Online Gaming

Why Is KYC Necessary For Online Gaming?

Know Your Customer, is essential in the online gaming realm to ensure the integrity, safety, and compliance of the platform. As the digital gaming industry expands, it’s imperative to verify the identity of players to prevent fraudulent activities, underage participation, and potential misuse for money laundering.

The global online gambling industry was worth more than $45 billion in 2017 and is predicted to rise to $94.4 billion by 2024. With such a stark rise in use and increasingly large sums of money moving through these entities, online gambling and gaming institutions are facing the same scrutiny to which other banks and other financial entities are subject. Prime targets for identity fraud, money laundering, and international financial crime, regulatory compliance is intensifying to ensure that online casinos and gambling institutions are taking serious measures to prevent such illicit activity.

However, as the demand for online gambling services increases, so does the stringency of regulatory compliance. Not only does this mean hiring a large compliance team to deal with the backlog, but online casinos are also now subject to higher costs and wait times for identity verification procedures. In this sense, manual KYC processing for casinos is a little outdated, offering a clunky solution that wastes time, squanders budgets, and is littered with errors.

The Backdrop Of Online Gaming In the USA

In the USA, online gambling establishments that have gross revenue of over $1 million are classed as non-bank financial institutions (NBFI). This means they must adhere to similar regulations as banks to help prevent fraud, financial crimes, and money laundering. 

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is responsible for monitoring the compliance of AML regulations under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). The BSE requires that financial institutions must help the government identify and prevent money laundering by identifying, flagging, and reporting certain suspicious activity and transactions. FinCEN has assigned this responsibility to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to ensure compliance measures are being met.

For relevant online casinos, AML measures include filing suspicious activity reports (SARs) for unusual transactions of over $5000, as well as reporting currency transactions of over $10,000. There are also extremely tight requirements for recordkeeping and receipt storage, as well as credit extensions over $10,000. 

While all of these AML measures are a must, US online casinos are first required to accurately identify and verify customers using KYC processes. Failure to do so results in unbelievable fines. 

In fact, the American Gaming Association (AMA) recently updated its policies. According to these new regulations, US users can not open an account without providing basic PII details: full legal name, address, and social security number. More importantly, however, no real money transactions can be undertaken without submitting an official government ID and proof of a permanent address.

The poignant point here is that AMA’s rules apply to the patron, not the casino as such. In this sense, a US citizen using an online casino in a different jurisdiction must still provide this information. If online gambling platforms don’t have measures in place for this, they are in danger of non-compliance.

Call For KYC In The Gaming Industry – How It Can Help?

 

Almost 4.4 billion people globally are active internet users as of April 2019. This means that nearly 60% of the human population has the means to connect and interact with the online world around them. It’s no surprise that these combined factors have fueled the market for online gambling and gaming. In an already heavily regulated marketplace, this rapid growth is bringing Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) to the forefront of regulators’ agendas around the world.

With a wide range of options for users to gamble online, it makes sense that the companies that will come out on top are going to strike a balance between compliance and user experience. The question is, how can companies maintain compliance without sacrificing an incredible gaming experience for their users?

Why do online gambling and gaming companies need to be responsible for KYC?

Companies in the online gambling and gaming industries are legally obligated to verify user identity, age, location, and source of funds among other categories to protect their users and platform from bad actors and fraud.

One of the major reasons for this is the need to avoid money laundering and terrorist funding. If proper KYC is not performed on contestants and participants, the platform can be used to launder money and use it for assimilating funds for dangerous organizations. Many laws are created to prevent such practices and most gaming organizers and companies must abide to it.

Just as reputable companies prioritize trust when it comes to providing users with fair play and a secure environment, users must be able to trust that information being collected from them is being handled appropriately and safeguarded.

Companies looking to stay both in compliance and competitive are seeking advanced onboarding & identity verification solutions to…

  • Protect the company and users from bad actors and fraud
  • Continuously comply with the latest global regulations
  • Deliver a seamless, trustworthy, and user-friendly experience

KYC in The Gaming Industry – Mistakes That Could Be Avoided

Casinos deal in financial transactions, often on a very large scale. Online gambling platforms and casinos can turn over millions of dollars a day, making them a prime target for money laundering and financial crimes. Not only that, the lack of face-to-face interaction on internet gambling platforms makes it easier for fraudulent users to play on these sites without detection.

KYC and identity verification processes are designed to help reduce the risks of illicit activity by identifying customers and verifying that this identity is correct. In doing this, suspicious characters and potentially high-risk users can be flagged and monitored, or banned.

As in every industry, a risk-based approach is very important and necessary in the gaming industry. For an AML control program to achieve its purpose, it is very important to identify risks and take precautions against risks. As part of the risk-based approach, game operators must implement risk assessment by implementing AML controls to new customers throughout the customer engagement process. Know Your Customer and Customer Due Diligence procedures describe the controls that must be implemented during the customer onboarding process.

Online Gaming

  • Currently, it’s predicted that 2-5% of the US’s GDP is laundered money, equating to between $800 billion and $2 trillion. Unfathomable sums of this nature have the power to shake the bedrock of the US economy.
  • While money laundering may seem to be a primary concern for banks and financial entities, studies show that casinos are ripe for money laundering. In 2014, Finnish gambling operators submitted over 9000 money laundering reports. 
  • Studies are showing that criminal groups, known as dot.cons work together to ‘wash’ funds by deliberately losing games and claiming ‘clean’ prize money. A great example of this was The  Corozzo Network, operating from 2005 to 2008. The network of 26 members ran illegal gambling and loan-sharking services through four online gambling sites, laundering more than $10 million.
  • More recently, CG Technology (trading as Cantor Gaming) was fined $22.5 million by various regulatory bodies in 2016 for poor AML provisions. The gambling company’s lack of AML procedures enabled 26 individuals, known as the ‘Jersey Boys’, to launder large sums of money through the platform with bad bets.
  • Further still, as technology advances, the schemes become more complex. Thanks to the introduction of virtual credit cards, prepaid mobile credit, and alternative payment gateways like PayPal, micro-laundering is now easier than ever and far less detectable.

By introducing strict KYC checks, casinos mitigate the risk of becoming vehicles for money laundering as high-risk individuals are flagged from the outset.

How Digital KYC Can Help The Online Gaming Industry

As we can see from above, KYC and AML (Anti Money Laundering) solutions can save business owners a lot of hassle. Digital KYC systems would have carried out comprehensive background checks identifying possible threats and allowing the owner to take action accordingly. The online gaming industry is a hotspot for money laundering although certain policies are governing the industry the chance is still there that it could be used for terrorist funding.

Signzy is an AI-powered RPA platform that provides digital onboarding solutions with our no-code AI model builder and our Fintech API Marketplace of over 200+ APIs. Our unique solution provides:

  • Secure System: A customer’s account information is secure because the entire process is online. Identity theft, fraud, loan scams, money laundering, the flow of black money, etc. are all minimized with RealKYC.
  • Efficient Communication: Effective information can be relayed in an efficient and timely manner. There is no need for constant back and forth. Most details are published automatically unlike manual KYC.
  • ‘Free of Cost’ Process:  RealKYC verification doesn’t charge any extra amount to the customer. A company or institution may need to pay automation costs of installing verification systems for the long run but the end-user gets a seamless, almost instant onboarding without hassle.
  • Faster processing: The RealKYC service is completely automated online. This means that KYC data can be transferred in real-time without the need for any manual intervention. The paper-based KYC process can take days up to weeks to get verified, but the eKYC process takes just a few minutes to verify and issue.

