Erste Bank Introduces Video-Based Identification of New Customers

Erste Bank und Sparkassen is making video-based online identification, which has only just been approved by the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) on 3 January 2017, available to the banking group’s new customers with immediate effect. With the aid of IDnow Video-Ident solution, persons taking part in the new client onboarding process can choose to identify themselves directly via video chat, thus saving themselves the time and effort involved in visiting a branch office for this purpose. This new solution makes opening a current account faster and simpler than ever – it can now be done via a computer, as well as via mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets. In order to complete the identification process in a few minutes via video chat, all one needs is a government-issued photo ID. A special feature for Austrian citizens is that in addition to passports and national identity cards, they can also use their driver’s licenses for video identification.