Infosys Among Top Contenders for Building Govt’s New KYC Repository 'CKYCRR 2.0'

Infosys is reportedly one of the leading contenders to build the government's new KYC repository, known as CKYCRR 2.0. The project involves creating a more advanced and scalable system to house the central repository of KYC records and migrating existing citizen data into this new framework.

CKYCRR 2.0, or the Central KYC Records Registry 2.0, is an upgraded and advanced version of India's centralized repository for Know Your Customer (KYC) records. It is being developed to address the limitations of the previous system by providing a more reliable and comprehensive database of KYC information. The new system aims to be a "single source of truth for KYC," ensuring that all customer data is accurate, complete, and up-to-date.

The Central Registry of Securitisation Asset Reconstruction and Security Interest of India (CERSAI) is overseeing this initiative. The upgrade to CKYCRR 2.0 is part of a broader effort to tighten KYC compliances and address issues such as non-reliability of data and incomplete customer records. The new "single source of truth for KYC" system will be accessible to citizens, allowing them to view their KYC records and receive notifications whenever their information is uploaded, updated, or downloaded by financial institutions.

This move comes at a time when regulatory bodies are intensifying their focus on KYC compliance, with recent actions taken against business payment solution providers and other financial entities for violations related to KYC and anti-money laundering regulations.

Besides Infosys, there are other companies competing for the CKYCRR 2.0 project. While the specific names of these companies have not been disclosed, it is known that several large IT firms were invited to bid for the project. The tender process involved a pre-bid meeting with prospective bidders and was managed by the Central Registry of Securitisation Asset Reconstruction and Security Interest of India (CERSAI).

The bidding process was quite competitive, and potential bidders, including Infosys, had shared pre-bidding suggestions and challenges before finalizing their submissions. The tender, which was initially set to close on April 16, 2024, was extended to May 15, 2024, after requests from bidders¹. This indicates the high level of interest and the critical nature of the CKYCRR 2.0 project.

Newrl Floats KYC Integration Solutions for Public Blockchains

First development for blockchain ever globally

Innovative, secure and simplified processing of KYC

Newrl, a leading public blockchain for mainstream decentralized finance (DeFi), has announced KYC integration solutions for public blockchains in a first globally. Newrl will now enable compliance for businesses and regulators by removing the anonymity on blockchains. This opens the doors for typical businesses to start embracing blockchain to improve their processes and expand their markets.

The solution is built in a manner where businesses don't have to necessarily integrate the KYC solution within their own application which relieves them from any security concerns. Users themselves will be responsible for keeping KYC records and information in their database for frequent and easy access. The information is readily available for existing and new businesses, by requesting users to provide temporary “view-only” access. Even from the consumer perspective, the process has been simplified where they don't have to verify their KYC multiple times.

No other blockchain at present enforces KYC norms at the chain level. Owing to their libertarian foundation starting with Bitcoin, most public blockchains are built on the premise of anonymity. While this avoids the censorship, it also opens these chains to abuse by money launderers and terrorist financiers.

Newrl addresses concerns by incorporating digital fingerprints of KYC documents (called “hashes”) for each wallet on it, along with information about the jurisdiction of the owner. The wallet owner is required to either use a centralised authentication service or use a non-custodial wallet application to ensure authenticity of the KYC documents. Actual documents, and information like name and tax-id, however, are not public. In this way, Newrl manages to maintain privacy while still ensuring adherence to KYC/AML norms.

Commenting on the development, Swapnil Pawar, Founder of Newrl said, “In recent years, several important milestones have been achieved in the fight against black money - through the efforts of institutions like the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). It is important to not lose ground to the money laundering ecosystems through purely anonymous transactions on blockchains. The identity at the chain layer brought in by Newrl is aimed at ensuring that mainstream use of blockchain is compliant with KYC/AML norms.”

Newrl is a 'Trust Network' blockchain built for decentralized social finance founded by Swapnil Pawar. Swapnil has over 18 years of experience in the intersection of technology and financial services. He is an IIT Bombay and IIM Ahmedabad graduate and is an expert in the field of blockchain technology, macroeconomics, decentralized finance and quantitative investing.

