Plaid is introducing an all-new identity verification experience that allows consumers to fast track verifications across Plaid-powered apps and services.
Just as commerce providers have delivered on the promise of “one-click” checkout, Plaid claims it is “creating the standard for a ‘verify once, verify everywhere’ experience that allows for faster verification while remaining KYC compliant for digital finance.”
Launched last year, Identity Verification helps customers “simplify onboarding, acquire more verified users, and reduce fraud – all from one Plaid integration.”
Since then, hundreds of companies “across lending, wealth, proptech and banking have chosen Plaid Identity Verification and many are seeing success rates consistently above 90% – for some, a 50% improvement from other providers.”
Until today, signing up for digital finance apps “required repeating the entire identity verification experience every time.”
This is not only time consuming, but also “adds friction to the overall onboarding experience that can result in drop offs.” It’s unsurprising that “nearly 6 in 10 Americans have given up during a signup process because it was too long or complicated.”
Now, Plaid Identity Verification customers can “benefit from the scale of the Plaid network to deliver even faster onboarding experiences for previously verified users and further improve sign up conversion rates.”
Identity verification is “a necessary step for anyone using digital financial apps and services – whether it is opening an account, applying for a loan, buying a car or renting an apartment. Now, a user has the option to save their verified identity data securely with Plaid.”
When they sign up for additional apps powered by Plaid, they can “accurately detect they are a returning user.”
Once we confirm the user is who they claim to be by conducting security checks on their phone number and mobile device, they fast track their experience by “allowing them to quickly review and submit their saved identity information for verification.”
Just because a user successfully verified their identity previously doesn’t mean they’ll get the same outcome “for future verifications with other apps.”
To ensure nothing slips through the cracks, they run new checks “according to your settings against the provided information, device history, data sources like mobile network operators, and input behavior, like we would for any user that signs up for the first time.”
What’s more: they also dynamically update their risk checks “based on each business’ requirements and risk thresholds to ensure each user is verified against the required checks according to your unique success criteria.”
From early testing, they’ve seen “an average opt-in rate of 70% and users already taking advantage of their saved identity information to speed up their application for different apartments as rental properties heat up over the summer.”
They’re also “seeing this new experience reduce time to complete a verification session in half, delivering a faster experience without sacrificing security.”
In addition to providing faster experiences across our network, you can “have access to a deeper, more holistic view of a user’s risk at the identity, financial account, and transaction level when you unify your onboarding experience with Plaid.”
Now, when a user verifies their identity and “links their accounts with Plaid, we detect if your customer is linking a bank account that belongs to them.”
They match onboarding data “from identity verification with the financial institution information on file for an added layer of security.”
In the Plaid Dashboard, you’ll see “match” scores against “the account owner’s name, email, phone number, and address.”
Plaid Identity Verification is fully integrated “across the rest of Plaid’s stack, allowing us to deliver value added features that point identity providers can’t.”
In addition to channeling their network to deliver accelerated experiences and deeper risk insights, they’re continuously improving their product “so that you have access to the best identity verification experience out there.”
Block stolen and synthetic identities with an enhanced anti-fraud engine:
As noted in the update:
“We’ve recently added two new risk signals that assess the likelihood that an identity is synthetic or stolen by looking at whether the identity data is associated with a deceased individual, how many identities are tied to a given email or phone number, the history of an SSN and if there are multiple identities associated with it. Based on these checks, our anti-fraud engine provides a score indicating the likelihood that an identity is stolen, fabricated, or manipulated. These new signals supplement our existing anti-fraud engine that analyzes attributes across email, phone, device and behavior to help you lower fraud and onboard more good users.”
For more details, click here.