The disruptions caused due to the Covid-19 pandemic may have stalled the economy and racked many sectors, but for providers of essential goods and digital services – be it online education, investments or other online transactions – the lockdown has turned out to be a big boon.
With most of the offices closed and people becoming fearful of venturing out of their homes, online marketplaces, online conferencing, remote working, online banking and other financial activities have been thriving.
As the equity market witnessed a steep fall during the Covid-19 crisis in India, investors lapped up the opportunity by investing through online modes. New investors also started investing after registering themselves through video KYC.
The video KYC platforms have also been adopted by providers of services like – banking, housing finance, lending, forex, fintech, wallets etc, which also helped them provide active services during the lockdown period.
In fact the January 9, 2020 Circular of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowing RBI regulated entities (Banks and NBFCs) to complete full KYC of a customer remotely, has proved to be a just in time impetus for the financial sector not only to survive the lockdown period but to expand by adopting the process before onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in India.
The video KYC process gathered further steam after the Securities and Exchange Board of India clarified its stand on it on April 29, 2020.
A full video KYC process generally involved the following steps:
- Face match (matches the face of the applicant on a valid identity document with the face on live video).
- Liveliness detection that confirms that the person on the other end of the call is a live person.
- Lat-Long to confirm the exact location of the applicant.
- Document verification during the live video call.
Propelled by the Covid-19 pandemic, video KYC platforms like Kwik.ID, Karza Technologies etc have witnessed a big boost in the adoption of the process after the RBI nod.
For example, Kwik.ID has recently reported a 300 per cent jump in the adoption of their services across verticals.
“Gone are the days when digitization was just a matter of convenience. It has now become the way we all operate in our daily lives, be it investing, online deliveries or conducting meetings,” says Monish Salot, Co-founder & Chief Product Officer, Think Analytics.