At Signzy, we have also introduced a new form of KYC verification called VideoKYC. This is a faster and more efficient form of KYC collection and verification. It conducts liveliness checks against the user as well as verifies the identification document against forgeries. The VideoKYC product has gained a lot of recognition and won several awards in recent months.

Advantages of using VideoKYC

  • Higher Application Accuracy
  • Plug and Play solution, swift Go-To-Market
  • Comprehensive Training Program
  • Competitive Advantage through customer delight
  • 100% compliant with the latest RBI Mandate
  • Exponentially increase Scale of Operations
  • Reduced back office overheads (up to 70%)
  • Reduction in customer Drop-offs (up to 50%)
  • Platform Agnostic, support multiple communication channels

Conclusion

The online gaming industry is evolving rapidly around the world and expanding with each passing day. Gaming sites have improved tremendously in terms of user experience and now, they can make it more secure by enhancing the membership security protocols. Providing different gaming sites the ease of accurate digital ID verification will increase their revenue manifold. The introduction of digital KYC services has already been a huge success in financial and other sectors. Hopefully, its adoption in the near future might lead to more secure online gaming services in the US.

 

About Signzy

Signzy is a market-leading platform redefining the speed, accuracy, and experience of how financial institutions are onboarding customers and businesses – using the digital medium. The company’s award-winning no-code GO platform delivers seamless, end-to-end, and multi-channel onboarding journeys while offering customizable workflows. In addition, it gives these players access to an aggregated marketplace of 240+ bespoke APIs that can be easily added to any workflow with simple widgets.

Signzy is enabling ten million+ end customer and business onboarding every month at a success rate of 99% while reducing the speed to market from 6 months to 3-4 weeks. It works with over 240+ FIs globally, including the 4 largest banks in India, a Top 3 acquiring Bank in the US, and has a robust global partnership with Mastercard and Microsoft. The company’s product team is based out of Bengaluru and has a strong presence in Mumbai, New York, and Dubai.

Visit www.signzy.com for more information about us.

You can reach out to our team at reachout@signzy.com

Written By:

Signzy

Written by an insightful Signzian intent on learning and sharing knowledge.

Digital KYC In Health Insurance

Health insurance policies are a vital instrument in the insurance industry. The Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority Of India (IRDAI), which acts as the regulatory body for all insurance companies in India, has allowed the use of paperless KYC collection, or e-KYC. This e-KYC will also be very useful in the current lockdown in the country. To enable this the government has allowed insurers to avail of the Aadhaar-based authentication services of the Unique Identification Authority of India

KYC Compliance Norms By IRDAI

IRDA has amended the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) guidelines and AML screening solutions which apply to general Insurers. This was done by circular no. IRDA/SDD/GDL/CIR/020/02/2013 on February 07, 2013. According to the guidelines. KYC documents (Proof of identity with photo, address proof) are compulsory for health insurance claims. This is highly applicable if the claim amount is Rs.1 Lakh and above.

Insurers need to verify the identity, address, and recent photograph (in the case of individual customers) as part of Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance norms. In this regard, the following documents are acceptable:

  1. Recent photograph of payee
  2. Proof of Photo Identity of payee
  3. Proof of Residential Address of payee

The following documents are listed as valid Photo Identity Proof (Any One):

  1. Passport
  2. PAN Card
  3. Voter’s Identity Card
  4. Driving License
  5. Aadhar Card
  6. Letter from a recognized Public Authority. (As defined under Section 2 (h) of the RTI Act or Public Servant (as defined in section 2(c) of the ‘The Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988’)
  7. Personal identification and certification of the employees of the insurer for the identity of the prospective policyholder.
  8. Job card issued by NREGA duly signed by an officer of the State Government

The following documents are listed as valid Address Proof (Any One):

  1. Telephone bill with respect to any kind of telephone connection. This can be mobile, landline, wireless, etc. This document should not be older than six months from the date of the insurance contract
  2. Current Bank Passbook — details of permanent/present residential address (updated up to the previous month). Health insurance policies are a vital instrument in the insurance industry.
  3. Updated bank account statement with details of permanent/present residential address
  4. Letter from any recognized public authority
  5. Electricity bill
  6. Ration card
  7. Aadhar Card
  8. Valid lease agreement along with rent receipt which is within the last three months

Points to be NOTED:-

If the Insured person does not possess any of the above, then the following documents are acceptable:

  1. Employer’s certificate as a proof of residence
  2. Written confirmation of identification/proof of residence by the banks where the prospect is a customer

Medical Exam For Insurance

The Medical Exam is compulsory for many insurance companies, especially for volatile cases and cases with large claims value. It allows them to review your medical history and basic information that was used to make your insurance application.

All of the information is collected in the two stages of the medical exam. It is then combined with the statistical longevity data. The information on the insurance application is used to determine if you will be accepted for your insurance policy or not. It also determines what the annual premium will be.​

The medical exam will usually include two parts:

  • A verbal questionnaire in which the medical professional will ask a series of health-related questions
  • Standard and basic sample collections: During the medical exam a sample of urine and blood may be required for submission. These tests can often be done in your home. You should be notified in advance by your insurance agent or broker which tests need to be conducted.

Duration Of The Medical Exam

The exam is approximately 20 minutes to thoroughly review your medical history verbally with the official. Then, it takes only a few minutes to collect the samples.

Need For Medical Exam By Insurance

There are three reasons health insurance companies administer medical exams:

To verify the authenticity of the information submitted to the company in the application

To review the full medical history of the applicant. The questions pertaining to the exam are designed for an in-depth analysis of your medical history and your family members.

To identify any underlying medical conditions. The applicant may be subject to medical conditions such as diabetes, inconsistencies in the blood work, or HIV. Sometimes the applicant may not be aware of the condition or may have chosen to not declare the same. The company will also verify drug or nicotine use. The information from the medical tests will be matched against the sample test results.

Need For Digitization in Health Insurance

Well, it’s nothing but the process of changing information into the digital format. With each passing year, digitization is becoming vital for the insurance industry. In 2005, people first started searching for digital insurance plans. Since then, digitization has consistently increased in strength in influencing the masses. Fast forward a decade and you can now buy digital policies online within a few minutes. You can find insurers everywhere, selling digital insurance online using social media prowess, and achieving resounding success.

The digital insurance market in the country is witnessing a compound annual growth rate of 25.36%. Digital media has played a crucial role in this spectacular growth and set the blueprint for digital insurance plans. Insurance companies embrace the digitization process with regards to proper digital norms as IRDA spearheads this empowering movement.

Despite filling the details on a website, this conventional method has the following drawbacks:

  • About 85% of the time and effort goes into manual form-filling, which is a huge pain point for customers and insurers alike.
  • The conventional method provides lesser room for fraud detection.
  • Human-errors can lead to catastrophic back-ops failures.
  • Increased turnaround time leads to increased time for processing claims, onboarding, etc.
  • Conducting a medical exam can also take time in terms of scheduling and verification.

What do the people gain from going digital for health insurance policies?

The conventional method can have the following disadvantages in terms of customer experience:

  • 93% of customers get irritated by a lengthy & time-consuming onboarding process.
  • Lack of proper methods of ID verification leads to higher chances of fraud.
  • A bad customer experience during initiation leads to a broken onboarding journey.

 

Insurance policies like any other investment are prone to security risks which causes inconvenience to the insurance buyers. Apart from security, there are many other issues that will be resolved due to the Digitization of insurance policies. What is the solution? How is it related to Digitization?