The company enables individuals and small businesses to access capital from their communities using their credibility and tokenized assets as a collateral. Newrl simplifies legally robust tokenization of assets like stocks, properties, and startup equity. It also enables individuals and small businesses to tokenize new forms of assets like personal creditworthiness, social media revenue inflows, patents, invoices, brands, warehouse receipts, etc. For illiquid assets, Newrl supports a mutualization mechanism to facilitate liquidity, also helping their use as collateral in a loan. Newrl focusses more upon real-world assets, with backing from physical assets which reduces the scope of many types of fraud (eg. double lien frauds, etc.), furthering the belief in the ‘trust network’.

Website - https://newrl.net/

Signzy Named Winner of IFSCA’s BankTech Hackathon for Its Unified KYC Solution

SBNRI Technologies and EdgeVerse Systems also named as co-winners

The International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) has named Signzy one of winners of its ‘Sprint01: BankTech’ Hackathon. Signzy secured the top rank for its Unified KYC Solution. The hackathon was open to all eligible FinTechs from across the globe and was one of its kind, being backed by a Financial Sector Regulator. 

The other two winners of the Hackathon are SBNRI Technologies Private Limited, and EdgeVerve Systems Limited, who won for Retail Banking Products at IFSC and Buyers Credit Optimization respectively. Signzy and others were granted a prize money totaling ₹24 Lakh. 

All three winners will be allowed a direct entry into the applicable IFSCA Regulatory or Innovation Sandbox. They will further receive Regulatory guidance and handholding. After a successful exit from the respective Sandbox, they will get an opportunity to set up business at GIFT IFSC. 

Commenting on the win, Ankit Ratan, co-founder of Signzy said, “We are honoured to receive this recognition from IFSCA for our Unified KYC solution, and this win is dedicated to the larger Signzy team that has worked hard to create one of the best digital KYC and customer onboarding platforms anywhere in the world. We are equally excited to participate in the IFSCA Regulatory and Innovation Sandbox, as we look forward to new opportunities to make a meaningful difference to the growth and evolution of the global fintech industry."

"Sprint01: BankTech'" under the banner of I-Sprint’21 was launched with a focus on Banking Sector and was hosted by IFSCA and GIFT City in collaboration with NITI Aayog. The Partners to the Hackathon were ICICI Bank, HSBC Bank, International Centre for Entrepreneurship and Technology (iCreate), Zone Startups, and Invest-India. 

The global FinTech Hackathon is part of InFinity Forum 2021. InFinity Forum is IFSCA’s flagship financial technology event, uniting the world’s leading minds in policy, business and technology to explore and advance the biggest ideas in FinTech and to develop those ideas into global solutions and opportunities.

Signzy has won many awards in the recent past for its technology innovation, some of them being IAMAI’s Most Innovative Fintech Data Solution Provider Award, ASSOCHAM’s ICT Startup Awards, Technoviti Award 2020 for Video KYC, and many more. In the past, Signzy has also won awards from regulatory bodies like RBI and MAS Singapore.

About Signzy

Signzy is a market-leading platform that is 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 totally customizable workflows. 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 10 million+ end customer and business onboardings 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 strong global partnership with Mastercard and Microsoft. The company’s product team is based out of Bengaluru and it has a strong presence in Mumbai, New York, and Dubai. For more information, please visit https://signzy.com

Extracting Identity Information in Microseconds With IDnow Id Verification Platform

Biometric data to scan faces quicker is an added advantage for fastening up the onboarding process in your sports betting lounge from now. Processing customers’ data quicker, in a secured way is important for the online betting lounges, where thousands of global bettors wager day in and day out. An automated process for verification can help, provided it is equally enforced with a manual setting for oversight. That is where the IDnow ID Verification Platform comes for your assistance.

Betting and gambling account age criteria

Sports betting casinos and gambling casinos have to follow the rules and regulations of their regulatory body that warrant verification of the players' age. At the same time, there is a need to beat cybercriminals and also boost conversion rates. To do this with clinical precision, you need the industry's leading identity verification software. The ranking and rating of gambling and sports betting platforms online largely depends upon the terms and conditions and certification to prove that it is a legitimate and safe platform for participation.

At the same time, people from all over the world are going to play every day, looking into the prospects of hitting the jackpot and finding a treasure trove. If that is the case, managing the casino operations is going to be a challenging task not only for the owner but also for the technical crew in the backend. On the contrary, when you have the verification identity software already installed on your platform, then it is going to be a simple task for you to conform to the regulatory board rules.

