TransUnion and Bitventure have joined forces in an effort to streamline mobile onboarding procedures in South Africa. Bitventure is a digital identity verification specialist that automatically matches an ID photo from Home Affairs to an official ID number.
The new joint solution is expected to reduce fraud while minimizing the amount of time that South African businesses need to onboard new customers. TransUnion also plans to use Bitventure’s technology to augment its own IDVision fraud and identity management platform.
“In South Africa, economic crime rates are significantly higher than the global average as fraudsters take advantage of vulnerabilities in business’ risk management practice,” said Bitventure CEO Junior Biola. “Effective risk and fraud mitigation starts with knowing the identity of new customers at the acquisition stage. Digital identity verification serves as an essential first step to the process by preventing fraudulent activities and losses before they occur.”
Biola noted that online traffic has increased as people have adopted social distancing measures during the COVID-19 pandemic. That, in turn, has led to higher rates of fraud as cybercriminals have tried to take advantage of the disruption and poor digital security.
“More than 34 million South African consumers will shop online this year, and 68 percent of financial services firms report that their customers increasingly interact with them through digital channels instead of face-to-face,” said TransUnion Africa Regional President Lee Naik.
“In the current economic climate, it’s important to deter fraudsters and ensure ‘friction-right’ customer experiences.”
TransUnion previously released a Holiday Retail Fraud Survey that found that nearly half of all consumers were worried about online fraud during the 2019 holiday season. The digital landscape has only become more perilous since the onset of the pandemic, which is why the company is looking for more effective ways to help businesses secure their digital channels.
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