Document portability: One of the major solutions offered by digitization is that the insured will get an e-copy of the documents related to the digital policies in question. Managing Documents has always been a hassle for policyholders. A majority of them end up losing premium receipts, policy cards, and other related documents. These documents may seem insignificant. However, if you plan on availing of tax deduction they can be a golden egg. If the insurance period ranges for more than 5 years, losing documents during such a long period of time may seem logical but is simply unacceptable. Here is where digital insurance comes into play. Since e-copies are stored in cloud-based data-servers; they can be preserved and acquired without putting in much effort. The documents are easily available on any digital device capable of reading and displaying the data. The database is managed by IRDAI approved Insurance repositories. They are

  • CDSL Insurance Repository Limited (CDSL IR)
  • Karvy Insurance Repository Limited
  • National Insurance-policy Repository by NSDL Database Management Limited
  • CAMS Insurance Repository Services Limited

Better customer service: When people visit the insurance providers for any clarification or data-related queries, they are given a date and are told to come on that day. When you ask them for a reason for this delay, they simply provide polite excuses. This solution is not acceptable for some customers who may require the documents on priority. This may be to file a return urgently or to claim the insurance money. With digitized management not only, the conservation of the data would be easy but providing the customers with the necessary information will be at the push of a button. With a properly formulated digitization, the process of handling customer queries like generating premium calendars, claims, and premium records, online payment of premiums, and tracking consumer requests will gain a faster pace leading to more satisfied customers.

No need to provide KYC for a new policy: When applying for any other type of insurance from the same company, the consumers are often asked for their KYC documents as identity proof. Here, Digitalization might be one of the most convenient solutions for consumers. With their KYC data stored in the company’s repository, all the company must do is overwrite the (Digital) application form with the data cached in their repository.

Monetary Efficiency: Not only do the providers who profit from digital insurance, but also the buyers experience ease in a transaction. Digital insurance can help the term insurance buyers save money on premiums with a 35–40% difference margin. How? When people buy term insurance, they usually buy it from an agent or a broker who adds brokerage or commission which is 30% of the insurance amount on the term insurance premiums. However, when you purchase term insurance online, you get insurance without any brokerage or commission added to the premium which saves you a margin of 30% easily.

Digital KYC For Fraud Prevention In Health Insurance

Fraud in the health insurance industry via impersonating a person is something where some people even go so far as to copy credit cards of another person and make payments using them. Fraudsters often use the medical insurance demographics of a person to gain healthcare benefits or purchase prescription drugs. Any of these situations can prove to be seriously harmful to the victim’s reputation.

Medical identity fraud has some extreme consequences on a person’s life. The financial shock can often be devastating for the insured. The emotional shock is of greater magnitude when a person gets their medical identity stolen. The medical institution itself has to overcome difficulties due to the type of fraud which it encounters. Medical identity theft is on the rise and a growing concern for both patients and healthcare providers. However, modern technology has revolutionized fraud prevention in healthcare.

The Healthcare industry is a booming sector in India and it is also replete with various challenges. Health insurance policies are designed with the intent of providing medical aid smoothly. It is equally vital to understand the health insurance details to gain optimum coverage.

However, the past decade has witnessed a rise in the fraudulent claims made by individuals. There is a constant need to revise the health insurance details, to avoid such deceitful claims. Both the insurance companies and policyholders must work together to tackle the problem.

Let us begin by first understanding the types of fraud in health insurance.

Different Types Of Health Insurance Frauds In India

  • Opportunity Fraud: This occurs when the policyholder provides inaccurate information while making a claim. One can hide a pre-existing condition or mislead the insurer to get the underwriting in their favor.
  • Deliberate Fraud: This involves the deliberate presentation of an accident or damage that is covered under the policy.
  • External Fraud: This is the fraud committed by policyholders, beneficiaries, medical service providers, or vendors against a company.
  • Internal Fraud: This is the fraud committed by agents, managers, or executives against a company. Even a policyholder can be at the cheating end of it.
  • Policyholder’s Fraud: It basically comprises the below-mentioned 3 types of frauds — claims, eligibility, and application.
  • Claim Fraud: Of the various other health insurance frauds in India, this is another one. Under this, the person can make an illegal claim to take advantage of the insurance coverage.
  • Eligibility Fraud: This is one of the many frauds in health insurance. It occurs when the person fills in incorrect information regarding the pre-existing condition or employment status.
  • Application Fraud: The concerned individual can enter wrong information to avail the extensive coverage.

Using AI for Fraud Prevention in Healthcare

Health insurance frauds in India can be checked by analyzing the fallacious behavior of frauds. Certain measures have been put in place to deal with health insurance frauds in India.

A strict screening process is being implemented by various insurance providers in India nowadays. Many insurance companies are leveraging technology to detect fraudulent behavior. In order to mitigate risks that threaten the healthcare industry, one must harness technical tools.

In today’s world, there are several third-party identity verification service providers. They offer digital KYC systems that use advanced AI and HI (Human Intelligence) to pick up attempts of fraud.

Online identity verification services authenticate individual users through document and facial verification techniques. This allows them to identify whether a person is using fake or stolen credentials and attempt to defraud the system.

KYC for a Better Customer Experience

Emerging technologies for online identity verification are critical because KYC adds friction to the onboarding process as customers go through the necessary identity verification steps. Long wait times are expensive for insurance companies and frustrating for customers who expect quick and easy interactions. In fact, research by Signicat found that more than 50 percent of retail banking customers in Europe abandoned their attempt to sign up for new financial services. The leading cause? The process simply took too long and was too onerous.

The challenge that every business faces, therefore, is how to balance KYC with the need for fast, efficient onboarding processes that deliver a positive customer experience.

Risk Management

It’s not enough to look at a customer’s risk profile only during the enhanced due diligence process of onboarding. Banks and other organizations must also look for signs of terrorist financing, suspicious activity, or other high-risk behaviors throughout the course of the business relationship.

In general, once a customer has been identified and verified, there is no requirement to re-verify their identity. The exception is when there is a trigger event, for example:

  • A product or service that you supply the customer changes
  • Suspicions are raised regarding previous demographic information collected and its authenticity.
  • Suspicions of money laundering are raised

By performing ongoing monitoring, businesses can implement a continuous risk assessment process that flags customers who may pose increased risks as circumstances change.

Digital KYC As A Means For Customer Onboarding In Health Insurance

 

With the latest norms for digitization, Signzy has developed two unique KYC products to suit all onboarding scenarios in the health insurance sector. RealKYC & VideoKYC have been developed in compliance with industry standards and offer you the following benefits:

  • Remote Verification Of Medical Records: When purchasing a new health insurance claim, our digital KYC products ensure the authenticity of all submitted medical records.
  • Faster Onboarding Of New Insurers: Skip the long wait times for claim verification with RealKYC. Claims can be passed instantly as our patented AI helps reduce 90% of back-ops effort.
  • Real-Time Insurer Authentication: VideoKYC records the time stamp and audit trail for every application, ensuring all applications are authentic.
  • Online Medical Exam Through Video Conferencing: The insurers can directly connect with the medical examiner for the medical review which can be completed without hassle in a matter of minutes.
  • 80% Lower Cost For Acquisition, resulting in easier and cost-effective onboarding

Future of digital insurance

Insurance, in most developed countries, is mandatory for every individual. Whereas, in India, policies like Mediclaim are availed only by people in urban areas. The insurance industry, however, is booming with success despite the facts. According to the reports from the BCG by the year 2020, a growth of 2,000 percent is predicted from its current state, while the turnover from the same range up to RS. 15,000 crore.

