ID Solutions Provider Northern Block Selects Acuant For Verification And Compliance

Northern Block has integrated Acuant‘s identity proofing and compliance technology to provide its customers with self-sovereign identity (SSI) and verifiable credential services, according to a Thursday (Feb. 4) announcement emailed to PYMNTS.

Northern Block assists firms with acquiring new clients through an onboarding experience, with its offerings — including Acuant’s technology — integrated into current systems in as quickly as a week. Clients of Northern Block will be able to verify identities throughout all channels, while offering a more expedient and safe flow for customers that have high-value transaction needs, according to the announcement.

“With Acuant, our clients can have consumers and business partners remotely self-onboard with high integrity and [know your customer (KYC)] functionality built in,” Northern Block CEO Mathieu Glaude said in the announcement. “With Northern Block’s ability to store these verifications as verifiable credentials, organizations can cut friction dramatically while also reducing their risks. It is also a great opportunity for companies in various sectors, like FinTech and legal services, to innovate around Privacy by Design principles.”

Acuant and Northern Block belong to the Digital Identification and Authentication Council of Canada (DIACC), which is dedicated to securing the future of digital identities for individuals and companies, according to the announcement.

Synthetic identity fraud has been referred to as one of the quickest-growing financial crimes in the United States, costing financial institutions (FIs) more than $6 billion annually. Synthetic identities are usually made by bringing together real data, like legitimate Social Security numbers, with fictitious data, such as a false name — or they can be completely fake. It has turned into a bigger issue throughout the pandemic, especially during onboarding.

Account takeovers (ATOs) were particularly prevalent last year, with 60 percent of companies reporting losses from those attacks. In a past PYMNTS interview, Acuant Chief Product Officer Jose Caldera said a “layered” approach to combating fraud is the best defense, although it is never a static one.