Verify: Automate how you confirm customer bank account ownership

When Volt launched in 2019, we focussed our efforts on the payment initiation services (PIS) side of open banking. Today, with the launch of Verify, we’re expanding into account information services (AIS).

This is significant because we now offer a full suite of open banking products. It’s what our merchant customers asked for, and we’re happy to say that we’ve delivered.

Lightning-fast account ownership verification

What will Verify help them achieve? Well, its core functionality is authenticating customer bank account ownership – at lightning-fast speed.

If you’re a gaming merchant, for example, Verify enables you to confirm that a customer is who they say they are, and that the account they want to use for deposits and payouts belongs to them.

A simple four-step process

The Verify user flow, which has just four steps, takes a matter of seconds to complete. Here’s how it works:

1. The customer chooses Volt at the checkout and selects their bank
2. They give Volt permission to access their account data
3. They authorise access via online banking or the bank’s app
4. Businesses access this encrypted data via webhook notifications

What data does Verify fetch?

Verify’s fetched data falls into two camps: bank data (IBAN, sort code and account number, though this is dependent on region), and identification data (the account holder’s full name only; it doesn’t fetch their date of birth or address).

All data is fetched with compliance and security firmly in mind – something that’s made clear to users from the outset. In addition to encryption – and giving merchants the ability to configure data scopes according to regulatory rules – Verify adheres to GDPR.

Why is Verify needed?

It’s worth explaining why the emergence of an AIS product like Verify is long overdue.

Its raison d’être is that it automates and strengthens account ownership verification. Historically, merchants have relied on penny tests (which involve customers confirming the amounts of micro deposits – a process that can take up to three days), and occasionally dealing with unstructured identification data like passports or driving licences (which have to be verified manually. Both act as additional, unwelcome steps for customers, which is why so many drop off).

Use cases beyond gaming

We’ve touched briefly on gaming as an example Verify use case, particularly as, in some countries, it’s necessary to validate a customer’s account number before initiating a payout. This also applies to e-commerce in regard to refunds.

Beyond specific verticals, Verify has huge potential for Direct Debit mandates – ensuring that future payments go through seamlessly, and with a higher probability of success – and user profiles. By incorporating account information, merchants can take advantage of faster payment and finance management processes.

From today, Verify can be used by merchants in the UK, Ireland, France, the Netherlands, Germany and Austria. We’ll soon be making it available in Italy and Spain, too. Think it might benefit your business? We’d love to show you a live demo – all you need to do is get touch.