In a consumer trend analysis conducted by Google, there has been a significant 450 percent growth of searches related to life insurance and health insurance since 2008. On the other hand, the insurance industry itself has witnessed a 600 percent growth in the past five years. Experts believe, in the coming 2–3 years, 75 percent of insurance policy purchases all over the world will be done through digital channels.

The Government’s initiatives like Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana and Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana encourage citizens to take insurance. Many governments in the country are in the early stages to digitize processes of obtaining and claiming insurance.

Digitization might be an elaborate process as most of the companies have employees who are not accustomed to the new digital procedures. On the other hand, it might need to be regulated with proper guidelines and rules to protect both the insurer and the insured against data misuse. One can say, Digitization will give a fair experience to each policyholder.

About Signzy

Signzy is a market-leading platform redefining the speed, accuracy, and experience of how financial institutions are onboarding customers and businesses – using the digital medium. The company’s award-winning no-code GO platform delivers seamless, end-to-end, and multi-channel onboarding journeys while offering customizable workflows. In addition, it gives these players access to an aggregated marketplace of 240+ bespoke APIs that can be easily added to any workflow with simple widgets.

Signzy is enabling ten million+ end customer and business onboarding every month at a success rate of 99% while reducing the speed to market from 6 months to 3-4 weeks. It works with over 240+ FIs globally, including the 4 largest banks in India, a Top 3 acquiring Bank in the US, and has a robust global partnership with Mastercard and Microsoft. The company’s product team is based out of Bengaluru and has a strong presence in Mumbai, New York, and Dubai.

Visit www.signzy.com for more information about us.

You can reach out to our team at reachout@signzy.com

Reach us at www.signzy.com

Written By:

Signzy

Written by an insightful Signzian intent on learning and sharing knowledge.

Digital Onboarding in Life Insurance Sector

Digital Onboarding in Life Insurance Sector

The Life Insurance sector, historically reliant on paper-based processes and face-to-face interactions, is undergoing a transformative shift with the adoption of digital onboarding. This digital evolution not only streamlines the cumbersome enrollment procedures but also caters to the modern customer’s demand for quick, hassle-free experiences.

Life insurance policies play a crucial role in the insurance industry. The Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority Of India (IRDAI) is the regulatory body for all insurance companies in India. IRDAI has now allowed the use of paperless KYC collection or e-KYC. To enable this, the government has allowed insurers to avail the Aadhaar-based authentication services of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI)

Life Insurance Companies can use KYC For Fraud Prevention

Insurance fraud is a reality in this day and era. Many people who commit such frauds do so without realizing that their actions result in higher premium rates that have to be paid by other people. On average, insurance companies lose around $30 billion every year on account of fraud. The costs of these frauds are levied upon innocent, hard-working people. The necessity for fraud prevention systems in the industry is the need of the hour.

Moreover, the smaller cases are most harmful as they get ignored. After a while, they add up to become a cumbersome amount. Background checks are conducted in the insurance industry as they can single out money launderers, if not the fraudsters. Most people who engage in insurance fraud use fake or stolen identities to execute their schemes. As we proceed with the article, we will point out how KYC services providers can assist the insurance industry.

Frauds Mitigation Through KYC For Insurance

There are many types of frauds that happen with life insurance companies. However, some can be easily avoided by applying secure processes.

Fronting: The insurance policy is taken out using the details of another person to get favorable terms such as lower rates on premiums. Criminals or fraudsters usually use this process to carry out their scams. They use fake or stolen identities to identify themselves as someone else. Then they proceed to create fake documents to support their taken identity. KYC service providers can isolate such attempts and prevent them from happening.

Money Laundering: This is a global problem. Insurance companies too are a common target to launder money. The products offered by insurance companies are easy to target for fraudsters. This is because the processes that are associated with them make it easy for money laundering. Life insurance policies are extremely tempting to money launderers. This is because they allow for heavier premium deposits. Money Launderers take out such policies and deposit large amounts of money while canceling the policies after a while. KYC service providers conduct conclusive background checks. This helps prevent these types of frauds.

The KYC Screening Process

For a productive business, corporates require to deal with the right people with beneficial and favorable intent. Sectors that are particularly in the profession of handling money need to be careful. They must be sure that they are dealing with genuine entities. This is why the life insurance sector has to adhere to KYC norms mandated by their respective regulatory bodies.

As part of the Anti Money Laundering Act, KYC norms help in ensuring that the entity in question has an authentic identity. It is made sure that the source of money is not a shady one. The money would not be used for fostering any criminal activity either.

If we take the life insurance industry as an example, insurance companies deal with three entities-

  • the insured party
  • policy taker
  • agent.

All these entities need to be KYC screened.

Insured party — this is the entity on which the insurance policy is being taken making it imperative to be checked for authenticity. There have been instances when insurance policies have been taken on non-existent or fake identities or on persons who no longer exist. There also have been times when the policy is taken by tweaking a few pertinent details of an individual. The goal of KYC screening is to avoid such a situation.

Policy taker- the entity who is taking a policy should be eligible for taking such insurance. This is the rationale behind screening policy takers.

The insured party and the policy taker are screened with the same method. Their identity proofs are examined for authenticity and the specified address is examined by paying a site visit.

Agent- Insurance companies depend on agents to generate business. An agent is the one who markets the insurance products to individual customers. Agents also educate customers about various products and help them choose the most suitable one. Subsequently, they are also expected to provide all sorts of assistance in taking the policy, paying the premium, and receiving the insured amount when required. Given this significant role, insurance companies are extra cautious about their appointment of agents.

Drawback Of The Current KYC Process

Multiple insurance companies struggle to deliver digital experiences. This is because legacy applications are the most common obstacle for digital transformation. Onboarding a customer in lesser time with due diligence is a challenge.

The existing onboarding process for most insurance companies is similar to the following:

  • Customer lands on company website
  • Selects insurance type and plan
  • Fills-in Occupation, income details, and PAN details as (ID proof).
  • Life-cover details: pre-filled form
  • Basic Info: partially filled form
  • Customer Identity undergoes verification
  • Customer must enter Lifestyle-associated details
  • The customer fills the Nominee details

With digital KYC, the following areas can be addressed for a smoother customer experience::

  • Form filling is smooth
  • Liveliness check ensures more sanity
  • Telemedical video conference eliminates back and forth.

Digital Onboarding — Need For Digitization In Life Insurance

  • Industry analysts and large consulting firms claim onboarding is a top priority for digital transformation efforts across the insurance industry. After all, bad onboarding can increase customer attrition rates by between 25 and 40 percent, according to The Financial Brand.
  • Industry analyst firm Celent emphasized the need to focus transformation efforts on onboarding. In its November 2018 report, it also talks about industry trends for wealth management firms.
  • In a study by Bain & Company, customers who use digital channels tend to be loyal to their banks. Digital banking customers tend to own more products, and they transact and engage more with their banks. Mobile-first customers contribute to higher loyalty scores to their primary bank. This in comparison to the clients with low digital behavior. Globally, it is 50% higher approximately.
  • As noted by Argo executives at the InsureTech Connect conference in October 2018: “Customer acquisition is just the beginning. How you deliver value to customers — that’s the real benefit to them in this ecosystem. We’re trying to create a better experience for everyone we engage.” That means a better onboarding experience.

Major Challenges in The Life Insurance Onboarding Process

 

Fragmented signup process — There may be some customers who are unable to complete the signup process in just one session. Ideally, the onboarding process should track progress and let them stop. The process can later restart onboarding effortlessly, from where they left off.

