Europe
Signicat has published new analysis by P.A.ID Strategies that shows financial institutions are wasting at least €5.7 billion every year due to poor customer onboarding and abandonment.
The analysis follows the release of Signicat’s regular report into the state of financial services onboarding, The Battle to Onboard 2020. This year’s report was the worst for the industry since it debuted in 2016, with 63 percent of consumers in Europe abandoning financial applications in the past year. This is a sharp increase of 23 percentage points from the abandonment rate in 2019.
According to the model, around 120 million new accounts will be opened across Europe this year. Signicat’s Battle to Onboard research shows that 63 percent of people abandon an application. By making conservative estimates of the cost of customer acquisition including advertising, sponsorship and promotion, personnel wages, and customer support – and allowing for multiple applications by the same person, P.A.ID Strategies conservatively estimates that at least €5.7 billion is wasted each year.
“Customer acquisition is a hot button issue right now—some new banks are especially keen to reference their figures to prove to the market how well they are doing,” said John Devlin, founder, P.A.ID Strategies. “But much of that spend is wasted. Consumers will simply abandon processes that they see as too challenging, problematic or intrusive. Without dealing with this last hurdle in customer acquisition, the financial services market is squandering billions every year.”
Finland
Biometric Update reports The Finnish government will be adding a digital ID option to supplement its passport requirements by 2023, reports VerietyInfo. The move will help assist around one million Finnish citizens who do not own a valid form of identification, many of them being minors. According to the report the nation has also seen a decrease in child passports and certificates.
Authorities attribute the decline in passport and ID applications to the ongoing pandemic. Within one year, passport and ID ownership in Finland has fallen from 4.35 million to 4.18. “Traditionally, the Finns update these documents very quickly. The [COVID] period had a significant impact on this,” said the police department inspector general Juhani Rouuta.
Despite this temporary decline, Finland is expecting passport applications to spike again once travel picks up again post-Covid. The Finnish digital ID will not only supplement passports, which are still required for travel but also help individuals authenticate themselves with more ease for business and other digital transactions.
According to information management advisor Maria Nikkilä, the new digital ID will be easy-to-use for individuals who have difficulties in acquiring and using mobile devices and other digital means. “The idea is also that in addition to the mobile application, an alternative device will be offered, such as a pen that can be connected to a computer,” says Nikkilä. “So, owning a phone won’t be a mandatory requirement.”
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Germany
The German government, in two new rulings, will allow German citizens to use their mobile devices to verify their identity and open access to government-generated data reports the Associated Press. According to the German Interior Ministry, individuals can start using an electronic version of their government ID stored on their mobile devices starting fall 2021. The ID is used with a PIN to verify and authenticate users for government and business transactions.
The move will allow Germany to overhaul its existing authentication systems that still require physical cards and reading devices. In a separate ruling, the German government announced that businesses and individuals may soon have open access to government-generated data to incubate new application development.
Mexico
Mexico is inching closer to a national digital ID thanks to the recently passed General Law on Population, reports the Mazatlan Post. The overhaul will work in tandem with the new General Law of Identity and Digital Citizen law to provide the previously undocumented segment of Mexico’s population to have access to vital government services and benefits. In addition to these benefits, the new policy is also aimed at boosting the Central American nation’s COVID vaccination efforts.
The new laws provide for the creation of a digital identity alongside a population register containing biometric information. This new form of population identification will help register previously undocumented individuals, the majority being under the age of 10. Additionally, the measure also focuses on better serving minority groups such as Mexico’s indigenous, and Afro-Mexican populations.
Bahrain
Al Baraka Islamic Bank (AIB) has announced a partnership with Jumio, a provider of AI-powered identity verification and eKYC solutions, to launch the bank’s first digital banking platform. Deploying Jumio’s biometric-based identity verification technology, the platform enables new retail customers to register bank accounts by uploading copies of their ID card and taking a ‘selfie’ using their smartphone, without the need to visit a branch.
