What is Document Verification? How to Verify Documents Online?

Introduction

In today’s fast-paced digital age, where more & more transactions, especially digital ones, are increasing by the minute, businesses in every sector need a secure, fast & reliable document verification procedure. Verification of documents is vital & is a necessity for businesses to mitigate instances of fraud, remain legally compliant & build trust & credibility.

As businesses expand, manually verifying the plethora of IDs is not scalable. When done using a typical approach, document verification is slow, inconsistent, error-prone & compromises data security.

Technology helps address these problems by providing a quick & accurate ID verification solution. Businesses can completely automate their customers’ document verification procedures to establish a consistent, secure & scalable solution in place.

What Is Document Verification?

Document verification is the process of verifying & confirming a customer’s identity by performing multiple validity checks on their IDs. Businesses use it to check the authenticity of the documents like passports, driver’s licenses, voter ID cards, PAN cards, etc., The process ensures that the documents are not forged or tampered with & checks if the personal data/business data is accurate.

Document verification systems are involved in checking the data mentioned on the IDs, such as the name, address, date of birth, & photograph, against other forms of identity documents or databases. The verification confirms that the information is accurate & matches the identity of the individual or entity presenting the document.

DigiLocker KYC has emerged recently as a one-stop alternative for document verification. By integrating with DigiLocker APIs, financial institutions can provide customers the option to upload key documents such as Aadhaar, PAN, DL & passport.

Third-party entities can then be authorized to verify these documents to ensure a swift and friction-free onboarding journey without having to manually upload documents.

Why Is Document Verification Necessary?

Document verification is an integral process for businesses to mitigate risks & also build customer trust. Verifying the ID documents of their customers helps businesses effectively identify & mitigate risks to effectively prevent fraud.

Businesses are constantly subject to identity fraud, breaches & identity theft. Document verification is critical for mitigating such risks. Checking the validity of ID documents during the customer onboarding process helps organizations verify & onboard customers quickly & securely.

In addition, document verification enables businesses to enhance client journeys & build customer trust. The document verification procedure is essential for smooth business operations because it:

Ensures Compliance: Many businesses are legally required to verify customers’ identities through KYC & AML practices. ID verification ensures businesses comply with industrial & legal regulatory requirements, & helps them steer clear of non-compliance fines & legal consequences.
Helps In Fraud Prevention: Verifying customer IDs aids in the prevention of fraud. The process ensures that the person conducting the transaction is who they claim to be. This can assist businesses in protecting themselves from financial losses due to fraudulent transactions.
Improves Customer Experience: Implementing an efficient & credible ID verification process can assist businesses in streamlining their operations & decreasing the amount of time customers spend waiting for their transactions to be processed.
Builds Customer Trust: Businesses can demonstrate their commitment to protecting their customers’ personal information and preventing identity theft by verifying customer IDs using secure & compliant verification systems.

AI or Artificial Intelligence technology plays an important role by making document verification smart, fast & secure for businesses & their customers.

Types Of Document Verification

Businesses verify different documents as part of their fraud detection practices. It helps them verify a customer’s identity & ensure no illicit transactions are carried out by conducting business with said customer.

The type of document verification that a company performs may be determined by several factors, including the nature of its business & the level of risk associated with a specific transaction.

- Government-Issued ID Verification: This type of document verification involves checking a customer’s government-issued ID, such as a passport, PAN, Voter ID, or driver’s license, to confirm their identity. DigiLocker is an attractive option to verify these IDs.
- Biometric Verification: This process entails using biometric data to verify a customer’s identity, such as fingerprints or facial recognition & verifying it against previously available data from identity documents to ensure legitimacy.
- Address Verification: Documents such as a recent utility bill in a customer’s name can also be used to verify their identity. This assists businesses in verifying the individual’s address & confirming that they are who they claim to be.
- Credit Report Verification: Some businesses may check a customer’s credit report to confirm their identity & assess their creditworthiness.
- Database Checks: Verifying a customer’s identity against information available in private or public databases helps businesses compare & confirm the individual’s personal information like name, date of birth, address, etc., for fraudulent document detection.

How Does Document Verification Work?

The process of document verification involves specific steps & certain techniques that allow businesses to check the authenticity of their customer’s identities. Document validation is accomplished through a series of validating checks that examine the ID & verify its legitimacy while comparing it to data in a system.

Here’s a quick rundown of how document verification typically works:

Document Collection: The first step is for the company to obtain a copy of the customer’s ID document. Depending on the business & the situation, this can be done in person or digitally.
Evaluation: Next, the company reviews the collected document to ensure that it is unaltered & genuine. This step involves checking for visible security features on the document & also for signs of variation & tampering.
Data Extraction: The process then involves extracting personal information, such as the individual’s name, date of birth, or address, & store it in a secure database using OCR technology.
Comparison: The next step is to conduct background checks & to compare the data on the document to other information provided by the customer, such as a credit report or a utility bill, to ensure that they are consistent.
Validation: Finally, the process involves validating the document by cross-referencing it with government databases or other sources to ensure its data is authentic.

Verifying IDs Via DigiLocker

Onboarding with DigiLocker KYC integrations is a simpler process and involves the following steps:

Create a DigiLocker account and conduct a one-time upload of KYC documents.
Authorize the bank, insurer or registered intermediary to access & verify the required documents
The entity views and authenticates documents without a separate upload requirement.
Verification is completed in minutes and onboarding journey resumes.

