Top 10 KYC Providers 2023

Today, the cryptocurrency industry is experiencing unprecedented popularity, which on the one hand, it gives many advantages from using its potential, but on the other hand becomes the object of fraudulent activity, which is primarily aimed at cryptocurrency exchanges. Thus, to be able to trade and perform other types of financial transactions, new users undergo the KYC procedure, which is the central part of the process of verifying their identity.

This article will talk about what KYC technology is and what are the benefits of using it. You will also learn about the 10 most successful and outstanding KYC providers in 2023.

What is a KYC Technology?

KYC, or “Know Your Customer”, is a process that financial entities and corporations of all kinds use to verify the identity of their customers. This process helps to ensure the security of these organisations by verifying that their customers are who they claim to be and are not involved in illegal or fraudulent activities. Thus, in 2023, KYC will remain an essential part of the financial services industry, and the crypto industry in particular, as there is always a need to authenticate the identity of customers in order to protect and counteract money laundering and related activities.

One of the critical elements of KYC is identity verification. This process involves confirming the identity of the user through several methods. On the one hand, there is the verification of relevant electronic identity documents, be it a passport, driver’s license or bank statement containing information on the place of registration. On the other hand, facial recognition technology and biometric authentication is used, which involves visual scanning of the client’s face using a system of gestures that must be performed in order to complete the verification process. These methods are not exhaustive, as today, with the development of crypto technologies, KYC solutions are being developed in parallel to meet crypto organisations’ requirements and security standards.

Another important part of KYC technology is record keeping. What is meant by this is that all financial institutions, organisations and other institutions must keep records of the identity of all their customers so that they can refer to them in the event of any suspicious or illegal activity. This mechanism is highly likely to help prevent situations in which accounts are hacked and stolen and withdrawal of funds and coins from the wallet account, phishing, and other illegal operations aimed at defrauding and swindling users out of their money.

Thus, KYC is an integral element of the system that ensures the safety and security of not only the funds and capital of users, but also customer data, which in turn helps maintain a high level of anonymity. Despite its simplicity, verification of documents can provide the necessary conditions for the process of combating money laundering, preventing payment fraud and fraud, which ultimately allows you to comfortably trade in any financial market without fear for the safety of funds and capital. Moreover, the application of modern KYC software within any financial institution for the purposes of secure digital identity and automation of verification processes will minimise the occurrence of any type of illegal and unlawful activity that will increase the overall security of all elements of the financial asset trading process.

What Are The Benefits of Using KYC Technology?

Today, security in the financial markets is of paramount importance and KYC solutions as an important element of the system providing this security as part of the customer onboarding process are becoming increasingly popular, not least because of their many advantages that provide immeasurable benefits to companies in the financial sector. Let’s take a look at the main ones below.

Fighting Money Laundering

Money laundering is primarily related to the activity in which the proceeds of criminal activity are legitimised. This problem is very acute today due to the growing popularity of trading in financial assets, especially with the advent of crypto technologies, which in turn spurs the interest of criminals and criminal organisations in carrying out all kinds of illegal activities aimed at money laundering in any financial markets.

KYC technology plays an essential role in anti-money laundering and identification of users’ identities, and already at the early stages of registration, it helps to eliminate the emergence of situations conducive to the development of activities aimed at money laundering.

Preventing Fraudulent Activity

Today, fraudulent activities have a wide range of activities aimed at gaining access to personal and investment information of users, extortion, phishing, and deception to obtain funds, money laundering, hacking, and interference with security systems in order to reduce the potential level of protection of the entire process of trading and investment activities in the market. 

KYC system provides invaluable assistance in matters related to the protection of personal and financial data of users, primarily helping fraud prevention and payment fraud prevention, which according to statistics, is one of the most popular ways of deception and fraud by criminal organisations and attackers. 

Protecting Customer Data

User data is of the highest value in any organisation, and its safety and confidentiality are the highest priority within the security framework. Such data includes all personal information about the person who has a trading account on the trading platform. On the other hand, investment information related to the user’s trading activity and including data on account status, trading activity, transactions made, etc., is of particular value.

KYC solutions with built-in suspicious activity detection systems can report the need to block the user’s account in order to identify potential threats creating such activity and eliminate it by applying appropriate measures or identity verification services aimed at re-identifying the user’s identity based on document verification or biometric authentication solution.

Simplifying the Identification Process

Before KYC systems were introduced, the process of identifying individuals was difficult and mediocre, which created some difficulties in uncovering fraud patterns. This was a big problem when it came to ensuring the protection and security of users’ personal and financial data.

With the advent of KYC software, automating verification processes have been applied which has made the identification process much easier, faster and more comfortable without violating the privacy policy, which plays a paramount role in the basis of maintaining user trust.

Protecting from Unauthorized Third Party Access

KYC solutions provide an additional level of security, including the use of two-factor identification systems or protection by resetting an additional account password to email or phone to uncover fraud patterns and prevent  third parties from accessing the account. This method helps to maintain the necessary level of security throughout the entire time of using the platform’s services, in particular trading.

Most Outstanding KYC Providers in 2023

Today, the market for KYC solutions is full of many options, each with its own features, advantages, and disadvantages. The development of the cryptocurrency sector in particular has become a catalyst for many companies involved in the development of security solutions, creating KYC systems. Let’s take a look at the top 10 most successful companies in the KYC software market.

