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Mastering Sri Lanka’s Identity Verification: A Merchant's Guide with Shufti

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Understanding the Challenges of Sri Lanka Identity Documents

This guide helps Sri Lankan merchants, institutions, and service providers understand identity verification challenges, emphasizing the importance of accurate verification in finance, telecommunications, and e-commerce. It stresses compliance with KYC and AML regulations to avoid penalties and loss of trust. Shufti’s advanced technology offers a solution with OCR, biometric verification, and document validation, handling Sinhala and Tamil scripts, complex diacritics, and Gregorian/Buddhist date conversions for accurate onsite and offsite verification.

1. Linguistic and Script Complexity

Libya’s official language, Arabic, presents significant challenges for Optical Character Recognition (OCR) due to its unique characteristics:

Sinhala Script

Sinhala, the primary language of approximately 75% of Sri Lankans, uses an abugida script with over 54 base letters and numerous diacritical marks. This complexity poses challenges for OCR technology. For instance, letters such as "අ" (A) and "ආ" (AA) can appear similar but represent different sounds. Many Sinhala letters look alike, and subtle variations in diacritics can alter meanings, demanding high precision in OCR processing. Sinhala often lacks spaces between words, so Shufti’s OCR system uses AI to understand context and identify word boundaries

Tamil Script

Tamil, spoken by about 18% of Sri Lankans, has 12 vowels, 18 consonants, and 247 combinatory characters. The complexity of Tamil ligatures and multi-script documents adds to the OCR challenge. Tamil script features many ligatures formed by combining characters. Shufti’s OCR system uses sophisticated algorithms to detect and accurately separate these characters.

2. Diacritics in Sinhala and Tamil

Diacritics modify the pronunciation and meaning of letters. For instance, in Sinhala, "ක" (ka) can become "කි" (ki) with a diacritical mark. Tamil diacritics also change consonant sounds. Shufti’s OCR technology is adept at recognizing and differentiating diacritics, using NLP techniques to ensure accurate character recognition.

3. Continuous Text Without Spaces

Both Sinhala and Tamil often use continuous text without spaces, complicating word separation for OCR systems. Shufti’s solution employs AI to segment continuous text based on linguistic rules, ensuring accurate extraction of critical information.

4. Date Formats and Calendars

Gregorian Calendar: Sri Lankan documents, such as the National Identity Card and driver's license, use the Day-Month-Year format (e.g., 25-12-2020). Shufti’s OCR technology must handle various date formats within documents.

Buddhist Era Calendar: The Buddhist Era, used in some Sri Lankan documents, is 543 years ahead of the Gregorian calendar. For example, 2023 Gregorian corresponds to the 2566 Buddhist Era. Shufti’s system automatically converts Buddhist Era dates to the Gregorian format for consistency.

A Merchant’s Guide to Identity Verification in Sri Lanka

In Sri Lanka, identity verification is governed by various regulations, with the key focus being on the Data Protection Act and (KYC) guidelines. These regulations outline how businesses must handle and process personal data during identity verification to protect individuals' privacy and prevent misuse. Merchants and service providers must ensure compliance with KYC and AML regulations to prevent fraud, money laundering, and other illegal activities. Non-compliance can result in severe penalties, including hefty fines and reputational damage. Shufti offers two Verification Modes: Onsite Verification Mode and Offsite Verification Mode - these modes allow merchants to choose the best approach based on their specific use cases and requirements.

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1. Verification Modes

Onsite Verification

The onsite verification process by Shufti offers an intuitive and direct interaction for end users through the sophisticated iFrame/Verify component. This user-centric approach enables individuals to seamlessly submit the required verification proofs, such as ID documents etc., while receiving real-time guidance to navigate the verification process effortlessly. Upon completion, the verification results are made readily available to clients through the comprehensive Back Office portal or can be conveniently delivered via an API response, providing flexible and efficient access to vital information.

Offsite Verification

The offsite verification process by Shufti is characterized by its efficient and straightforward approach. In this, clients are responsible for gathering the necessary verification proofs/data from end users. This process streamlines the collection of essential data, enabling clients to submit it directly to Shufti effortlessly for verification. The verification results are conveniently accessible either via the comprehensive Back Office portal or can be readily retrieved through an API response. This flexibility ensures clients have efficient access to critical information.

3. Document Type Preference
and Performance

Different types of Sri Lanka identity documents yield varying success rates in verification:

ID Card

The robust security features and clear design of the Sri Lankan Smart ID card enhance Shufti's ability to deliver accurate and reliable verification, outperforming other systems.

Extraction Parameters: Name, date of birth, issue date, document number, expiry date, gender, nationality

Driver's License

A Sri Lankan driver's license is well-suited for KYC due to its comprehensive data and security features. Shufti's OCR technology guarantees high accuracy and conversion rates by effectively processing its diverse formats.

