Face recognition for KYC: robust, secure, and ethical
An innovation just a decade ago, face recognition is now vital for Know Your Customer (KYC). Companies use it to prevent identity theft, ensure unparalleled security, and personalize customer experience.
But even the greatest of ideas demand perfect implementation. That's where Vention's computer vision expertise steps in.
Face recognition for eKYC: Face the future of customer experience
There’s hardly an industry that hasn’t implemented KYC. Whether a customer is applying for a loan, registering a SIM card, claiming health insurance, or using PayPal, identity verification — or knowing your customer — is essential. This process is at the core of KYC.
KYC isn’t just a formality; it’s a regulatory requirement to prevent fraud, identity theft, money laundering, and other illegal activities.
Traditionally, KYC was a manual process relying on human judgment. However, with the advent of face recognition technology, identity verification has shifted to deep learning algorithms. These systems compare a person’s face with their submitted ID document to confirm their identity. Electronic KYC verification (eKYC) now takes just seconds and is highly effective at face verification, even detecting look-alikes — something that can be challenging for humans.
The adoption of face recognition technology in KYC has revolutionized customer service. Now, many services are accessible without visiting a company’s office. You can pay with your face instead of using plastic cards or access your accounts without entering passwords.
Face recognition technology shows stable market growth
The facial recognition market is projected to reach $4.94B by the end of 2024, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.34 percent from 2024 to 2030. This growth is expected to result in a market volume of $8.44B by 2030.
Globally, the United States holds the largest market share, with an estimated size of $1.3B by the end of 2024.
Facial recognition global market size (in billion USD)
2024
2025
2026
2027
2028
2029
2030
Source: Statista
What biometrics is the best for KYC verification?
Still uncertain if face recognition in KYC is your best fit? Check out our comparison table with other biometric identification technologies for the full scoop.
Face recognition vs. other biometric technologies
Definition
Face recognition
Fingerprint
Voice recognition
Accuracy
Definition
The system’s capability to correctly identify a person
Face recognition
Up to 99.97 percent
Fingerprint
98.6 percent for single-finger tests, 99.6 percent for two-finger tests, and 99.9 percent for tests involving four or more fingers
Voice recognition
99.6 percent success rate on an annual volume surpassing 20 million voice biometric verifications
Invasiveness
Definition
The probability that a customer experiences physical discomfort or feels their personal space is invaded
Face recognition
Low:
Contactless
Fingerprint
Medium:
In most cases, a customer needs to touch a scanner — unless a contactless scanner is used
Voice recognition
Low:
Contactless
Environmental sensitivity
Definition
The probability that external factors in the surrounding environment affect the system’s performance
Face recognition
Medium
Low or bright lighting may affect the images’ quality, and as a result — recognition accuracy
Fingerprint
Medium
High humidity may distort the fingerprints
Voice recognition
High
Background noise strongly affects recognition accuracy
Remote usability
Definition
User's ability to interact with the system remotely
Face recognition
High
Fingerprint
Medium
The majority of systems need a customer to touch a scanner
Voice recognition
High
Scalability
Definition
The system’s ability to cope with the growing number of users
Face recognition
High
Fingerprint
Medium
The system itself will cope well, though the number of needed scanners may become a bottleneck
Voice recognition
High
Main applications of face recognition in KYC
Automated identity verification
The system compares a person’s biometric data with submitted ID scans (during customer onboarding) or stored verified images to confirm the person is who they claim to be.
Fraud prevention
The system verifies the legitimacy of identities, blocks potential imposters, and detects fraudulent activities.
Access control
The system provides only authorized individuals access to physical or digital spaces.
Regulatory compliance
It ensures adherence to KYC requirements by automating the identity verification process.
Industry insights: How businesses can benefit from KYC face recognition
Financial institutions and fintech
- Convenient account opening and customer service with no need to visit a branch
- Loan application verification
- Secure access to accounts and mobile banking
- Access to ATMs for money withdrawal without a plastic card
- Payment authentication
- Secure verification of high-value operations and smart contracts
- Money mule detection
Face recognition technology is used by banking and financial institutions in 80 percent of countries.
Over 60 percent of fintech companies paid at least $250K in compliance fines in 2023, stemming from the lack of transaction monitoring, insufficient customer due diligence, and failure to report suspicious actions.
Juniper Research forecasts $3T in mobile biometric payments by 2025.
Healthcare
- Streamlined patient registration or check-in
- Legitimate telehealth consultations
- Fast processing of insurance claims
- Complete and accurate medical records, safe from the inclusion of other patients’ data
- Preventing insecure patient movements within healthcare facilities
Duplicate patient records account for nearly 2,000 preventable deaths and cost nearly $1.7B in malpractice costs each year.
A deep learning-based facial recognition system for patient identification showed accuracy rates of 99.7 percent and 90.8 percent for unmasked and masked certification, respectively.
