“…it uses facial recognition and ID document validation, and also leverages other authentication mechanisms including address and digital footprint checks, to help ensure that businesses are complying with KYC and AML regulations.”

A new financial services app for small businesses and entrepreneurs in the UK is embracing biometrics and other sophisticated identity verification technologies from HooYu.

Called Countingup, the app is designed to enable digital commercial banking for users, while also providing other services aimed at businesses including accounting, tax returns, invoicing, and profit/loss reports. It’s also designed to let users open an account on a mobile device in five minutes, and that’s where HooYu’s technology comes into play; it uses facial recognition and ID document validation, and also leverages other authentication mechanisms including address and digital footprint checks, to help ensure that businesses are complying with KYC and AML regulations.

As Countingup CEO Tim Fouracre explains in a statement, “It was important to us to design the account opening process to make it as easy as possible to open an account in less than five minutes,” thus HooYu’s technology not only helps Countingup to achieve regulatory compliance but also “to curate a great digital journey that makes for easy and convenient account opening.”

It’s the latest example of the numerous mobile financial services platforms now emerging that leverage biometric authentication to help smooth out the user experience while addressing regulatory issues. Countingup says it is aiming to launch its app in early 2018.