Most consumers are aware that their financial institution holds all kind of information about them that is used to determine everything from interest rates to credit-worthiness.
But how could this data be used by small enterprises, and consumers themselves, for consumers’ own benefit? That was the question DirectID CEO James Varga asked about a decade ago. “I wanted to give consumers the ability to do more online, by taking the trusted data that they had in their bank account and using it to access additional services,” said Varga.
Since 2011, DirectID’s mission has been to enable businesses across the globe to effortlessly use bank data to grow their business, revolutionize their offerings, and, most importantly, better understand customers in order to improve the consumer experience. Specifically, DirectID builds products using bank data, which helps firms onboard their customers quickly, gain a fuller understanding of them, and make more informed decisions, faster. This insight also lowers operational costs for small enterprises.
For example, DirectID customer JustUs, a cutting edge peer-to-peer lending platform that helps credit-challenged consumers find responsible and affordable capital, has used DirectID’s platform to move away from traditional background credit checks. After partnering with DirectID, JustUs can now connect to an applicant’s online bank account – with their approval – to verify identity and review live bank statement transactions in just a few seconds. That means a faster decision time for in-need applicants and a higher certainty of repayment for lenders.
Security is one of DirectID’s chief concerns. Its security model is bank level, layered and protected by tokenized oAuth authentication and strong encryption. All transaction data is encrypted and access to customers’ bank information is read only.
The global move toward open banking already has enhanced DirectID’s ability to serve small businesses and consumer. Today DirectID operates in more than 50 countries with more than 13,000 banking connections.
And how does Open Banking help the very consumers Varga was thinking about 10 years ago? In a recent company blog post, DirectID said, “Open Banking has significant advantages in security, speed and convenience over existing technologies, and can be adapted for any sector including local businesses.”