It’s all about convenience
As you probably know, at The ID Co., our goal is to offer the convenience we as consumers crave, the convenience that allows us to open a new account or register for a new service in just a few seconds. It’s been a long journey since first sharing the idea in 2009 at SIBOS’s Innotribe session to leverage the identity and trust we have with our Banks, leveraging the existing global financial services network as a source of verified identities. We knew that empowering consumers with their financial information could make a huge impact on our lives and that impact is now being truly realized which is why it felt appropriate to send out a quick update.
Having pioneered digital identity and online trust we now find ourselves at the forefront of big regulatory changes that are about to impact the use of customer data with the introduction of PSD2, Open Banking and soon GDPR. As a RegTech company, The ID Co. leverages the identity and data individuals already have with their online bank to meet the KYC, AML anti-fraud requirements when taking out new products or registering on sites. In doing so, we have become a central part of the on boarding and customer due diligence processes of well known financial services companies in both the US and UK ranging from marketplace lenders through to retail banks.
Our credentials extend beyond identity and compliance checks and into the realm of credit risk underwriting and risk processes where Live Financial data can be used to truly understand a consumer or business. A large anonymised pool of data has given us the ability through the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence to develop amongst other things affordability and alternative credit scoring models that are truly disruptive.
Every day we see the positive impact of PSD2 ripple throughout the market and as a service, this is something that will be natively supported by DirectID. But just accessing data isn’t enough – we believe there is huge untapped value for us as consumers in this data. Living in a world that to get credit – you have to have credit – is simply wrong. As I heard someone say the other day ‘Data is the new oil and financial data is the best type of oil’ – something I truly believe in.
We have recently published a blog on the progress of PSD2 to date and the journey ahead in theidco.com/articles/2017-10-19-The-Journey-Towards-Open-Banking-and-PSD2
If you are interested in future updates, let me know, and we can add you to the mailing list.
We are also supporting a Trust in Digital Life (TDL) event in Edinburgh on the 14th of December titled ‘Whose data is it anyway’ which explores the convergence of Open Bank Data and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Unlike other GDPR-focused events, it will discuss and debate the present-day regulations alongside the realities associated with privacy and the use of personal data and look to understand how potential conflicts of interest can be avoided in the future, particularly in the context of open banking.
Register at whosedataisitanyway.com or let me know if you are interested in getting involved as a panelist or sponsor.
If you’re not able to come to the event but are at the Singapore Fintech week mid-November or Trustech in Cannes and want to meet up it would be great to grab a coffee.
Other than that – life continues to be immensely busy as we launch our growth funding round with fantastic support from existing investors to accelerate the traction of the business. The funds will support growing the sales and marketing teams and further developing richer data insights.
