Global Fraud Risks Reduced With Real Time, Cross Platform ID Verification

As firms move beyond domestic markets and capture new business and revenue streams in other countries, they’ve got to step up their efforts to ensure that they’re letting “good” customers transact, while keeping fraudsters at bay.

James Mirfin, global head of digital identity and fraud solutions at Refinitiv, told PYMNTS that onboarding and verification must be done at a global scale in order to reduce fraud and false declines, improve the user experience and increase competitiveness.

The conversation came as GIACT, a Refinitiv company, said it has added a global consumer and business identity verification solution, gIDENTIFY® Global, to its EPIC Platform. As Mirfin told PYMNTS, “We have global customers, and we’ve brought global digital identity capabilities to them.”

The company said in the release that the new solution allows U.S. organizations to validate non-U.S. individuals across 38 countries and businesses across 11 countries, using data from a range of U.S. and international sources in real time. The end result is that U.S. enterprises can onboard and transact with foreign entities with less risk, while meeting regulatory requirements. The new solution is an addition to the existing platform and integrations, Mirfin said.

Crossing Borders, Digitally

Mirfin noted that such cross-border focus is important as companies rely on digital channels. But along the way, he said, firms “are paying the price from that shift when it comes to things like fraud – the numbers have been going through the roof, and that trend is not slowing down anytime soon.”

The perennial question, of course, is how to balance protection with friction in the customer experience. In adopting and adapting to new data-driven solutions to create an optimal experience, Mirfin said that a single point of integration with those solutions is key.

As Mirfin told PYMNTS: “For a customer in any industry who is trying to have a slick consumer experience and trying to protect themselves throughout that journey, having a single integration and having multiple services coming through that takes the load off their technology and development team.”

A more nuanced, risk-based approach can take a customer through a more seamless journey in the event that certain triggers and factors introduce friction. GIACT customers who are leveraging the firm’s APIs are seeing lower rates of fraud and identity theft.

The ROI goes beyond improving loss rates, and extends to an increased number of “good customers” coming through the proverbial digital doors. And, as Mirfin noted, there’s no real debate about boosting security efforts, as compliance is becoming more rigorous around the globe.

“You don’t have a choice – you’ve got to do it,” he said.

Asked by PYMNTS about the industries that might be early adopters of the enhanced, global ID offerings, Mirfin said that cryptocurrencies remain an “obvious choice,” as they are global in scope, go across borders and are bought and sold by individuals and enterprises alike, as regulations are evolving swiftly.

“Even with high-value retail and jewelry, where people are doing very high-risk transactions, they want to run identity as a service as well,” said Mirfin.

At a high level, all firms need to broaden and enhance their protection. “But they need to do this in a way that doesn’t upset the customer or take them through a clunky, onerous signup process,” he said, adding that “if you’re asking customers to email documents or fill in forms and then scan them or capture them, it’s very clunky. You’re going to see a lot of consumer fallout from that.” The new solution, he told PYMNTS, “is very relevant across a whole range of sectors and industries.”