To become completely compliant with the terms and conditions that are international standards for running a sports betting platform, you will need a sophisticated and functional unit installed on your gambling and sports betting websites. When you are going to send this link to your customers, they will click on the link to get approval to continue their membership with your gambling platform.

Don’t miss a genuine prospective casino member

It is as simple as that. If the information provided by the prospective member is completely reliable, it is authenticated for use on the gambling platform. Not, they do not fulfil the criteria to enter the platform, which can be an age factor or any other kind of specified factor. Now it has become an automatic process for the casino operator to verify the number of credentials that keep coming in every day, from different prospective members.

The verification software comes in handy because it boosts the conversion ratio of your gambling business website and also provides complete safety from the hacking bot. When you are going to choose the suitable package and model for pricing, then the verification link can be installed on your website effortlessly. By doing so, you are reducing the amount of time and effort required for a manual review of the prospective members' profiles.

The onboarding process is just going to take a few seconds, which is always appreciated by the prospective members of the gambling and sports betting platform. They are coming with a lot of curiosity to participate in the tournament, and they do not want to look into alternative options that are faster than your platform. In that way, the IDnow ID Verification Platform is going to give you more businesses to compete with peers, because it reduces the onboarding process to a few seconds.

Bitex Partners with Onfido for Instant and Secure KYC for Crypto Investors

AI powered automatic facial similarity detection to authenticate customers in real time; prevent fake users from joining Bitex platform

Mumbai, March 17, 2021: With volatility emerging as a major concern around digital assets like Bitcoins, implementation of strict Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) measures have gained significance. To provide instant and secure KYC for its exchange and wallet, Cryptocurrency Exchange Bitex has partnered with Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered global identity verification and authentication platform Onfido.

Through the automatic facial similarity detection tool, the exchange will enable instant match of the identity proofs to the selfies submitted by customers to establish their real identity and reduce on boarding from 48 hours to less than 2 minutes. In addition to seamless customer experience during on-boarding, Bitex ensures strict compliance of AML policies by preventing fake users from joining the platform.

Through this partnership, Bitex will also verify identity documents from over 189 countries, making the exchange more accessible to both Indian and global cryptocurrency investors. Bitex provides trading in prominent cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash among others to encourage users to refrain from experimenting in lesser-known digital assets.

Bitex Founder and CEO Monark Modi said, "While technology and digital currencies are changing the way people undertake transactions, the knowledge and awareness levels of cryptocurrency among investors is still low. This increases the chances of people falling prey to scams and frauds. With Onfido's AI powered solution Bitex enhances KYC and AML compliance on the exchange and wallet to provide a secure platform for users to invest and trade in cryptocurrency."

Onfido uses AI and Machine Learning (ML) to safeguard cryptocurrency exchange users from hacks, scams and phishing. It identifies high-risk users for Bitex to prevent illegal activities on the exchange or the wallet.

Harvinder Singh GM APAC at Onfido said, "Onfido's unique Software Development Kit (SDK) provides for glare and blur detection, and gives real-time feedback to help users submit only high-quality pictures for document verification. Further, the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) auto fills data from identity documents and into the sign up form, reducing time taken for on boarding."

About Bitex

Founded in 2018, Bitex is a digital currency exchange and a professional trading platform. Bitex started its operations in the United Arab Emirates and is now expanding its operations overseas starting with India. With advancements in Blockchain technology and the digital currencies, Bitex recognized the need of a platform that can provide a unique experience for investors.

Bitex is a fully regulated and compliant financial exchange and values customer data and protection to its core. It follows a stringent Anti-money laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) policy. Bitex has partnered with Trackwizz for AML Screening solutions. Trackwizz Anti Money Laundering helps financial institutions against money laundering and terrorism funding. It enables some features like transaction monitoring, risk rating, screening and insider trading related operations and is in full compliance with Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002 (PMLA) and similar anti money laundering regulations. Some key clientele of Trackwizz are NSE, HDFC Securities, ICICI Securities, Zerodha, Sharekhan and Coronation.

More information available at https://bitex.com/

About Onfido

Onfido is setting the new standard for digital access. The company digitally proves a user's real identity using artificial intelligence (AI), by verifying a photo ID and comparing it to the person's facial biometrics. This means businesses can verify their users without compromising on experience, conversion, privacy, or security.

Recognised as a global leader in AI for identity verification and authentication, Onfido is backed by TPG Growth, Idinvest Partners, Crane Venture Partners, Salesforce Ventures, M12 - Microsoft's venture fund, and others. Onfido has raised $200m in funding, and with approximately 400 team members across seven countries, is enabling digital access for some of the largest companies around the world.

