Know Your Customer (KYC) with Video Confirmation and Secured Signing

It seems obvious but it bears repeating. Being absolutely clear on who is signing your document, not only makes good business sense, it is also a compliance requirement for many industries. Adding video confirmation to Secured Signing’s usual signing process ensures there can be no doubt about who signed your document.

Even if your business is not subject to anti money laundering and counter terrorism financing (AML/CTF) legislation, robust customer due diligence practices will give you a competitive advantage, limit your exposure to the risk of loss and protect your business from damage to its reputation. It’s also just plain good sense. If there is ever a dispute, being able to simply and clearly demonstrate who signed your document will ensure you are best placed to recover monies owed or the return of equipment hired or leased.

It is not just banks and other lenders that need to comply with the customer due diligence requirements of AML/CTF legislation. A recent mutual evaluation of Australia’s AML/CTF frameworks gave an overall pass mark, but highlighted key areas of concern. Research by AUSTRAC, the Australian government’s financial intelligence agency, indicates the outcomes around customer due diligence (CDD) vary from very high confidence to closer to 50% confidence in customer identity. This is an area that needs to improve as AUSTRAC rightly identifies that knowing your customer is “the cornerstone of an effective AML/CTF regime.” It is not surprising that regulatory reform proposals recommend both more explicit CDD requirements and the application of CDD requirements to a broader range of industries.

Secured Signing’s video confirmation capability is a simple yet powerful tool to demonstrate you know exactly who is signing your documents.  

Customers expect to be able to transact business with you online. Inviting your customers to sign documents online with Secured Signing gives you the capability to meet this expectation of customer convenience while enjoying the security, authenticity and reliability that only tamper proof digital signatures can provide. Adding a video confirmation to your online signing process gives you complete confidence you know who you are dealing with and in particular who signed your agreement.  

When you ask customers to use video confirmation in the signing process, they are prompted to record a short video before they sign the document. The whole process takes no more than 10 seconds. The video records a specific gesture which is recorded in the Secured Signing document log and the video’s secure location is appended to the document and sealed with the PKI digital signature, ensuring the details cannot be modified without invalidating the signature.

If your non face to face transactions don’t give you this degree of confidence in knowing who your customer is, it is time to closely evaluate the benefits Secured Signing can give you. The best first step is to open a free evaluation account and try video confirmation of signing yourself.  Secured Signing’s website provides a lot more detail on how video confirmation works to deliver unquestionable confirmation of signer’s identity. 

As always, if you have specific questions, please get in touch and someone will contact you personally.