Layers Of Risk Control Mark Authenticated Identity’s Future Path

To get a sense of just how pervasive the digital shift has become, identity verification provider Jumio said it recently crossed the milestone of processing more than one million identity verifications a day.

Bala Kumar, Jumio’s newly installed chief product officer, told PYMNTS that Jumio’s achievement comes as online transactions have been growing exponentially. Over time, he predicted that we’ll make strides toward embracing single sign-on and passwordless interactions in the pursuit of identity assurance.

Much of the growth online has been fueled by the fact that younger consumers — digital natives — expect the same ease of use with banks and other enterprises that they have with social networks, he said.

“As you go online, it is critical to have [multi-layered] controls in place for the right identity verification screening checks,” Kumar told PYMNTS. “Our customers want to make sure that they are interacting with folks [they can trust and do business with]. We are starting to see a lot of newer use cases, and we’re also seeing a lot of newer industries that are starting to lean on us quite heavily [for identity proofing and authentication].”

The conversation came against the backdrop where Jumio said last month that it was partnering with Veridium to focus on know your customer (KYC) use cases, with a focus on facial, document and fingerprint biometric recognition for identity verification.

At a high level, Kumar said, Jumio is “looking to expand beyond just a ‘scan.’ We want to provide additional layers of risk detection and fraud [prevention to address broader KYC and AML needs].” To this end, in September 2020, Jumio acquired the anti-money laundering (AML) platform from Beam Solutions, a San Francisco-based startup focused on transaction monitoring, case management and KYC. The end goal is to build out an umbrella organization that can support the entire life cycle of an end user, from onboarding through compliance through account management and changes to email or other profile information, coupled with customer and transaction monitoring.

“In this way, we provide that complete 360-degree support for our customers,” Kumar told PYMNTS.

Single Sign-On 

Asked by PYMNTS about single sign-on, and the fact that everyone wants to get rid of passwords, Kumar said that SSO will soon become ubiquitous.

“It may not be that six- or 12-month window, but I would say in the next couple of years, it is going to become the norm, because it provides a strong alternate path to verify and authenticate seamlessly,” he said. “Users don’t have to remember multiple usernames or passwords.”

In the effort to streamline online interactions and make them more secure at the same time, it’s important to have layers of risk control, said Kumar, stepping up friction only when necessary.

Turning to the partnership with Veridium, Kumar said that with KYC as one of Jumio’s key pillars, the intent is to provide a TSA PreCheck-like experience, where security screening is expedited, the friction and the wait are sidestepped, and folks go on their desired journeys. Additional layers of security — tied to biometrics and other advanced technologies — can provide strong risk checks, but can also cut down on friction. It’s become second nature, he said, for people to use biometrics to unlock their phones, and so verification fits right in with those daily activities.

Machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) can also help to verify employees and contractors across supply chains and verticals as so much business continues to be done online, noted Kumar.

“You need to make sure that these individuals have been verified, that they are safe, that you’ve done the right background checks,” he said — especially as they have access to sensitive data or internal systems.

It’s important for organizations to make sure they have the right risk layers that identify good customers and kick out the fraudsters as quickly as possible, as strong risk control reduces the operational burden of those companies, Kumar said. Otherwise, every one of those flagged transactions or individuals will have to go through additional manual reviews.

Of the fraudsters, he said, “you build a wall, they’ll find a taller ladder. It’s important for companies like ours to continue to innovate — and continue to add additional risk layers [to block out the bad actors].”