of customers verified within five minutes
of customers auto-approved with Onfido
The challenge
DBS Bank is a leader in digital banking, and the seventh largest bank in Hong Kong. Over the past decade they’ve reimagined banking for millions, creating an integrated financial ecosystem for customers. With Card+, they’re empowering customers to access banking services through a single app.
DBS want to stand out in a market where everyone is promising instant banking. “We want our product to really deliver on those marketing claims”, says Eric Suen, VP Technology at DBS; “we want to give customers a quick set-up and powerful credit”. For Eric, powerful credit starts with powerful onboarding.
DBS needed to balance frictionless sign-up with KYC & AML needs. This is essential as Card+ is app-first, making it more difficult to establish that someone signing up is who they say they are. Failing to perform adequate checks would put DBS at regulatory and fraud risk. However, putting too many checks in place would harm sign-up conversion rates.
DBS originally approached the challenge of verifying their customers with a global document verification provider. While it gave them confidence in their fraud and compliance needs, too many genuine customers were falsely rejected at sign-up due to poor accuracy and a high-friction UX, costing DBS future revenue-generating customers. DBS set out to redesign their Card+ onboarding from the ground up with Onfido's identity verification.
The solution
DBS partnered with Onfido to power smoother sign-up, building Onfido’s document verification and video verification into their onboarding. New Card+ customers verify themselves by taking a picture of their government- issued ID and submitting a video selfie using their smartphone. DBS had two requirements during their vendor selection: robust fraud accuracy, and a seamless UX. Onfido’s accuracy was best-in class, especially for the local Hong Kong IDs. Plus, Onfido’s Smart Capture SDKs gave DBS confidence that they could create a delightful UX, with features such as guided capture feedback and portrait orientation for document submission.
Eric Suen, Vice President, Technology, DBS
The results
DBS’ number one priority is to provide every customer with a quick set-up and powerful credit. With Onfido, they’re making first impressions count.
Fighting fraud, delighting users. Striking the delicate balance between fraud risk and UX is key for DBS. 96% of customers are verified within 5 minutes with Onfido, giving genuine customers a seamless experience without compromising on fraud prevention. DBS also took a novel approach to their customer journey, implementing Onfido’s SDK at the start of the sign-up process — by the time customers finish the their Card+ application, for example choosing their preferred card, Onfido has verified them.
Empowering DBS to scale. Powered by an AI-driven approach to verifying customers, the DBS team is set up for success at scale. 98% of customers are auto-approved with Onfido — with DBS receiving either a ‘clear’ or ‘consider’ response — enabling straight-through processing. This means that DBS can focus their manual efforts for customers that really need help, driving down response times and cost per acquisition.
Compliance with confidence. DBS is more confident in their KYC & AML compliance. Internally they’re able to review each application, with a full audit log. Externally, the DBS team is better equipped to demonstrate their processes to regulators; for Eric, “we feel that strong AI-driven, human-assisted approaches like Onfido’s are well received by our local regulator.”
What next for DBS? They’re continuing to expand Card+, delivering powerful credit to their customers. With Onfido’s upcoming improvements to biometric verification, they’re excited that we’re continuing to push the envelope on fraud and UX.
About DBS
DBS is a leader in digital banking. They’re present in several markets including Hong Kong, Singapore, India, Indonesia, Taiwan, and China. They provide a full range of banking services — from banking through to credit and investing — across personal and business customers.
