Currently, Onfido provides identity verification services for over 1,500 clients globally. It’s quick and easy - customers just take a photo of their identity document and then a selfie or video and we use a combination of AI and Machine Learning plus human experts to perform checks including facial similarity and fraud checks. But we want to aim higher. We see identity as the key to access and believe that our role is to create an open world where everyone can quickly and simply prove their legal identity online to access any product or service they want to. Onfido believes the future is portable (re-usable) identity - this would be much better for customers who don’t have to continuously re-verify themselves every time they want to access new online services, and better for businesses who currently spend a lot of time and money on compliance costs. It’s also empowering - in our pilot the customer has control of their identity data and can permission it from any smartphone. Plus it holds the potential. to boost the UK’s tech ecosystems through enabling customer onboarding at scale, without compromising on privacy or security, which means faster fintech growth, more jobs and improved tax receipts for the government. Finally, this solution has the potential to improve access and inclusion in financial services which is hugely important.

We are thrilled that Monese, Seedrs, Curve and B-Social are leading the way on demonstrating the need for this kind of progressive, customer-centric and privacy-first solution. By participating in the sandbox pilot, we hope to show policy makers and regulators that fixing identity is critical to the UK and to global society, that the tech is ready, and that the time is now.

The FCA is the UK financial services regulator, an organization that was set up to protect the financial markets and promote innovation in the interest of consumers - it’s widely acknowledged as one of the most progressive regulators world-wide. Its sandbox gives companies the opportunity to test innovative propositions in the market with real consumers and in the case of GFIN, across regulatory geographic borders.