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Digital onboarding (eKYC) is one of the processes crucial for remote banking services. It allows financial institutions to attract new customers and improve sales among the regular ones remotely. Last year, Ailleron, in cooperation with IDENTT, has been focusing on the implementation of this solution in SGB Group, 2nd largest cooperative financial institution in Poland – and we are proud to announce that we have succeeded. What is more, our solution was recognized by industry experts and it was nominated for Mobile Trends Awards in Banking and Finances.
The cooperation for better banking solutions
SGB (Spółdzielcza Grupa Bankowa) is a Cooperative Bank with 160 years of history and 192 banks with 1500 branches. It serves more than 1.5 million people, providing its services for both individuals and business customers. The extensive experience of this institution did not stop it from seeking the newest solutions. Therefore, in 2019, SGB Bank decided to adopt a strategy on digital transformation and provide its customers with a variety of services in one, comprehensive online application.
SGB Bank chose Ailleron as its partner for the investment. Ailleron employs over 700 IT specialists, offering its customers a wide range of services. The company also has a significant amount of experience in digital banking solutions, not only platform but also stand-alone modules which amplify banks footprint on the market and respond to customers’ expectations.
To meet the expectations of SGB Bank, Ailleron has decided to cooperate with IDENTT, the leading provider of biometric authentication and verification – a key feature that was to be implemented in eKYC solutions designed for SGB Bank. IDENTT’s solutions are used worldwide by major financial institutions, state offices, local authorities, and any organization looking to reduce identity fraud.
Target: eKYC for mobile banking applications
The main goal of our cooperation was to introduce a comprehensive process of digital customer onboarding to the digital structures of SGB Bank. eKYC was intended to allow a bank to contract new customers online in a fast and reliable manner, compliant with banking supervision regulations. The platform was to include features such as: opening an account, ordering a new credit card, signing a document, app activation, and other integrations.
This project, however, posed a few challenges for all parties involved, including:
- Short time to market – the application was to be prepared in about 3 months.
- Flexibility of the solution. The technology had to be fully adjustable and expandable, should the need for change arise.
- Reliability – there are many solutions on the market, but only a small fraction of them has a high success rate of user verifications. Our aim was to address the problem.
Implementation of eKYC in online banking: key features
The project began by the end of September 2020 and it was continued for 3 months. During the stage of development, Ailleron in cooperation with IDENTT decided to focus on creating intuitive processes that could seamlessly support both bank customers and its employees on a daily basis. The bank set the following criteria:
- Verification based on multiple sources – biometrics, identity documents, liveness check, databases
- Configurable decision engine
- Manual verification capability
- Seamless integration with a financial system of SGB
- Futureproof architecture and technology stack
- Alignment with financial institutions requirements – security, legal and regulatory compliance
To achieve our goal, IDENTT provided automatic verification of a Polish identity document. The solution supports verification of correctness, integrity, and authenticity of the document. Advanced OCR system reads data directly from the document, the system automatically checks the integrity of data throughout the entire document, comparing individual fields. Thanks to this implementation, a customer only needs 9 simple steps to open an account, and 4 steps to confirm his identity. Overall, it takes no more than 15 minutes to complete the entire process.
At the same time, mobile application, as well as tailored process delivered by Ailleron enables access to view with verification details and user data. You can see all checks, photos of a document, data read from the document, and other required information.
The results of Ailleron – SGB cooperation
Since the project was officially launched, it was certain that the course of digital transformation taken by SGB is right. The market data confirms that KYC features meet customers’ expectations. In the first quarter of 2020, over 20% of the new accounts opened in one of the biggest banks in Poland are so-called selfie accounts, authenticated by a photo taken by an account owner. Up to this date, over 55 thousand customers used this feature to complete the process. The statistics are even better for remote loans – over 80% of them are now taken out using the self-authentication module. At such a rate, SGB investment is to pay off in just under 3 years.
– We are pleased to announce that SGB mobile has got another groundbreaking functionality – digital onboarding capability. We are excited to be a part of such an important project for SGB in its journey to become a Digital Bank! We will keep a fast pace in delivering new outstanding features in 2021 for SGB and its customers in 2021. Our partner, IDENTT, was a key player in that project – we have received a world-class solution of biometric identification that powered up our success. – says Maciej Kasprzak, General Manager of Challenger Bank Division in Ailleron.
– Right now, SGB Group associates 192 banks. Our aim is to ensure that each of those banks is provided with reliable, secure, and acclaimed solutions – all to help those banks to acquire new customers and power up the business. Such services are delivered to us by Ailleron and IDENTT. eKYC solution is critical from a verification process’s point of view. There is no place for the mistake, that is why we have decided to use a reliable and critically acclaimed solution provided by IDENTT. The integration with the entirety of the SGB Mobile app is overseen by Ailleron. – says Artur Józefowski, Director of Mobile & Internet Banking Bureau in SGB.
– I have to admit that this project was challenging, especially taking into consideration the expected time of the solution delivery. Thanks to the professional, strict, and open cooperation between the SGB, Ailleron, and IDENTT it was possible to successfully fulfill the demanding requirements. – says Jan Szajda, CEO IDENTT Poland.
