The National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV), the body that regulates in Mexico how digital onboarding should be done in the account opening process for financial entities, carried out an update of the requirements needed for digital onboarding in October 2020, and did it again in May 2021.
One of the requirements established by the CNBV is that, during the onboarding process, a biometric check with the INE (National Electoral Institute) must be carried out. The INE is a state institution that has registered the information of all Mexican citizens in its database. This information contains personal data, fingerprints, and photos of the person.
Since 2021, INE has offered the possibility of checking facial biometrics through its API. This update allows financial institutions to use facial biometrics to check the identity of their new customers as an alternative to fingerprint biometrics. This represents a significant improvement in the customer conversion process since those entities that use the facial biometrics check with the INE do not require the capture of the fingerprint of their new customers, thus eliminating a step in the onboarding process.
Use of INE's facial verification service
INE requires that the biometric matching process be physically performed within its servers. In addition, the installation of the biometric engine at INE cannot be done by just any biometric vendor. Such installation requires at least one financial institution to request the INE to use the biometric provider.
Thus, Veridas has installed its facial biometric engine within the facilities offered by the INE and has done so hand in hand with BBVA Mexico, the leading financial institution in the country, being one of the first technology providers to do so.
Veridas' effective and proven solution
Veridas, in addition to being evaluated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in verification (1:1) and identification (1:N), has adapted its biometric comparison algorithm for the selfie vs. credential use case in Mexico. This optimization is vital since the Mexican credential has a printed texture that makes the biometric matching process difficult unless computer vision algorithms developed by Veridas are used.
Veridas’ biometric engine is more than 99% effective in facial authentication. In addition, it is a lower friction solution for the end customer and is much less expensive than the current fingerprint solution.
To date, four of the country’s leading banks are testing the solution, and one is already in production. The confidence of these customers reinforces Veridas’ status as a leading provider of biometric technology for the financial sector in Mexico and its international growth since they already work with more than 120 customers worldwide and exceed 60 million identity verifications.
