Turkey Mandates NFC-based Identity Verification for Customer Onboarding

Turkey’s regulatory body, Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BRSA) has issued new regulations that require the banks to onboard customers through video-based digital onboarding and require them to verify their customers’ identity through the NFC technology. The customers are to present NFC-enabled document so that NFC technology is able to verify their authenticity. 

The criteria defined by these regulations require banks to onboard customers through video KYC. This process of video identification consists of a live video call between the bank and their customer. The trained employee of the bank guides the end-user through the verification process. The end-user is asked to display their ID document in the camera and the human KYC expert authenticates the NFC-enabled ID document through near field communication technology. 

According to a clause in the regulation, “verification of the identity information on the chip of the identity document using near field communication means that the necessary match is achieved to determine the identity of the person from the identity document”.

As per the regulations, the NFC-based ID verifications will only be applicable if the identity document used by the end-user is provided by the government authorised body. The information stored on the NFC-based contactless chip embedded in the ID document must not be altered and no duplicate or copy of the NFC-based contactless chip is created. 

Turkey mandates use of #NFC identity checks for remote bank account opening #idverification #fintech #digitalbanking https://t.co/hLVF7KUzym

— Patti Hewitt (@PaymentGal) April 8, 2021

During the video-based identification interview, the end-user is also required to ensure their physical presence. This is done either by asking the end-user to perform minor facial moments or by sending a one-time password on SMS or email to the end-user.