WISE AI’s eKYC110 can help banks gain customers
Business owners understand to get great sales or provide better services, they need to ‘know your customer’, or KYC for short.
In today’s digital age, the same principles apply but it has gone a step further to eKYC – electronic Know Your Customer.
With many companies adopting a mobile-first approach to ‘sell’ their brands, they need a solution to ensure millennials who want fast and efficient service, stay onsite.
A survey in Britain showed the dropout rate when someone is registering for a new service or mobile application increased from 40 per cent in 2016 to 55 per cent in 2018. This was due to the tedious registration process as customers spent too much time keying in their data.
“If there was a similar survey for the Asia Pacific region, the result would be the same,” said WISE AI co-founder and business director Justin Goh.
“This is why WISE AI – an ASEAN-based technology firm with offices in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand – developed eKYC110, a digital solution to help cut down the time a user spends to register for a new application or to open a bank account.”
Goh explained eKYC110 was created so customers only spend one minute for onboarding (registering) and one second for approval with zero human intervention. Through eKYC110, one can create a seamless customer experience, increase customer opt-in rate, reduce customer acquisition and verification costs and enhance customer risk assessment.
“KYC is ‘know your customer’ but most of us joke it sometimes means ‘kill your customer’ due to the amount of paperwork we have to fill,” Goh said at the Banking Innovation and Transformation Summit in Kuala Lumpur on July 24.
He explained information needed to open a bank account or to take a loan is already available on CCRIS (Central Credit Reference Information System) and CTOP (Credit Tip-Off Service).
“So why ask customers to fill in the information again?” he asked.
Goh was at the summit to present ‘Case Study by WISE AI: EKYC Shortens Customer On-Boarding Time by Up To 95 percent’ and was on the panel to discuss ‘Embracing change in a new era of customer engagement’.
He shared how UK-based virtual bank Monzo tripled its customer base from 500,000 to 1.6 million within a year by making it easy and simple to register for its services. Another UK-based virtual bank, Revolut, went from 450,000 customers in 2017 to three million in May this year.
“No bank in the world can boast of such results as it would take weeks just to approve a new loan or to open an account.
“The banking industry must evolve but there is still a place for traditional banks. Hopefully, once the guidelines for virtual banking are in place, similar procedures can be implemented at traditional banks to cut down the time a person spends at the branch or headquarters.”
Leonard Chew, Head of Innovation & Transformation, Group IT Sunway, was impressed by Goh’s presentation.
“I have heard about eKYC but what Justin said about cutting down the onboarding time makes perfect sense,” said Chew.
“And it can be applicable for all businesses and not just the banking industry. Too much time is spent filling up data. I feel the eKYC110 will be a big help.”
Two other attendees – Asma Nurul Aqilah and In Ann Nabila – admitted this was the first time they were hearing about eKYC.
“We attended this event to learn more about technological advances in the banking industry. Hearing how two banks in the United Kingdom increased their clientele by making it easy to open an account, is really an eye-opener,” Asma said.
Separately, on ‘Embracing change in a new era of customer engagement’, Goh voiced his optimism that people are accepting artificial intelligence as the way forward.
“We need to educate customers on how we collect their data and how we ensure only relevant and authorised personnel have access to the information,” he said.
“Once they understand there are safeguards in place, they will feel more confident.”
Using smartphones as an analogy, Goh said five to 10 years ago, ‘Baby Boomers’ preferred analogue telephones but now many of those in their 70s or older, can’t imagine life without their smart devices.
This is because they have been educated on the benefits and know their data is being safeguarded.
WISE AI’s core business includes face detection technology, face attribute estimation, face image retrieval, face comparison technology and detection of key facial attributes.
To know more about eKYC (electronic Know Your Customer), contact Woody Tan at woody@wiseai.tech.