Ecommerce and retail
- Secure access to shopping accounts and retail apps
- Loyalty program enrollment
- Payment authentication
- Identifying VIPs
- Personalized shopping experience, both online and offline
- Identifying suspicious activity and shoplifting attempts
In 2022, retail and ecommerce dominated the face recognition market with the highest revenue share of 21.4 percent.
Hospitality
- A check-in process in under a minute
- Easy and controllable access to hotel amenities like VIP lounges, pools, and SPAs
- Loyalty program enrollment
- Identifying VIPs
- Service personalization
- Video surveillance systems
Seventy-two percent of hotels are expected to deploy technology with facial recognition in the next four years.
Transportation and travel
- Automated border control
- Seamless and paperless boarding, check-in, and baggage drop at airports
- Loyalty program enrollment
- Identifying VIPs
- Ticket control at public transport
Twenty percent of countries use face recognition technology on some buses, 30 percent on trains or subways, and about 60 percent in some airports.
Education
- Simplified, error-free, and quick registration and enrollment
- Attendance tracking
- Exam proctoring
- Enhanced campus security
Facial technology is implemented in some schools in almost 20 percent of the countries. Countries with growing use of face recognition technology in schools include Canada, Australia, and the US.
How does facial recognition in eKYC systems work
Image capture
Face detection
Liveniness check
Image normalization
Feature extraction
Matching
Face verification
Security checks
Feedback and notification
Hear from our expert
Dzmitry Rusak
Software Engineer
Hear from our expert
"When designing and developing facial recognition solutions, we help ensure compliance with privacy regulations. If the solution can function without storing users’ photos, it won’t store them.
Instead, we can choose from several alternatives: processing images directly on the user’s device without transferring them to a central server or storing mathematical representations instead of photos.
If storing images is necessary, we set the minimum retention period, after which the photos are deleted from the database."
Find inspiration in major brands’ success stories
eBay: Reshaping retail by bringing peace of mind
As early as 2019, eBay pioneered among the largest ecommerce platforms by introducing biometrics (fingerprint or facial recognition, depending on what the device supports) as a primary authentication method. Their privacy policy notes using biometric data to detect and prevent fraud and comply with applicable anti-money laundering and sanctions screening obligations.
Dubai International Airport: Biometric path for check-in and digital onboarding
Dubai International Airport offers its guests a biometric path powered by facial recognition at the core for fast and convenient check-in, access to airport lounges, and boarding.
Mastercard: Promoting the convenience and security of biometrics
In 2022, Mastercard launched a pilot for face-based payments, which was a success — 76 percent of pilot participants said they would recommend the technology to a friend. In 2023, Mastercard announced bringing its Biometric Checkout Program to the Asia-Pacific region.
Vention: your ultimate partner in AI and face recognition
Facial recognition technology is promising yet challenging. The good news is that you don’t need to dive deep to harness its power.
Vention provides Fortune 500 enterprises and tech startups with access to top-tier engineering talent and data science capabilities, ensuring the delivery of custom facial recognition software on time and within budget while giving you engineering peace of mind.
Custom solution development
We don’t stop until we deliver a robust solution that correctly verifies your customers within seconds and boasts failproof security measures.
Deep expertise in AI and computer vision
Lacking specific face recognition, computer vision, and AI skills? We’re here to help you choose the best-fitting AI and ML algorithms to ensure the solution’s high verification accuracy and quick functioning. Our experts can also help you train the deep learning model and play with its hyperparameters to avoid CNN bias.
Integration capabilities & API development
We offer SDK and API development to seamlessly integrate face recognition products into IT environments — yours or your end customers’ infrastructures. This includes integration with data storage, payment gateways, and access management systems.
Advanced analytics and reporting
Looking to gain extra insights with facial recognition technology to deliver a personalized customer experience? Or maybe need a monitoring solution to prevent fraud? Our experts will set up the necessary analytics solutions and customize the reports to meet your needs.
Why Vention?
Years of experience
World-class software engineers
Industries we serve, including fintech, healthtech, and ecommerce
Award-winning clients
Robust security management practices recognized by ISO 27001 certification
Compliance with international regulations and security standards
Dedicated AI team
End-to-end services, including design, development, and quality assurance
Our cooperation models
Ideal for: Clients seeking strategic advice and expert help in shaping the solution’s architecture, addressing compliance and security issues, and evaluating data storage options.
Ideal for: Clients needing more specific talents on their projects. We can provide ML engineers, backend developers, data scientists, integration engineers, and other required roles, relieving your hiring headache.
Ideal for: Clients requiring a dedicated team with all necessary roles — from backend development to deep learning — focused solely on their project.
Ideal for: Clients looking for a reliable service provider to take full responsibility for the entire project, including planning, delivery within the agreed time, budget, and scope, team assembly and management, and ensuring the quality of the final solution.
Precise. Secure. Ethical.
That’s your face recognition solution with Vention.