Electronic Identity Verification (eIDV)

An eIDV check takes information supplied by the customer, such as a name, date of birth, address or an identity document image, and tests it against independent sources. Those may be credit bureaus, population registers, government identity schemes, mobile network records or a scan of the person's face compared with the photo on their document. Good systems also test whether the document is genuine and whether a live person is present, since stolen or forged identities are the main threat. Results are normally scored, and weak matches go to a human reviewer. The term overlaps with eKYC, which in some countries means verification through a national digital ID. The regulator decides which methods count as reliable enough. Firms use the score to decide who is approved instantly, who is queued for a person and who is turned away.

A digital lender lets applicants open an account from a phone. The applicant photographs a national ID and takes a short selfie video. The system reads the document, checks it against a government database and compares the face with the photo. One applicant's document passes but the face match is poor, so the case is sent to an analyst, who asks for a second proof of identity.