Face authentication service

Face ID verification is another term for face authentication, often used by RegTech service providers in the context of customer onboarding and remote identity verification. This procedure is designed to verify a customer’s identity by scanning their face and unique physical features before granting access to a service. In simple terms, face ID verification confirms the user’s identity and is known to be a more user-friendly Know Your Customer (KYC) measure compared to traditional or manual verification methods.

Active liveness detection requires users to perform specific actions to prove they’re alive and completing the verification check in real-time. For example, this might be requiring the user to blink, move in a certain way, or make a specific facial expression that is difficult to spoof.

In contrast, passive liveness checks don’t require any user actions. Instead, the software continuously runs in the background, performing checks (such as screening the user’s skin texture, depth, edges, etc.) without the user’s awareness, which means that the process for the end-user is smoother compared to the active liveness approach. However, some jurisdictions strictly require companies to implement active liveness checks in order to comply with different regulations, such as the EU’s Anti-Money Laundering Directives (AMLDs).

Face authentication is used for both the first stage of the account opening process and later in the customer cycle to maintain ongoing due diligence. For example, fintechs can use this method to register verified users and grant them access to their services during the onboarding process. The same goes for verifying and registering a new account on a crypto platform. In both cases, face authentication compares the customer’s live image to the reference image to ensure that they’re the legitimate account holder.