DigiLocker functions as a one-stop solution for document storage, management & verification; enabling banks and other FIs to onboard customers securely.

How Does AI Streamline Document Verification For Businesses?

Document verification is an essential process for businesses that need to verify their customers’ identities, comply with regulatory requirements, prevent fraud, & build customer trust.

By automating & streamlining the document verification process from end-to-end, AI plays a significant role in business operations. With AI, document verification becomes faster, more accurate, & highly secure.

By utilizing AI technology, businesses can streamline & improve their existing ID verification systems, provide customers with a remote document verification facility, reduce the risk of fraud & smoothen customer journeys.

Some ways in which Artificial Intelligence helps make document verification more effective are:

Optical Character Recognition (OCR): OCR document verification technology reads & extracts relevant information from customers’ ID documents like passports, Aadhaar, PAN, driving licenses, etc., with a high level of accuracy.
Facial Recognition: AI-powered facial recognition compares a customer’s face to the photo on their ID document to ensure the two match.
Fraud Detection: Artificial intelligence can detect fraudulent documents by detecting anomalies such as modified or counterfeit documents.
Machine Learning Algorithms: They can analyze large amounts of data, identify patterns, & gain insight from previous errors to improve accuracy & make document verification systems more efficient.
Risk Assessment: AI assesses risk by analyzing customer data & behavior to determine whether additional verification is required. This helps businesses take the right steps toward mitigating any chance of fraud.

How Does Document Verification Help Businesses?

Verifying documents helps businesses improve many aspects of their services & mitigate instances of fraud on time. Compliance with document verification standards helps businesses in many ways, including:

Maintaining Compliance: Compliance standards ensure that enterprises have security measures to protect themselves from financial fraud, such as money laundering and terrorist financing. Obtaining compliance often necessitates validating customers.
Document verification ensures that the information an individual or entity uses to establish business with an organization corresponds to an actual person/business establishment & does not represent a forged identity. Document verification is critical in ensuring compliance for businesses by helping them comply with various regulatory and legal requirements & protecting sensitive information. The process cross-checks the information against reputable & trusted information sources to reassure the business about its customers, allowing it to meet compliance requirements & avoid administrative fines.

Preventing Fraud: Document verification helps prevent fraud by identifying potential offenders before they cause harm. It plays a crucial role in fraud prevention for businesses. It allows businesses to verify the authenticity of various documents, which in turn helps them to prevent fraud.
Experian reports that the number of consumer identity theft complaints has risen to over 1.43 million. Verification of documents assists businesses in preventing identity theft by verifying the identity of customers & employees. This helps companies to ensure that the person providing the information is the rightful owner of the identity document and is not committing fraud using someone else’s identity.

Businesses can protect themselves from financial losses & reputational damage caused by fraudulent activities by taking these steps.

Increasing Customer Trust & Protecting Sensitive Data:
Document verification increases customer trust and safety by providing a secure & trustable method for businesses to verify their customers’ identities and protect their sensitive information.

Document verification platforms like SignDesk verifies the identities of customers & businesses while ensuring a high level of data protection for the sensitive information they verify.

This helps to improve the customer experience and increase customer trust and safety by reducing the risk of manual errors and delays. Businesses can earn the trust of their customers by providing a safe and secure environment to conduct their transactions.

Where To Use Document Verification – Key Applications

Real-time document verification has a number of use cases and applications across sectors, some examples include –

Financial Services: Banks & other financial institutions utilize document verification to check & confirm the identity of their customers. Doing so allows them to determine the customer’s eligibility for a given financial service or product.
Vendor Verification: Whenever a business begins working with a new vendor, it uses document verification to ensure that the vendor is credible & helps them comply with regulations.
Employee Screening: Employers use document verification for various purposes like screening job applicants, & verifying their educational certificates & professional licenses.
Real Estate: Document verification processes are made use of in real estate to verify property ownership & ensure that all documents related to the sale or transfer of the property are legitimate.
Tourism & Immigration: Document verification is used in travel & immigration to authenticate the identity of the applicants & decide whether they are eligible to travel. It includes checking documents like passports, visas, & other ID & travel documents.
KYC & AML Compliance: Verifying documents of customers helps businesses stay compliant with KYC/AML regulations. It, in turn, prevents any identifies & precludes any risk of financial crime.
Account Opening & Onboarding: Document verification is critical in this scenario. Businesses are required to verify documents as part of onboarding new clients/customers.

Verify Documents Securely with SignDesk

Document verification has become a necessary process for organizations to ensure trust, safety, and security in their transactions and interactions. Businesses can use SignDesk to automate their document verification process, reduce manual errors, and improve regulatory compliance. SignDesk offers businesses a safe and efficient way to verify documents and ensure customer trust and safety.

SignDesk is a smart online document verification platform that allows businesses to verify the authenticity of their customers’ documents securely. SignDesk employs cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning & robust data security standards to ensure accurate and dependable document verification.

We also offer DigiLocker APIs to help clients create a seamless and swift verification process ensuring easy onboarding.

On SignDesk, businesses can quickly verify various documents like:

Some of the benefits of using SignDesk are:

- Easy-to-use platform
- Real-time document verification
- Flexible verification processes
- Frictionless & digitized user experience
- Faster turnaround time
- Quick, round-the-clock support

What is Document Verification & How to Verify Documents Online?

Introduction