Complex information requirements — Several industries have complicated data requirements and strict compliance regulations. Instances can be financial services, healthcare, and government. State or regional rules frequently oversee the information that needs to be gathered as well as the format. In general, customers have to sift through forms with irrelevant questions. This leads to a struggle to comprehend the exact requirement from them. This often results in high NIGO (not in good order) scores.

Multiple channels and devices — It is possible for customers to choose to onboard across multiple devices, or even via a call center. However, the experience is often inconsistent. Enterprises must provide clients with an integrated and seamless experience on each channel.

Paper-based processes — Many business processes require customers to complete and sign paper forms. They can either scan and fax or even worse, mail them back. No one enjoys this tedious and time-consuming effort, either externally or internally.

IRDAI Existing Guidelines For Life Insurance

  • Every insurer in the life insurance business must provide customized benefit illustrations to proposers or policyholders at the point of sale for all products. The exception can be to those issued under IRDAI (Micro Insurance) Regulations, 2015, Guidelines on Point of Sales (POS) — Life Insurance Products, 2016, and IRDAI (Insurance services by Common Service Centres) Regulations, 2019 as amended over time.
  • Such benefit illustration shall have to be signed by the prospective policyholder as well as the insurance agent. The signatories may also include the authorized person of an intermediary. Another alternative can be to include the insurer involved in the sales process, as the case may be, This should form part of the policy document.
  • Further, the benefit illustrations should be constructed as per the specific format prescribed by the IRDAI. The circular contains annexures specifying formats for these illustrations. These apply to different types of policies.

Need For Digital KYC — New Guidelines By IRDAI

Life insurance policy buyers will soon be able to complete KYC through a paperless process or e-KYC. This requires providing Aadhaar number as proof of identity to insurers, as per an IRDAI press release. This would make the Know Your Customer (KYC) process much easier for policy buyers.

This e-KYC will also be very useful in the current lockdown in the country. The government has allowed insurers to avail the Aadhaar-based authentication services of UIDAI. This can fulfill the KYC norms of policyholders.

The IRDAI press release, issued on April 24, 2020, mentions new KYC norms while availing insurance services. These norms will facilitate the general public to easily fulfill.

The release further states that the interested customers/policyholders/claimants may avail paperless KYC services in the coming days from the following insurance companies:

List Of Insurance Companies

  1. Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company Limited
  2. Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company Limited
  3. Exide Life Insurance Company Limited
  4. HDFC Life Insurance Company Limited
  5. ICICI Prudential Life InsuranceCompany Limited
  6. India First Life InsuranceCompany Limited
  7. Max Life Insurance Company Limited
  8. PNB Metlife India Insurance Company Limited
  9. SBI Life Insurance Company Limited
  10. Future Generali India Life Insurance Company Limited
  11. Reliance Nippon Life Insurance Company Limited
  12. Aegon Life Insurance Company Limited
  13. Shriram Life InsuranceCompany Limited
  14. Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance Company Limited
  15. Pramerica Life Insurance Company Limited
  16. Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance Company Limited
  17. Star Union Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company Limited
  18. IDBI Federal Life Insurance Company Limited
  19. Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance Company Limited
  20. Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance Company Limited
  21. Kotak Mahindra General Insurance Company Limited
  22. Future Generali India Insurance Company Limited
  23. Manipal Cigna Health Insurance Company Limited
  24. ACKO General Insurance Limited
  25. Religare Health InsuranceCompany Limited
  26. Royal Sundaram General InsuranceCompany Limited
  27. SBI General InsuranceCompany Limited
  28. HDFC Ergo General Insurance Company Limited
  29. HDFC ERGO Health Insurance Limited (Formerly Apollo Munich Health Insurance Company Limited

KYC For Agent Assistance — How Digital KYC Helps

Agents are the fundamental constituents and the first step of the customer towards the onboarding journey. Insurance agents introduce customers to the various products on offer by a life insurance company. They also clear doubts and confusions of the customer and in many cases, collect the KYC for a new customer.

Given below are some highlights on why digital KYC can help insurance agents:

Client identification

The first step which involves identifying the correct name of the entity is a bigger challenge than most people would expect. A significant amount of time is wasted when front office staff or partners provide compliance with details, but of the wrong legal entity.

A common example is a deficiency of understanding in the front end around corporate structures. When a sales rep embarks on a new relationship with an entity, it’s easy for them to use the wrong name. It is very frequent for the holding company to not have the same name as the brand or branch with whom you are engaged in communication.

Initial risk assessment

This is a preliminary setup using customer-provided demographics to assign an initial risk rating, such as high, medium, or low. Such information can contain :

– director and shareholder details

– company incorporation documents

– a basic risk screen to identify major red flags, like sanctions.

Based on the top-level information provided on the client, it is easy to assess the level of risk they can inflict on your organization. However, not all customers will be high risk. With digital KYC, there is no need to dedicate time and resources to performing unnecessary due diligence steps which makes for an inefficient process.

Manual verification

Manual verification is a part of most traditional KYC processing workflows. They are multiple scenarios in which these aren’t the most efficient. Several agents have to go through several documents, make sure the information is correct and check for fraud. Humans aren’t anywhere close to being as fast as computers. Automating this process can mean a lot of time and money saved for the company, a higher rate of onboarding, and better employee satisfaction. ‌‌Digital KYC can thus help remove the cost and time involved without any additional requirements from the agent side.

Authenticity of Agent

The primary channel through which insurance is sold in India is with the insurance agents. To increase the numbers for sales, agents may end up selling the wrong products to the clients. In such cases, agents do not provide complete information to the customers. This ultimately leads to customers who don’t get the best product. The consequence is a poor customer experience which is a loss for the industry. With Digital KYC, the insurance information can be identified. These cases can then be isolated to prevent further misuse by agents in the future.

Innovating Life Insurance with Digital Onboarding

For easier onboarding, Signzy has developed 2 unique Digital KYC solutions — RealKYC & VideoKYC.

With RealKYC, remote onboarding of new insurers is no longer a hassle. There are many benefits to RealKYC in the life insurance sector as follows:

  • Zero Paperwork: With RealKYC, customers can easily upload their KYC documents and IDs to the system. No need for making physical copies for manual submission.
  • Policy In Minutes: With RealKYC, customers no longer need to wait endlessly for the verification process to be completed. Get your life insurance policy active within minutes.
  • Easy Form Filling: Real-time data pre-population to eliminate manual form filling for submission of new claims.

VideoKYC has gained a lot of attention recently and has been the winner of multiple awards and accolades. With VideoKYC, you can get the following advantages:

  • Proof Of Life: With real-time in-person verification, insurance companies can easily establish ‘proof of life’ of the insurer from time to time.
  • Lesser chances of claims fraud: VideoKYC uses a host of Signzy’s proprietary APIs to verify all official documents and financial statements to mitigate potential claim frauds.

Conclusion

The fact that Digital KYC can be used for fraud prevention and to build trust is evident. Along with this, proper implementation will create a reliable and better onboarding process for the customers and the companies. This can be a boon for the Insurance Sector in India.

The operative word here is ‘proper’. Such an innovative idea demands excellent execution. That can be achieved by collaborating with credible associate companies and startups. If the insurance companies acknowledge this and process it, they will thrive in the booming Indian insurance sector.

About Signzy

Signzy is a market-leading platform redefining the speed, accuracy, and experience of how financial institutions are onboarding customers and businesses – using the digital medium. The company’s award-winning no-code GO platform delivers seamless, end-to-end, and multi-channel onboarding journeys while offering customizable workflows. In addition, it gives these players access to an aggregated marketplace of 240+ bespoke APIs that can be easily added to any workflow with simple widgets.

