The KYC (Know Your Customer) process is critical for any financial organization. As its name suggests, this fundamental step ensures the institution knows the customer won’t abuse their services. Yet, for many banks, this vital process is also a costly one. But now, Tech Venturas, a leading global systems integrator, aims to change this status quo. Its latest product, Smartest KYC, a SaaS (software as service) solution with robust AI cognitive features, it’s helping financial institutions make intelligent, data-driven decisions during the KYC process cost-effectively. All the while introducing greater operational flexibility for these institutions to serve their customers with a better experience. Already, the system is being trialed by a leading bank in Sri Lanka and is set to expand its footprint across the APAC region and Africa.
The game-changing potential of Smartest KYC
KYC is integral to many industries, especially the banking and finance sectors. In the past, much of this process was done manually, with customers physically visiting the institution. But in the fast-paced digital world we live in today, there are increasing calls to move this process online. However, existing Digital KYC solutions are a heavy up-front capital investment. Even after an organization makes this investment, they’ll often find these solutions have default procedures with little customization and lack advanced features.
So despite the best intentions to embrace innovations, most organizations find themselves stuck with the default procedures of their inflexible legacy systems. Tech Venturas recognizing these challenges, set out to solve them with Smartest KYC. It’s a cloud-based solution that can seamlessly integrate with existing core banking solutions utilized by any financial institution.
Operating on a subscription basis for each KYC processed makes it a cost-effective KYC solution for any institution. The platform also has many cognitive AI-powered features to improve operational flexibility and efficiency. At the same time, the platform adheres to strict data privacy and protection standards to be GDPR compliant, with customer information securely transferred and stored in the bank’s servers.
Harnessing the power of AI for better KYC decision-making
Several existing Digital KYC solutions have optical character recognition (OCR) features. But the Smartest KYC platform takes it a step further by utilizing artificial intelligence and machine learning. The creator of Smartest KYC, Founder & CTO of Tech Venturas, Sudaraka Jayashanka, shared, “When designing Smartest KYC, we analyzed key competitor products and built a fully configurable, SaaS product offering which none of them offered. Our product offers customer authenticity verifications not limited to just the ID document OCR but fully AI-driven face recognition and comparison, liveness detection, address verification, signature verification, seamless integration with Core Banking and Anti Money Laundering systems, and our crown jewel of features, advanced face-to-face video KYC verification with data extraction.”
The CEO of Tech Venturas, Nirosh Perera, added, “Smartest KYC is a future-proof solution that fits perfectly for banking & finance, insurance, telecommunication, utility and public sectors for customer onboarding and verification. Being developed as a SaaS solution in the cloud and priced per KYC without any license fee, it significantly reduces the cost of ownership, yet empowering the customer with great flexibility and AI-driven features”.
These powerful features allow financial institutions to reshape their processes to provide a superior customer experience. In most instances, video KYC involves a bank agent scheduling a call with the customer. During this call, the agent could perform multiple tasks, such as updating additional information based on customer input and requesting the customer to show additional documents for verification. A significant and novel feature is to request the customer to display their signature on a piece of paper. The Smartest KYC platform utilizing AI can compare this fresh signature with that submitted on the application documents to generate a score showing how similar the two are. Further, the system supports intelligent liveness detection to confirm an applicant’s presence while on the call with a few gestures.
These are just a few of the many cognitive features that come with Smartest KYC. Collectively, they make up a powerful suite of tools that help agents make swift informed decisions. At the same time, support for different forms of KYC means an organization can finely tune its processes for greater operational efficiency. Thus, delivering greater convenience to consumers through a superior experience.
Tech Venturas and its strong track record
Since its establishment by Sudaraka Jayashanka, Tech Venturas has grown into a leading global systems integrator. Today, it has offices in Kenya, Sri Lanka, and Australia while having a strong presence working with organizations across Asia and Africa. Its mission remains to provide technology solutions that connect individuals and communities to make the best use of available opportunities in today’s world. Over the years, the company has delivered several innovative solutions and has built a strong, credible reputation in both the private and public sectors.
Tech Venturas has a strong track record of developing several innovative solutions within the banking and finance sector. A notable success story of the company was helping a bank in Uganda to help improve financial inclusion amongst the youth with an innovative mobile platform. Another remarkable Tech Venturas success story was when it developed a robust, secure, and user-friendly digital application for a bank in Tanzania to serve micro-entrepreneurs better. Tech Venturas is also well-experienced in digital wallets, where it’s built a simple but intuitive wallet framework that any fintech can use to build a sophisticated mobile wallet.
The latest success story added to the list is Smartest KYC. The system is being trialed by a leading Sri Lankan bank and is poised for adoption by several African financial institutions. Working alongside its network of partners, such as Huawei, the company is also working towards expanding the footprint of Smartest KYC to banks and other institutions across the APAC region.
Enabling the banking industry into the digital age
In our fast-paced digital world, incumbent financial institutions are now challenged by neo-banks. These companies have seen tremendous growth by leveraging technology to offer convenient banking experiences. Tech Venturas, with its expertise as a leading systems integrator, is helping level the playing field by allowing existing financial institutions to embrace innovation with minimal disruption. It aims to do so with its array of products and services, the latest being Smartest KYC.
With its powerful combination of features, Smarter KYC allows organizations to conduct this critical process more efficiently and flexibly. Moving forward, the company plans to expand its range of cognitive features to enable informed KYC decisions. Among these upcoming features is an anxiety analysis with video KYC based on facial cues to identify if an applicant is nervous or untruthful. Another powerful feature that’ll soon be added to the system is the integration of AML (Anti-Money Laundering) systems to provide in-depth information about customers during the KYC process.
Moving forward, Tech Venturas has high hopes of expanding its market reach in the APAC, Middle East, and African regions. While Smartest KYC was created with banks in mind, the platform can be adopted for the Telecommunication, Utility, and Public sectors. By working alongside its partners, Tech Venturas aims to expand the footprint of Smartest KYC and transform how this crucial process works for all involved.