Brokers are always looking to speed up the loan application process: whether that be through lender turnaround times, online submissions or digital document signing.
Digital ID verification and document signing has been one of the key process improvements that has come about during the pandemic, but in doing so, has also increased the potential for financial crimes.
Now, one start-up is launching a new product that could see that risk drastically reduced, as well as speeding the whole process up for brokers and their customers – especially welcome news at a time when brokers have been singled out as a weak sport in the fight against financial crime.
LiveSign have debuted a new system that can allow customers to verify their ID against government documents at the same time that they sign their documents, reducing the potential for fraud, mistakes and delays.
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“LiveSign is basically two products in one: it’s a document signing and an ID verification tool, in real time,” said Ian Hendey, CEO of lawstore.com.au, who created LiveSign.
“Currently in the market in most cases, you send a document like a mortgage off to be signed separately, and then the actual signing takes place and the ID is done at a different time.”
“Everyone is currently running a risk in today’s market because they don’t know that, when a document has been signed digitally, the person behind that signature is the same person who signed the document.”
“We saw a gap in the market and thought that we would bring those two processes together, so you can sign documents biometrically and link the person behind the device to that signature so that you’re securing the ID verification against government ID documents.”
“That way, you’re effectively having a witness behind the document because you know with certainty who signed them. That’s how we came up with the product of LiveSign.”
“It can be broken into component parts of signing identity, but its real differentiation to the market is bringing those two processes together and reducing that risk for brokers and lenders.”
The potential to reduce fraud is obvious, but with it comes the chance for brokers to reduce mistakes by having their customers immediately able to check their own information.
“We’ve tried to make the process seamless and guided for consumers,” said Hendey. “We’ve found in the market that a lot of customers are dropping out: there’s drop out rates of 30% when they try to do things like this digitally because the tech is clunky.”
“We’ve spent a lot of time focussing on making it a great experience for the customer and guiding them through the tech so that when they’re doing things digitally, it’s natural for them. We’ve found that the drop out rates with LiveSign are really low.”
“Previously, you would have so many variants of this. Customers would come in and see you, or you would send stuff via email, or the ID would be over FaceTime, and you’re not verifying the documents against government databases or against the electronic chip in the passport.”
“There’s a few things in here for brokers. For one, it’s almost set and forget. It gets sent out to the client, they can do it in their own time and they’re guided through it. It reduces rework and errors and saves them a lot of time, for both the broker and the customer.”
“Most importantly, it’s risk mitigation for the lender, the broker and the customer. In a digital world, with risks of cyber crime and identity theft going through the roof as everyone moves into doing everything digitally, you want to make sure you’ve got a safe process that works for the lender, customer and broker.”
“By doing the ID and the signing at the same time, it is one of the biggest risk mitigants for everyone.”