Signzy is enabling ten million+ end customer and business onboarding every month at a success rate of 99% while reducing the speed to market from 6 months to 3-4 weeks. It works with over 240+ FIs globally, including the 4 largest banks in India, a Top 3 acquiring Bank in the US, and has a robust global partnership with Mastercard and Microsoft. The company’s product team is based out of Bengaluru and has a strong presence in Mumbai, New York, and Dubai.

Visit www.signzy.com for more information about us.

You can reach out to our team at reachout@signzy.com

Reach us at www.signzy.com

Written By:

Signzy

Written by an insightful Signzian intent on learning and sharing knowledge.

Indian Insurance Sector

Fraud & Forgery in Indian Insurance Sector

With a US$ 280 billion evaluation, the Indian Insurance sector is a huge market for both domestic and international companies. Life Insurance portfolios alone are expected to grow nearly 75% in the next 5 years.

Unfortunately, insurance fraud has been on the rise around the globe and in India, particularly. The Financial Express reports that more than 9% of claims in the insurance sector are false or fraudulent. Annually, it results in more than Rs.40,000 crores loss. In 2019 alone this was more than Rs.45,000 crores.

Continued, this will result in a massive drain of India’s economic prowess. On top of this over $6.25 billion is lost by insurance companies to fraudsters. This in turn might cause the companies to increase premium rates for genuine customers.

This article takes a detailed look at how that is possible. With some selected cases of fraud that could have been prevented with technology, it gives a better perspective on how useful is technology against fraud.

Indian Insurance Sector Frauds & Its Types

An act performed to defraud an effective insurance process is called insurance fraud. It occurs primarily when a claimant tries to gain an advantage or benefit not entitled to them. Fraud is deliberate and willful. In this sector, it always involves financial benefits performed under false and illegal pretense.

The Apex entity and the overseer of all insurance business in India, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India(IRDAI) defines 3 generalized classifications for insurance fraud in India:

  • Claims/Policyholder/Customer Fraud- This includes fraud against the insurance company during the purchase, execution, or claims processing of an insurance product or policy.
  • Intermediary Fraud- If an Insurance Agent/ Third Party Administrator Agents(TPA)/Corporate Agent or any intermediary perpetrate any fraud against the policyholders, customers, or the insurance company.
  • Internal Fraud- If a Director, manager, or officer in the higher ranks indulges in misappropriation or fraud against the insurance company.

Out of these three, claims fraud is most common, and they are divided into Hard Fraud and Soft Fraud. If an individual deliberately invents loss such as theft, destruction of property(like arson), or self-inflicted injury to claim benefits from respective policies, it is called hard fraud. Soft or opportunistic fraud includes exaggerated claims by policyholders. The real damages are hidden and an exaggerated representation of the situation is presented.

Insurance Fraud In Different Sectors

Indian Insurance Sector

 

Fraudsters find different ways to operate in different insurance sectors. Thus a detailed look at how each sector defines potential fraudulent methods is helpful. Fraudsters usually target the following major fields:

Life Insurance

This is the most expansive field of insurance. This renders it the sector most susceptible to fraud. Most of this fraud occurs during the application process usually with applicants misrepresenting their income, health, personal information, or in certain cases, the true documents. Some of these might be to get less expensive premiums, but many cases are for scamming the insurance companies.

Digitizing the processes by insurance agents is an excellent move by companies. But inefficient implementation of this is futile. Some ways in which fraudsters trick the companies is by creating an additional identity as a beneficiary or faking death to claim the life insurance benefits. Fraudsters may return after disappearing for a few years claiming loss of memory to avoid any penalty.

Sometimes fraudsters withhold information regarding multiple policies. This is not allowed. The customer must provide information regarding all policies concerning the insurer. This prevents a single individual from having multiple claims on a single issue.

Health Care Insurance

Health insurance fraud is the intentional deception, concealment, or misrepresentation of information resulting in healthcare benefits for an individual or group. It can be committed by the policyholder or the provider. Some of the major modes of healthcare frauds are given below:

  • A policyholder trying to hide pre-existing conditions while applying is fraud. This is done by submitting false medical data or other documents. The legitimate waiting period for individual policies is ousted in such fraud practices.
  • Documents are outright fabricated to satisfy the terms and conditions of the policy. Insurance companies prefer youthful and healthy people as their customers. But if an aged person approaches them, the company would provide insurance. But the premium costs for this would be high as the risk for the company would be high. People try to conceal their ages in such cases. Faking disability is a divergent fraud practice from this.
  • Submission of duplicate bills that are either forged or inflated is also fraud. This is important in cases where no actual expense occurred. This is because of the basic understanding that insurance policies are not for profit but security.
  • A person participating in a fraud ring i.e collude with an agent, doctor, provide, etc to create a false claim is also illegal.

Automobile Insurance

Fraud rings in this sector collude to fake traffic accidents, collisions, or even death to make a fake insurance claim. The objective is mostly money. This ring may include insurance claims adjusters and forgery experts who make phony police reports and other documents. The Insurance Research Council estimates 21% to 36% of all automobile insurance claims to contain suspecting elements of fraud.

Automobile insurance frauds primarily fall under either of the following categories:

  • Staged Collisions- Fraudsters utilize a vehicle to stage an accident with innocent or involved parties. The fraudsters carry 4–5 passengers in a vehicle and the driver takes an unexpected maneuver that forces the innocent or opposite party to collide with their vehicle. Each fraudster can claim the insurance for the injuries he has been inflicted during the accident. Documents including medical reports and sometimes even identity proofs are forged for this purpose and submitted for evaluation.
  • Exaggerated Claims- After a real accident has occurred, the owner might incorporate a whole set of previous minor damage into the garage receipt associated with the accident. Personal injuries like whiplash might be exaggerated with false documentation.

Property Insurance

Fraudsters might try to insure a property and then destroy it to claim the insurance. This usually involves arson. They tend to forge the necessary documents to prove that the destruction occurred due to natural causes or disasters.

Selected Scenarios Where Technology Could Have Prevented Scammers

While taking a closer look at how individual insurance fraud cases have fared in India, one thing stands clear- We could have prevented them. Almost all fraud is motivated by money. With technology, we could keep better tracks on scammers and fraudsters. Some of those selected incidents are given below with how technology could have been used to prevent them.

Madhya Pradesh- July 9, 2019.

A 10 member gang in Madhya Pradesh that included a doctor and a lawyer pulled off a brilliant scam for nearly half a decade. With an estimated total of more than 2 crore rupees scammed from insurance companies, the gang was faring very well till early 2019. The gang operated from the Dhar district by forging fake documents of persons in a moribund state and terminally ill people.

The fraudsters first identified their victims that included terminally ill patients. Then they would obtain vehicle finances and life insurance claims in their names. After their natural death, forged certificates proving unnatural causes for their death are submitted. Even the age of these senior citizens was falsified to avoid suspicion. With these forged documents the gang claimed money from the insurance companies.

This is a classic example of how document forgery and pretense are used to defraud companies. This could easily be avoided with technology. If the documents were analyzed by specific and well-equipped APIs or other forms of automation, the fraud could have been detected. As much as a document can be forged, it could never be as good as the original. This difference which is negligible to the human eye can be caught by technology.

Andhra Pradesh- November 26, 2017

A 35-year-old woman declared herself dead to claim Rs.1 Crore from an insurance company. She appointed her husband to raise the claim. The woman’s husband, Syed Shakeel Alam submitted fake documents declaring his wife had died. He mentioned in the documents that his wife was the policyholder.