Mastercard Partners with Signzy for Global Rollout of Video KYC

Enables easy, fast and secure digital onboarding of end users to connect them to the financial mainstream

Mastercard today announced a partnership with Signzy, a leading RegTech startup based in India, to enable Signzy’s video-based KYC (Know Your Customer) solution for its banking customers. With this partnership, Mastercard customers will benefit from a completely paperless, remote and secure onboarding solution for end-users.

Deployment of Video KYC will allow end-users to complete and submit their KYC application from the safety and security of their homes. This would be 99% faster than the traditional paper-based KYC process. Backed by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies, Signzy’s Video KYC solution features security protocols to prevent unauthorized system intrusion or attempted fraud. Further, the solution offers industry-leading scalability to deal with high volumes of video KYC transactions.

In India, this launch will further Mastercard’s goal to drive inclusive growth via financial inclusion by enabling individuals and small businesses to go online. Earlier this year, the payments technology company partnered with various players and launched low-cost innovations that allow merchants to start accepting digital payments without incurring additional or high infrastructural costs. Video KYC will further the ease and speed of onboarding in minimal time.

Arpit Ratan, Co-founder of Signzy said, “Mastercard has strongly advocated digital transformation in the financial services space and has led by example. It is a matter of great pride to be chosen as their Video KYC partner. Our efforts are geared to offer our partners a mobile-first, customer-centric digital experience for their customers. Signzy’s AI-led, on-premise API framework allows easy integration across multiple platforms providing a quicker and completely remote and paperless customer-onboarding, taking care of all security protocols.”

Rajeev Kumar, Senior Vice President, Market Development, South Asia, Mastercard, said, “Mastercard’s partnership with Signzy will shorten the traditional clunky, time consuming and expensive KYC process for financial institutions. Signzy’s AI and ML has well-established links to many KYC databases in India which allows seamless support for e-KYC and Video-KYC. Therefore, the platform also solves the problem of many SME’s in India who may not have all the KYC documents. With V-KYC, SME’s can now complete their contactless KYC process remotely at their convenience from their homes and shops.”

Rajeev also added, “Mastercard and Signzy are assisting merchant acquiring banks to easily on-board SMEs in remote corners of the country for digital payments acceptance, open SME accounts and NBFCs to underwrite and disburse SME loans. During the nationwide lockdown, Signzy’s Video KYC come as a big relief for financial institutions and SMEs.”

Signzy’s clientele has more than 90 Indian financial institutions, ranging from banks, NBFCs, insurance firms, Asset Management Companies and so on. Some of the marquee names in this list include the State Bank of India (SBI) and ICICI Bank, Aditya Birla Sunlife AMC, and BoB Financial Ltd etc. Moreover, Signzy’s offices in New York and Dubai and partnership with Mastercard equip the company to serve financial institutions across the globe. Mastercard has collaborated with Signzy to develop onboarding solutions for merchants and has a global partnership with them to scale up the solution across markets worldwide.

Recently, Mastercard also announced a commitment of Rs 250 crores (US$33 million) to help reboot Indian SMEs and enable business recovery amid Covid-19 outbreak. As part of this commitment, Mastercard will roll out multiple initiatives to:

• bring small businesses into the digital economy by enabling them to go online
• provide them with catalytic inputs to operate growth-oriented businesses, including but not limited to access to credit, know-how, and value-added services while supporting them in meeting the new norms of safety and health protection
• empower women owned enterprises to unlock their economic potential

Mastercard is a global technology company in the payments industry. Our mission is to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart and accessible. Using secure data and networks, partnerships and passion, our innovations and solutions help individuals; financial institutions, governments and businesses realize their greatest potential. Our decency quotient, or DQ, drives our culture and everything we do inside and outside of our company. With connections across more than 210 countries and territories, we are building a sustainable world that unlocks priceless possibilities for all.

About Signzy

Signzy is an AI-powered RPA platform for financial services. No matter how complex your workflow or operational complexity, Signzy is able to completely automate your back-operations decision-making process into a real-time API. This is possible due to a combination of Nebula — a no-code AI model builder and a Fintech API Marketplace of over 200+ APIs. Today, the startup works with over 90+ FIs globally including the 4 largest banks in India and a Top 3 acquiring Bank in the US. Globally, Signzy has a strong partnership with MasterCard and offices in New York and Dubai to serve its customers in the two geographies. The startup’s product team of 120+ people is building a global AI product in Bangalore.

