Join Nacha and Modern Treasury for a conversation on standardizing payments information.Watch Now →

Learn

What is an Identity Verification API?

Welcome to Learn, where we provide straightforward, easy-to-understand definitions of the payments industry.

Follow us

Identity Verification APIs allow businesses to streamline the process of checking the identities of new users by automatically, and in some cases instantly, verifying their provided identifying information.

A good identity verification API should allow you to embed the identity verification process into your onboarding flows and processes, enabling easy ID and bank account verification, criminal database checks, and more directly into your product. Using an identity verification API can help prevent fraud and increase the safety of your business, by ensuring that the users signing up for your platform are indeed who they claim to be.

Identity verification APIs can be used across a wide variety of industries, including finance and banking, healthcare, and education, among others. With an identity verification API businesses can:

  • Capture IDs and extract ID information, including driver’s licenses, passports, etc.
  • Verify authenticity for the information captured from those IDs
  • Match selfies and photos to IDs
  • Validate Social Security numbers (SSNs) and Tax Identification numbers (TINs)
  • Verify phone numbers
  • Use utility, government, and bank login portals to verify an identity
  • Pull credit reports and other banking and financial information


Businesses can use a service like Plaid, for example, to help verify new user identities. When using Modern Treasury, businesses can take advantage of our partnership with Plaid to easily and quickly verify new users and their relevant banking information. Learn more about our partnership with Plaid here.

Try Modern Treasury

See how smooth payment operations can be.

Talk to sales
More from

Learn

Learn topic image

Compliance is a crucial function for any company that moves money on behalf of their customers. Dive into the fundamentals behind key compliance processes like KYC, KYB, transaction monitoring, and more.

Compliance risk management (CRM) is the ongoing process of identifying, assessing, and mitigating potential risks that threaten an organization’s business.

Read more

Customer due diligence (CDD) is a process used at financial institutions (FIs) when working with potential new customers.

Read more

The Customer Identification Program (CIP), part of the Know Your Customer program guidelines, requires that financial institutions in the U.S. verify that customers (both individuals and businesses) are who they say they are when they open new accounts for themselves or other people.

Read more

FinCEN, short for Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, is a government bureau that aims to prevent money laundering and other financial crimes—and punish bad actors that commit them.

Read more

Know Your Business (KYB) is a set of verification procedures that helps companies avoid getting into business with criminals.

Read more

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is a federal agency that "charters, regulates, and supervises" all national banks.

Read more

According to the Department of Labor (DOL), Personal Identifiable Information (PII) is any information from which a person’s identity can be either directly or indirectly inferred.

Read more

A Politically Exposed Person (PEP) is someone that might be more likely to break the law or be corrupt because of the power their position affords them.

Read more

Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) are individuals and entities tied to countries that the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has hit with sanctions.

Read more

A Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) is a report that a bank or other financial institution must file if it suspects that a customer might be breaking the law and committing fraud, financing terrorism, or laundering money.

Read more

Anti-money laundering (or AML) compliance entails a careful adherence to rules and regulations aimed at combating illicit financial activities.

Read more

Know Your Customer or Know Your Client (KYC) is a set of guidelines for verifying the identity of a customer and gauging the associated risk of working with them.

Read more

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is a financial intelligence and enforcement agency under the jurisdiction of the US Treasury Department.

Read more

PCI DSS certification means your business has met the requirements laid out in the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) to secure payment card data.

Read more

Service Organization Control 2 (SOC 2) is a voluntary auditing procedure that service providers complete to keep their clients’ data secure from cyber attacks.

Read more

Section 314(a) is part of the USA Patriot Act that enables financial institutions (FIs) and law enforcement to work together to fight money laundering and terrorist activity.

Read more

Section 314(b) and Section 314(a) of the USA Patriot Act both relate to information requests under the Banking Secrecy Act (BSA).

Read more

A currency transaction report (CTR) is a report made by U.S. financial institutions aiming to prevent money laundering.

Read more

An Agent of the Payee is a person, entity, or other intermediary specifically appointed by a payee to process and collect payments on their behalf.

Read more

Identity Verification APIs allow businesses to streamline the process of checking the identities of new users by automatically, and in some cases instantly, verifying their provided identifying information.

Read more

The Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)—also known as the Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting Act—is a piece of legislation designed to help prevent fraud.

Read more

The Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA) is a federal law in the U.S. that regulates electronic transactions to protect consumers.

Read more

Subscribe to Journal updates

Discover product features and get primers on the payments industry.

Subscribe

Products

Platform

Modern Treasury For

Case Studies

Insights

Documentation

Company

Legal


Popular Integrations

© Modern Treasury Corp.