He approached the insurance company claiming Rs1 Crore insurance. The Rs.1 Crore policy was issued in 2012 and an annual premium of Rs.11800 was paid every year for 5 years. The death report of the woman specified the cause of death as ‘chest pain’. In truth, most of the documents and medical records were either forged or belonged to another woman who had in truth died. Though captured, they had almost pulled off the fraud.

This too could have been prevented if proper technology was used to analyze and identify the documents. Visual verification could have been used to ensure better credibility. The existing APIs available for such measures are very effective. Unfortunately, many companies are yet to adopt these.

Gujarat- January 18, 2021

Four individuals including a doctor, an insurance agent, administrator of a private hospital, and a policyholder claimed insurance with the help of spurious COVID-19 medical documents and records in Vadodara, Gujarat.

Dr. Anil Patel, insurance Agent Pravin Parmar and administrator Dipak Tiwari were the prime culprits. Patel and Parmar would obtain and use bogus medical records. They tried to claim north of Rs.4,00,000. Tiwari tampered with the COVID-19 test samples and pasted the names of policyholders on them. He even tampered with the test results to make them ‘positive’.

The lack of a proper database and the inefficient evaluation of the documents was the major reason this scam had been going on for some time. If the claims processing was more accurate and diligent, this could have been prevented. Technology provides us with APIs and RPA that can be used to make strict verifications and avoid such situations.

How Will Technology help the Indian Insurance Sector?

It is concerning that ‘insurance fraud’ is undefined in the Indian Insurance Act, 1938. Other instruments such as the Indian Penal Code(IPC) or the India Contract Act from the legal system are also void regarding insurance frauds. Thus, it is up to individual insurance companies to take action to prevent it.

One of the best ways is to use technology and automation to mitigate fraud risks.

Most claims are evaluated by agents or officers from the insurance company. They may make mistakes unintentionally or if dishonest may corrupt the process. This negative human factor can be eliminated with technology. It will also provide benefits to the company in the form of saved time and resources. Some of the specific reasons are given below:

  • APIs can be used to evaluate the document submitted at the time of application and claim. These APIs give unbiased and definitive results. Thus Forgery is detected much easily.
  • A digital repository of all policies can be digitally accessed by the APIs to decide if the applicant has applied for multiple policies for the same issue. This is not allowed by the government and the insurance company is not liable to pay the unmerited benefit.
  • Profiles of applicants and policyholders are double-checked with available repositories and history databases. This will help understand the background and history of the customer from a more credible perspective.
  • Immense time can be saved as a human evaluation would have taken days to complete. But technology can do this in a matter of minutes.
  • Constant monitoring for any fraudulent activities is possible as any kind of suspicious behavior in the database is detectable.
  • Lesser resource and manpower is required for conducting the process of policy claims. This saves the company funds.

Conclusion

As technology advances, the world too shall move ahead. Most of the financial sector acknowledges this and adapts to the changing world of automation. Unfortunately, the Indian Insurance Sector seems to be a little slow in this process.

With a growing number of fraudsters and scammers, it is wise for the sector to understand the technology and implement it in the most efficient manner possible This will save them time and resources while creating a well-fortified system devoid of human errors. This in turn will build their credibility and trust in the competitive arena.

It is only a matter of time before the whole sector transforms in the new era, but if the innovators in the field open their eyes and make the process faster, much attrition can be avoided for their companies. That is why adopting technology is not just necessary, but inevitable.

About Signzy

Signzy is a market-leading platform redefining the speed, accuracy, and experience of how financial institutions are onboarding customers and businesses – using the digital medium. The company’s award-winning no-code GO platform delivers seamless, end-to-end, and multi-channel onboarding journeys while offering customizable workflows. In addition, it gives these players access to an aggregated marketplace of 240+ bespoke APIs that can be easily added to any workflow with simple widgets.

Signzy is enabling ten million+ end customer and business onboarding every month at a success rate of 99% while reducing the speed to market from 6 months to 3-4 weeks. It works with over 240+ FIs globally, including the 4 largest banks in India, a Top 3 acquiring Bank in the US, and has a robust global partnership with Mastercard and Microsoft. The company’s product team is based out of Bengaluru and has a strong presence in Mumbai, New York, and Dubai.

Visit www.signzy.com for more information about us.

You can reach out to our team at reachout@signzy.com

Written By:

Signzy

Written by an insightful Signzian intent on learning and sharing knowledge.

A Brief Summary Of Video KYC In The Indian Insurance Industry

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has permitted insurance companies to issue policies on the basis of a video KYC (know-your-customer) process. Moneycontrol had first reported the regulator’s plan of allowing insurers to adopt video-based KYC for policy issuance. It has already allowed insurers to use digital modes for validating policyholders’ signatures on documents.

Earlier, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), too, had allowed entities such as banks and mutual funds to use video-based tools to complete the mandatory KYC process. The Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) has also permitted distributors to use video KYC for onboarding National Pension System (NPS) subscribers.

IRDAI introduces VBIP

In a circular sent exclusively to all general, life, and standalone health insurers; IRDAI expressed its readiness to introduce a Video-based Identification Process (VBIP) allowing insurers to provide a Video-based KYC method to their customers for KYC verification.

The circular also outlined regulations that will have to be followed to complete video KYC for insurance onboarding. These regulations are similar to the Video-based Customer Identification Process (V-CIP) introduced by the RBI recently, and the Video In-Person Verification Process (VIPV) brought in by SEBI.

The circular encourages the use of AI and other emerging technologies to ease the video KYC process and, on the surface, appears to be beneficial for the insurance sector. But what does VBIP really mean for insurers?

What are the problems with traditional insurance onboarding?

The inadequacies plaguing insurance onboarding are, to a certain extent, shared by manual and paper-based onboarding processes throughout all industries.

Traditional KYC verification in the insurance sector involves — manually creating insurance documents, collecting pertinent identifying documents from the customer, verifying the information in these documents, sending the relevant insurance contracts to the customer, and obtaining the customer’s signatures on these contracts.

This process encompasses numerous inefficiencies and areas due for optimization; some of the problems with paper-based insurance onboarding are –

  • High operational & onboarding costs: Paper-based KYC methods make use of inefficient and expensive mechanisms for documentation and verification purposes; these include paper documents, manual verification, and disparate KYC workflows. Operational costs are also high due to the manual nature of operations.
  • Lengthy verification processes & high drop-off rates: KYC verification is tedious and frustrating when done manually. These problems are compounded when the possibility of losing or misplacing paper documents is taken into account. Lengthy verification is also a burden to the customer, leading to low levels of satisfaction, numerous KYC drop-offs, and ultimately a business loss.
  • Excessive workforce requirements: Paper-based KYC documentation inherently requires a workforce to function; employees are also required to perform ID verification and due diligence on the verification processes. These requirements further exacerbate the operational liabilities of traditional onboarding.
  • Messy paper trails: Mountains of paperwork are almost a prerequisite for onboarding when a customer visits an insurer. However, all this paper is more than just daunting; it’s needlessly expensive, tedious, and time-consuming. The paperwork also increases the chances of losing or misplacing customer information, thus further increasing the time taken for onboarding.
  • Manual errors and data security: Manual errors are a certainty in traditional KYC verification. Organizing customer documents, data entry, and KYC verification are all subject to manual error, which significantly costs the insurer. Additionally, paper documents are the least secure when it comes to protecting customer data and can easily be lost or misplaced, leading to distrust amongst customers and further costs.