Shufti Pro

Shufti Pro is a cutting-edge identity verification provider that utilises artificial intelligence to create more effective KYC and AML screening solutions. This software provides a simple and effective method of preventing online fraud and identity theft while being reasonably priced and able to authenticate everyone worldwide.

A sizable data bank has been developed by Shufti Pro to combat financial crime, which contains profiles from 1,000 sanctions and watch lists maintained by domestic and international law enforcement agencies. Furthermore, this database includes information originating from 3,000 databases maintained by international financial watchdogs and authorities and PEP lists mandated by the FATF. Data checks based on Anti-Money Laundering (AML) by Shufti Pro protect businesses against financial risks and penalties.

Trulioo

A global identity verification service provider, Trulioo verifies customer information from over 400 sources, including a database of more than 5 billion individuals worldwide. A $2 billion valuation has been assigned to the Vancouver-based startup since it was founded in 2011.

The Trulioo service offers a full range of security systems, including KYC solutions with a secure digital identity network that allows identity verification elements by verifying the user’s address, documents, and accounts. All this allows the company to occupy one of the leading positions in ranking the most successful companies offering security solutions.

Ondato

Ondato, an AML and KYC process optimisation technology company, has launched sales of its high-precision artificial intelligence-based OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology as a standalone solution to other identity system providers.

The efficient, accurate and fast technology, built into Ondato’s proprietary solutions for identity verification and onboarding processes in organisations, is now available as an open API integration for use by third parties. It can read and digitise more than 10,000 document templates in less than a second with 99.8% accuracy and automatically transfers the data to any system – such as a CRM, database or other tool, enabling significantly faster KYC and AML compliance for organisations during onboarding anywhere in the world and across all industry sectors.

Fractal ID

With a conversion rate of 40% when compared to industry standards, Fractal ID is a KYC/AML service platform from the German fintech firm Fractal that offers quick and accurate global verification. OCR and face recognition are used to check passports and national IDs. In addition to providing KYC/AML regulatory norms at the bank level, Fractal ID complies with GDPR. There are several degrees of verification supported by Fractal ID. Each level can also be enhanced with a variety of add-ons. This will affect the data the user is asked to share and, as a result, how they interact with Fractal ID.

Sumsub

SumSub is a single solution for all tasks related to remote user verification for security and compliance. Artificial intelligence-based technology automates identity and document verification to protect against fraud. It also provides KYC, KYT checks, AML screening, and customer data storage for security and regulatory compliance.

Sumsub also provides companies with an AI-based identity verification system for users and corporate customers. Verification takes 60 seconds, the company says – for example, the service can determine if a document photo has been altered. It takes several hours to verify a company – the service analyses commercial activities in a particular country, managers, and beneficiaries, considering the peculiarities of regulation in different countries.

Seon

In order to prevent money laundering on cryptocurrency exchanges and in the Forex market, SEON is one of the most effective, flexible, and complete KYC technologies available. The business keeps an eye out for questionable conduct in the media and online using its arsenal of KYC and AML technologies using a special customer identification program. Additionally, the business provides a huge selection of analytics tools for studying user activity.

Onfido

Onfido is an English company that offers an online user identification service using facial biometrics. Popular crypto exchanges and other financial organisations actively cooperate with Onfido. The company’s arsenal includes solutions for biometric user identification, AML compliance verification, and other criteria that form the backbone of any financial institution’s security. 

According to the verification system developed by Onfido, it is necessary to go through two steps; where in the first step, it is required to present a valid document, for example, a passport or driver’s license – where a person’s photo will be displayed, his name and surname will be read in Latin. There will be other data from the document that will confirm its validity. In the second step, it is necessary to connect the webcam of your computer and take a high-quality photo of your face, after that the artificial intelligence (as it is stated by Onfido) will check everything and decide online whether the photo in the document corresponds to the photo of the person from the webcam, if the intelligence so considers, it means that it will be possible to pass this very identification.

Refinitiv

Refinitiv is a global financial market data and infrastructure provider offering businesses a range of KYC solutions. Its World-Check product is a risk intelligence database that helps companies comply with anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CTF) regulations. Refinitiv’s solutions are robust, reliable, and innovative technology has a user-friendly interface, making it an appealing choice for businesses looking to enhance their KYC processes.

KYC-Chain

Using a cutting-edge platform called KYC-Chain, businesses and financial institutions can manage client data confidently and efficiently, while consumers can securely manage their digital identities. This platform was created on top of the practicality and security of distributed ledger technology. 

For businesses and financial institutions, KYC-Chain offers consensus on the identities of people and firms at the most significant degree of trust, streamlining the process of onboarding new clients while maintaining regulatory compliance. With new KYC-Chain technology, businesses can conduct smart verification processes that will satisfy regulators. At the same time, end users can become the only owners of their identity data.

ComplyAdvantage

ComplyAdvantage is a service offering  KYB, KYC and AML instruments for dealing with financial crime risks and technologies for their detection based on artificial intelligence. ComplyAdvantage’s mission is to neutralise the risk of laundering proceeds of crime, terrorist financing, corruption and other financial crimes.

ComplyAdvantage collects information about suspicious customers from various databases, from government organisations to financial companies. In total, the company claims to have 20,000 sources. Its software identifies suspicious transactions by checking customer data and transaction information against these lists.

Conclusion

The importance of KYC technology these days can hardly be overemphasised. Providing a high level of security and safety of personal and financial information, as well as reducing the probability of theft, phishing and hacking due to its numerous advantages, KYC technology plays a crucial role in the formation of a system providing a secure process of working in the financial markets.