Does AI, biometrics hold the key to better "Know Your Customer" (KYC)?

With so much reliance on digital payments and other financial technology (fintech), going through some form of purportedly secure, digital verification process (often referred to as'know your customer', or KYC, processes) is often par for the course these days. But with pervasive cyber threats like data breaches and identity theft delivering blows to what the end-user hopes is an un-breach-able system, "taking a single selfie just isn't enough to ensure your customer's identity [anymore]," laments Philipp Pointner, chief product officer at digital security specialist Jumio. "It leaves banks and financial institutions vulnerable to spoofing attacks as a fraudster can easily find a picture of someone else online and pass that off as genuine." "But using solutions that employ biometrics, and specifically 3D face maps and certified liveness detection, ensures the [people] behind a transaction [are] who they say they are," Pointner recently told PYMNTS. Biometrics – working in concert with a combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to scan, analyze and then to create what could be a varied biometric identity database capable of verifying and storing fingerprints, facial features, even voice and device data – could allow for not only tougher, more meticulous identity security, but also a deeper understanding of a financial institute's customer profile – giving banks and other fintech a truer way to "know your customer".