Industries such as healthcare, finance, and telecommunications benefit the most from KYC or Know Your Customer because they face a greater risk of falling victim to fraud and money laundering. They require measures to ensure they do not unknowingly facilitate illegal transactions or activities when providing their services.
In the telecom industry, MNOs and MVNXs constantly strive to deliver a speedy, seamless and accurate digital experience to their users. The eSIM already effectively caters to customers’ crucial digital needs. However, offering a secure eKYC subscriber onboarding solution in addition takes operators much closer to their goal of providing a flawless customer journey.
Why eKYC is important for MNOs and MVNOs
Electronic Know Your Customer, or eKYC, is the real-time, remote and paperless version of the traditional KYC verification process whereby a business directs its customers to successfully complete their identity verification through the use of apps and their smartphones.
eKYC is a powerful digital activation method that enables telcos to grow their subscriber base more effectively because it offers the following:
1. Enhanced customer onboarding experience and satisfaction
eKYC gives increasingly digital-savvy consumers another way to digitalise common physical touchpoints in their activities and transactions, such as subscribing to a service. Eliminating the need to go to a brick-and-mortar shop to submit identity proofs brings unrivalled convenience, and people highly appreciate a frictionless customer experience.
In addition, consumers are more likely to trust companies that employ stringent security measures, so building a reputation for prioritising customer protection is always a plus for operators.
2. Greater savings on time, costs and resources
With eKYC, MNOs and MVNXs eliminate the need for a manual verification process that requires personnel to perform the verification in a physical establishment and maintain paper-based customer records in a physical storage space. This, in turn, helps reduce administrative costs and enables allocating resources to other necessary initiatives.
In addition, when the customer identity verification process is automated and digitalised, eKYC becomes scalable as operators become more efficient at handling more significant numbers of verifications for the growing number of devices and profile types that are entering the market.
eKYC also offers telcos a sustainable onboarding method that translates to significantly reduced paper, plastic and CO2 emissions, meaning businesses reduce their waste as well as their carbon footprint.
3. Compliance with regulatory frameworks for data protection
eKYC enables telecom operators to comply with European and international regulations:
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is considered the world’s most robust privacy and security law. Drafted and passed by the European Union, this set of data protection rules imposes obligations onto organisations worldwide that offer goods and services to and collect data from EU citizens or residents.
- Anti-Money Laundering/Anti-Terrorist Financing or AML-ATF programmes indicate that the financial community has a regulatory and moral obligation to ensure that their businesses are not used to facilitate criminal and terrorist activities. These guidelines and controls require companies to conduct customer due diligence and identify, monitor and report any suspicious customer activity.
MNOs and MVNXs can use eKYC to efficiently verify customer identity, authenticate their documents and eliminate suspicions of fraud and money laundering, all while providing a seamless onboarding experience.
4. Security against subscription and identity fraud
Telecommunications is one of the largest and fastest-growing industries in the world. A January 2023 report by Juniper Research estimated that the total number of smartphones leveraging eSIM connectivity will jump from around 986 million in 2023 to 3.5 billion by 2027.
Ensuring the highest level of accuracy and security when managing data for an industry of such massive proportions is imperative. This is especially true when you consider how easily prone manual identity verification methods are to human error, manipulation, and counterfeit submissions. According to the Global CFCA Telecom Fraud report, subscription or identity fraud makes up 35% to 40% of all scams that take place within the telecom industry.
According to the GSMA, over 5.4 billion people worldwide (almost 70% of the global population) have mobile phones. The national governments of 160 countries now require mandatory SIM card registration, meaning a person must submit their name and personal details to sign up for a phone service.
Since telcos are inevitably linked to equally essential human services such as health, finance and security, preventing data inaccuracies and tampering with subscriber information is more critical than ever.
To prevent fraudulent use of personal information in relation to SIM, eSIM and other telecom subscriptions, operators must incorporate a strong eKYC solution to protect their users’ digital identity.
How eKYC differs from KYC
Electronic Know Your Customer, or eKYC, is the real-time, remote and paperless version of the traditional KYC verification process whereby a business directs its customers to successfully complete their identity verification through the use of apps and their smartphones.
eKYC is a powerful digital activation method that enables telcos to grow their subscriber base more effectively because it offers the following:
Seamless digital onboarding with eKYC
eKYC makes collecting customer information quick and painless and helps telecom operators stay ahead of evolving identity fraud techniques. Learn more about integrating the Workz eKYC subscriber identity verification solution into your eKYC process. Contact us today.
