Fourthline surveyed 6000 consumers across six European markets (France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and the UK), asking them about their experiences and attitudes relating to banks, fraud, KYC, and authentication.
If you missed it, catch up on part one of this report where we explored customer attitudes towards fraud and digital versus traditional banks. In this second instalment, we take a closer look at KYC and re-KYC, including customer attitudes to different methods of identity verification.
KYC and re-KYC: attitudes and preferences
One important way to tackle fraud is through robust customer onboarding and data maintenance processes – i.e. KYC and re-KYC. But there is more than one approach to these processes to consider.
Despite the growing trend for using digital tools for many daily tasks, most survey respondents are wary of online KYC processes. This is likely due to concerns around security and fraud being reinforced by advice not to share sensitive data online. The only KYC method met with the approval of a majority of consumers is in-person verification, which carries its own security challenges since the human eye is not as accurate as AI tools in checking for authenticity.
52%
prefer in-person verification, which rises to 60% among customers of traditional banks, but is only 30% for customers of digital-only banks16%
are open to sharing a photo or video holding their ID document12%
of German customers are open to having a video call with a bank representative (see 'About video verification in Germany'). 18%
are open to submitting a scanned copy of their ID document through their bank’s website or app10%
are open to emailing an electronic image of their ID documentAbout video verification in Germany
In 2015, Germany became the first country in Europe to introduce video identification procedures for remote customer identification. The initiative was led by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), which introduced comprehensive standards for video identification.
Video identification has become the standard for digital onboarding in the market and has seen widespread adoption. However, as criminals become more technologically savvy, financial institutions need to create more technical controls to counter these risks, something not always easy when a human is involved.
We can draw several conclusions from these statistics.
First, there is a clear difference between customers of traditional and digital-only banks. While the former prefer in-person verification, customers of digital-only banks are consistently more open to digital KYC processes.
Second, there is a difference among age groups. Where 60% of respondents aged 55 and over prefer in-person verification, this drops to 46% for those aged 18–34.
And third, there is a difference among markets. Consumers in the UK tend to be more open to digital KYC processes than their counterparts in mainland Europe, with only 41% of British consumers preferring in-person verification. In addition, British consumers are more open to sharing ID documents digitally, including in video checks. When separating respondents by nationality, we found that German consumers are at the other end of the spectrum. They are consistently least likely to share their ID digitally, be it through submitting a scanned ID document through a bank's app or website, sharing a selfie photo or video holding their ID document, or emailing a photo of their ID.
Attitudes towards re-KYC
Re-KYC is an important part of banks maintaining their legal and regulatory obligations. It's also a tool to mitigate the risk of fraud, though it isn’t widely used. Almost an equal number of survey respondents have (42%) and have not (44%) been through a re-KYC flow, and although they tend to view re-KYC as a positive thing overall, respondents were not wholly open to the idea.
32%
have had to repeat the KYC process and say that it made them feel more secure. Only 10% say they found it very annoying. 31%
have not been through a re-KYC process but would be willing to. 13% have not been through re-KYC and say they wouldn’t want to. How to approach KYC and re-KYC
Although many consumers still prefer the in-person experience, digital KYC and re-KYC processes are not nice-to-haves. In a digital-first world where the number of physical bank branches is declining, both traditional and digital-only banks need to adopt digital KYC and re-KYC processes. The question is not ‘if’, but ‘how’.
The data implies two things. First, the tools and processes that banks introduce need to combine trust-building, bank-grade security with a frictionless user experience. This will help ensure that customers who are skeptical about digital verification will embrace it.
Second, banks need to educate their customers on why digital KYC and re-KYC processes are safe. This is particularly true for older customers and those who exclusively use traditional banks in markets such as Germany, where the current preference for in-person verification is even higher. But it’s no less important for digital-only banks in markets such as the UK. Although consumers tend to be much more open to digital KYC flows, they may mistake legitimate re-KYC notifications for phishing attempts. Customers of digital-only banks can't turn to face-to-face customer service to verify such notifications. Their banks must therefore invest in educating them about re-verification, including why it is necessary for account security and regulatory compliance.
Don't miss the third and final installment of this report, in which we'll explore customer attitudes and preferences towards authentication.
“While in-person KYC is the most popular and intuitively feels like it should be secure, it is actually less secure than some digital alternatives, where hundreds of real-time checks can be performed to pick up inconsistencies that humans can’t.” -Ralph Post, CTO of Fourthline