Signzy wins ASSOCHAM’s ICT Start-Ups Award 2020 for Digital KYC Inbox

Bangalore-based Signzy, India’s leading fintech startup, today said that it was named, winner of ASSOCHAM’s ICT Startups Awards for 2020. Signzy won this award for its innovative AI-based Digital KYC solution, which helps banks and financial services companies onboard new customers in a completely remote, paperless and digital manner.

The ICT Start-Ups award is an annual ASSOCHAM initiative, conducted in association with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India and Ericsson. The awards aim to encourage innovation by recognising and rewarding outstanding ICT innovations.

Commenting on the win, Ankit Ratan, co-founder of Signzy says, “We hold this honour in high regard as a testimony to the great work our team has been putting in. Digitalisation is scripting the future of financial services businesses and is crucial to India’s next phase of growth. We at Signzy are proud to play a meaningful role in the ongoing digital transformation of India’s banking, insurance and financial services sector with truly innovative and path-breaking digital solutions.”

Three other startups were also awarded at the virtual award ceremony, held on the sidelines of Smartech India 2020 in New Delhi.

Signzy’s clients for its digital KYC solution include over 90 Indian banks, insurance firms, NBFCs and Asset Management Companies like Aditya Birla Sunlife AMC, BoB Financial and more. The clients also include four of the largest banks in India, with State Bank of India (SBI) and ICICI Bank among them.

Globally, Signzy has a strong partnership with Mastercard and offices in New York and Dubai to serve customers in the multiple geographies. The startup’s Digital KYC is already being used to onboard thousands of customers every month by several SEBI-regulated institutions.

About Signzy

Signzy is an AI-powered RPA platform for financial services. No matter how complex your workflow or operational complexity, Signzy is able to completely automate your back-operations decision-making process into a real-time API. This is possible due to a combination of Nebula — a no-code AI model builder and a Fintech API Marketplace of over 240+ APIs. Today, the startup works with over 90+ FIs globally including the 4 largest banks in India and a Top 3 acquiring Bank in the US. Globally, Signzy has a strong partnership with MasterCard and offices in New York and Dubai to serve its customers in the two geographies. The startup’s product team of 120+ people is building a global AI product in Bangalor

Bajaj Finserv Signs up Kwik.ID as their Exclusive Video KYC Partner

Signs partnership with Bajaj Finserv and Shinhan Bankon the back of superior product performance and quality differentiation

Kwik.ID, India’s fastest Video KYC solution announces another win by signing a partnership with Bajaj Finserv and Shinhan Bank as part of their significant growth trajectory in Q2. Kwik.ID’s solutions and impressive KYC completion rate of 85% will enable these financial services providers with convenient customer acquisitions, quicker customer onboarding and other financial operations.

Kwik.ID’s AI-powered face-match and OCR tech-backed document verification enhances the V-KYC process as it identity fraud in real-time. Moreover, Kwik.ID has made 100% RBI-compliant solution by using 7x lesser resources when compared to market standards, thus resulting in significantly high efficiencies in customer onboarding costs.

Monish Salot, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Think Analytics said, “It was a long and competitive evaluation processes, at the end of which Bajaj Finserv has chosen Kwik.ID as their exclusive V-KYC partner. This is a great vindication of our focus on product excellence, and flexible user-journey design. Bajaj and Shinhan as client partners further highlights the domain expertise we bring to the table, in addition to 250-300% monthly growth in volumes we have witnessed during COVID. We understand regulated entities and we build for enterprise scale and with startup agility”.

Mr. Cho Sung Bok - Director of IT India, Shinhan Bank, “We are glad to join hands with Kwik.ID as the product offers all relevant features and modules necessary to carry out successful Video and Digital KYC sessions, such as security, infrastructure and bandwidth support. We are confident that this association will drive significant operational efficiency and customer convenience improvements; we look forward to our fruitful association.” Kwik.ID has designed a seamless, user-friendly online onboarding journey for Regulated Entities, a much needed solution in these digitally demanding times. A product of Think Analytics, Kwik.ID has acquired 10+ clients this quarter, including RupeeRedee, New India Cooperative Bank, Arohan Microfinance, Zest Money, and more.