Bank ABC is one step closer to its mobile-only bank dreams as the Bahraini bank partners with a US-based company to roll out a digital onboarding feature.
The wholesale bank, which delivers Islamic financing products through Bank ABC Islamic in Bahrain and its Islamic Financial Services Unit in London, has secured the services of Jumio, an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered identity-as-a-service provider, to enable the bank’s new digital bank onboard new retail customers in compliance with regulations.
Leveraging Jumio’s biometric-based identity verification solution, the bank will be able to verify online customers by having them first capture a picture of their government-issued ID with a smartphone and then take a selfie, with certified liveness detection functionality. Bank ABC is part of a growing throng of banks in the MENA region looking to establish a dedicated digital arm in the race to capture the increasingly tech-savvy population. It has invested in establishing digitized operations including a fully digital Know-Your-Customer (KYC) capability.
The goal is to be able to maximize cost and time efficiency as the turnaround time for a customer to open a new account is one to two weeks and requires a visit to a local branch to complete the set-up process.
“We’re proud to be the first bank in the Middle East to leverage face-based biometrics to streamline the KYC and identity-proofing processes,” said Yousif Almas, the group chief innovation officer at Bank ABC. “As more and more customers move online and transact via their mobile devices, it’s critical for Bank ABC to deliver a simple, fast and intuitive onboarding experience that takes minutes, not hours or days.”