Traditional insurance onboarding, therefore, isn’t really a walk in the park. What will the alternative proposed by IRDAI look like? The circular gives us some clues.

What are the steps in VBIP?

According to IRDAI, VBIP in practice will be quite similar to the video-based customer identification process (V-CIP) envisaged by RBI a few months ago and also to VIPV.

However, we must note here that the IRDAI circular does not include PAN validation in the steps for VBIP, as opposed to RBI’s V-CIP in which PAN validation is a part of the process.

Now, here are the rules set forth by IRDAI for its new video-based KYC process

  • KYC verification must be conducted by an authorized official from the insurer via video after obtaining the customer’s consent. This video must then be recorded and stored in a safe place with date and time-stamps.
  • The official can either perform offline verification of Aadhaar or online OTP-based eKYC authentication provided that the customer voluntarily submits such identifying information. In offline Aadhaar verification using Aadhaar XML or QR code, the official must ensure that the XML file or QR code was generated at most three days before the VBIP process.
  • The official must capture a live photograph of the customer, ensure that it matches the picture in the customer’s Aadhaar and that the identification details in the customer’s Aadhaar match with those provided by the customer.
  • The customer’s location is to be determined via geo-tagging to ensure that the customer is in India.
  • The official must initiate an audio-visual interaction with the customer consisting of a varying series of randomized questions, to confirm liveliness and that the interaction is not pre-recorded.
  • Insurers must ensure that the process is seamless and takes place in real-time. Additionally, the official will have to make sure that the customer is not covering any part of his or her face and that the video quality is satisfactory so that the customer is easily recognizable.
  • The audio-visual interaction in question must be triggered from the insurer’s domain and not using third-party services, and the official conducting VBIP must be trained for this specific purpose. The activity log of the official undertaking VBIP and the details of the official must both be preserved.
  • Insurers will have to carry out security audits and validation to ensure that their VBIP application is secure and end-to-end encrypted before releasing their applications to the public.
  • All accounts opened via VBIP will only be functional following concurrent audits, underwriting, and verification.
  • Note here that IRDAI does not explicitly state that these steps are to be followed in a particular sequence; the circular states only that VBIP must consist of the aforementioned steps and that the guidelines must be followed.

Now that we know what VBIP will look like, we must next extrapolate these guidelines to figure out how this new video-based KYC process will affect the insurance industry.

How will VBIP affect insurers?

 

The IRDAI circular was preceded by decisions from both RBI and SEBI to introduce video KYC for onboarding purposes. This suggests that the introduction of VBIP had a lot to do with the ramifications of V-CIP and VIPV on the financial and securities-related industries.

The impact of video KYC on banking and securities has been exceedingly positive, resulting in massive reductions in onboarding costs and TAT, and several millions of accounts opened via video. Therefore it’s safe to assume that the intention of IRDAI in releasing this circular was to provide these same benefits to the insurance sector, and it’s highly likely that this is indeed what will happen.

As mentioned before, onboarding across industries is quite similar, and hence changes in the onboarding process are likely to shake out in the same way. Given the extensive advantages of video KYC in banking and securities, we can reasonably expect the following benefits for insurers:

Reduced onboarding costs: As with the banking sector, insurers can expect up to a 90% reduction in onboarding costs by digitizing onboarding using video-based KYC methods.

Lowered TATs: Automated verification and digitized documents ensure that onboarding is completed within minutes instead of days.

More completions: Video KYC is streamlined and efficient, allowing for instant KYC verification and smooth onboarding, which is guaranteed to massively lower KYC drop-offs.

Increased customer satisfaction and reach: Customers will no longer have to visit offices carrying folders full of documents to be onboarded but can instead complete their KYC using just a device with an internet connection. This will also allow more people to obtain insurance, which will be a positive development, especially during these times.

Customer safety: Customers, especially those in dire need of insurance, are either unable or too fearful to travel to insurers to obtain insurance. However, video KYC allows such vulnerable customers to complete KYC verification remotely and obtain the insurance they need without stepping outside their homes.

Secure customer data: In an age of frequent cyber-security breaches, data security is a prime concern for both businesses and consumers. Video-based KYC processes such as VBIP ensure the security of sensitive customer data and are instrumental in protecting information.

The benefits of video KYC are numerous, and the adoption of VBIP will certainly positively impact the business performance of insurers.

A video KYC is done to make sure the person buying an insurance policy is real and alive. It allows an insurance official to see you through a live video over the internet. Insurance companies — life and non-life — can now use a video-based identification process (VBIP) to obtain customers’ KYC documents, which is mandatory before issuing a policy. They will have to complete the process through their official technology platforms that facilitate recording videos of policyholders for the purpose. “Insurers may undertake live VBIP by developing an application that facilitates the KYC process either online or face-to-face in-person through video,” IRDAI said in its circular.

How will the process be carried out?

Either the insurers’ staff or authorized representatives can record a ‘clear, live’ video of policyholders at their homes and obtain identification information. “Discussions around implementation are still on. Approaches could vary as per the company. The first option is to enable advisors to visit the prospective policyholder’s house, connect her to the insurer’s employee through the official app and record the video KYC process as per IRDAI’s guidelines. The second option is to send a weblink to the policyholder who will use it to log in online At the other end, the insurer’s employee will record the identification process,” says Anilkumar Singh, Chief Actuarial Officer, and Appointed Actuary, Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance.

As a customer, you can choose to share your Aadhaar information or any other officially valid document such as a passport and driving license. If you have signed up for the Digilocker facility, you can submit a digitally signed copy. Or, you can simply share it in the form of a clear photograph or a scanned copy of the original document, through the e-Sign mechanism. Your live location will also be captured, along with the date and time-stamp. “Geotagging is a must. The KYC process is valid only if the prospective customer is in India,” says Vaidyanathan Ramani, Head, Product, and Innovations, Policybazaar.com.

At your end, you should also ensure that your face is clearly visible in the video and not covered in any way.

Conclusion

In these COVID-19 times, you will not have to risk visiting an insurance company’s branch or agent’s office to complete the policy purchase process, including KYC verification. Insurers are yet to roll out the process. Once they do, it is likely that you will have to access the insurer’s platform via a link or app shared by the company. You will have to answer questions via a video instead of doing so physically, besides sharing KYC documents online to complete the process. “The questions could be dynamic. Since one of the purposes is to establish that the person is alive, questions could be devised in such a way that responses cannot be standard,” says Vaidyanathan.

While the onus of executing a secure transaction is on the insurer, on your part, ensure that you are dealing with authorized representatives of the company and the video is being recorded through company-authorized channels.

About Signzy

Signzy is a market-leading platform redefining the speed, accuracy, and experience of how financial institutions are onboarding customers and businesses – using the digital medium. The company’s award-winning no-code GO platform delivers seamless, end-to-end, and multi-channel onboarding journeys while offering customizable workflows. In addition, it gives these players access to an aggregated marketplace of 240+ bespoke APIs that can be easily added to any workflow with simple widgets.

Signzy is enabling ten million+ end customer and business onboarding every month at a success rate of 99% while reducing the speed to market from 6 months to 3-4 weeks. It works with over 240+ FIs globally, including the 4 largest banks in India, a Top 3 acquiring Bank in the US, and has a robust global partnership with Mastercard and Microsoft. The company’s product team is based out of Bengaluru and has a strong presence in Mumbai, New York, and Dubai.

Visit www.signzy.com for more information about us.

You can reach out to our team at reachout@signzy.com

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Signzy

Written by an insightful Signzian intent on learning and sharing knowledge.

 

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