solve these problems every day, working with governments and organizations across the world to provide customized and reliable identity verification.

At Melissa, we’re constantly sourcing new data and working with new providers to provide more coverage and reliable information for electronic identity verification (eIDV).