Extraction Parameters: Name, date of birth, issue date, document number, expiry date, face image, vehicle class

Passport

Shufti's advanced OCR systems are optimized to accurately capture and verify intricate details on the Sri Lankan passport, overcoming challenges posed by holograms and microtext for swift processing.

Extraction Parameters: Name, date of birth, issue date, document number, expiry date, gender, nationality, gender, place of issue, MRZ

4. Preferred Document for Identity Verification

At Shufti, we acknowledge the national ID card, passport, and driver's license as the preferred documents for identity verification in Sri Lanka. The national ID card stands out as the top choice due to its advanced security features and standardized format, while the Passport serves as an excellent alternative for international verification. The driver's license is also a viable option for individuals who do not possess a NIC. Our advanced OCR technology is optimized to accommodate the unique characteristics of these documents, ensuring quick and accurate data extraction for secure identity verification.

Verification Settings

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Click on a country to see the unique requirements that must be addressed.

Brazil

Mastering Brazilian Identity Verification: A Merchant's Guide with Shufti

Effective identity verification in Brazil requires a deep understanding of the distinct features and challenges of Brazilian identity documents. Merchants must navigate different formats, languages, and security features to ensure reliable verification. This guide provides a comprehensive overview of Brazil's identity documents and the best practices for merchants engaging in identity verification.

Read Brazil’s Merchant Guide Book

Libya

Mastering Libyan Identity Verification: A Merchant's Guide with Shufti

Verifying identity documents in Libya presents unique challenges due to the country’s complex linguistic, social, and administrative structures. Implementing effective identity verification systems requires advanced technology to handle these specific hurdles. This guide explores the key challenges associated with verifying Libyan identity documents and how Shufti can help merchants overcome them.

Read Libyan’s Merchant Guide Book

Nigeria

Mastering Nigerian Identity Verification: A Merchant's Guide with Shufti

Nigeria’s identity verification systems are fraught with numerous complexities, arising from a combination of socio-cultural, infrastructural, and technological factors. As the country transitions towards digital identity solutions, recognizing and addressing these challenges is crucial for ensuring secure, accurate, and inclusive verification processes. Shufti’s OCR and verification technology is specifically designed to address these challenges and provide accurate, efficient, and reliable identity verification solutions.

Read Nigeria’s Merchant Guide Book

Mastering Indian Identity Verification: A Merchant's Guide with Shufti

Effective identity verification in India requires a comprehensive approach due to the distinct characteristics and complexities of Indian identity documents. Shufti’s OCR and verification technology is specifically designed to address these challenges and provide accurate, efficient, and reliable identity verification solutions.

Read Indian’s Merchant Guide Book

India

Ethiopia

Mastering Ethiopian Identity Verification: A Merchant's Guide with Shufti

Effective identity verification in Ethiopia requires a comprehensive approach due to the distinct characteristics and complexities of Ethiopian identity documents. Shufti’s OCR and verification technology is specifically designed to address these challenges and provide accurate, efficient, and reliable identity verification solutions.

Read Ethiopian’s Merchant Guide Book

South Africa

Mastering South African Identity Verification: A Merchant's Guide with Shufti

Effective identity verification in South Africa requires a deep understanding of the distinct features and challenges of South African identity documents. Shufti’s OCR and identity verification technology is optimized to handle these complexities:

Read South African’s Merchant
Guide Book

Mastering Burmese Identity Verification: A Merchant's Guide with Shufti

Effective identity verification in Myanmar requires a thorough understanding of the unique characteristics of Burmese identity documents. Shufti’s OCR and identity verification systems are designed to address these challenges, ensuring high accuracy and compliance.

Read Burmese’s Merchant Guide Book

Myanmar

Mastering Cambodian Identity Verification: A Merchant's Guide with Shufti

Effective identity verification in Cambodia requires a comprehensive approach due to the distinct characteristics and complexities of Cambodian identity documents. Shufti’s OCR and verification technology is specifically designed to address these challenges and provide accurate, efficient, and reliable identity verification solutions.

Read Cambodia’s Merchant
Guide Book

Cambodia

Mastering Sri Lankan Identity Verification: A Merchant's Guide with Shufti

Read Sri Lankan’s Merchant
Guide Book

SriLanka

Mastering Japanese Identity Verification: A Merchant's Guide with Shufti

Effective identity verification in Japan requires a comprehensive approach due to the distinct characteristics and complexities of Japanese identity documents. Shufti’s OCR and verification technology is specifically designed to address these challenges and provide accurate, efficient, and reliable identity verification solutions.

Read Japanese’s Merchant
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