Asia United Bank (AUB) recently became the first Philippine bank to integrate with the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) eVerify system to authenticate a person’s registration with the National ID System.

“With this, all you need to open a Hello Money account is to show your face,” said AUB Chief Compliance Officer Claire dela Rosa in a panel discussion on “National ID Success in Ease of Doing Business” at the PSA’s 3rd Philippine Identity Summit held Sept. 16 in Quezon City.

After receiving its PSA accreditation as a “Relying Party” on January 31, 2024 and becoming the first local bank to receive a security token from the PSA last July 30, 2024, AUB has been using the eVerify system for its electronic Know Your Customer (KYC) customer identity verification.

This means the bank no longer requires customers to present a physical identification card when opening an account on its ewallet Hello Money as eVerify features advanced facial recognition technology for real-time matching of an individual’s face, among other registered information, with the National ID registry. It also has a feature called the National ID Check to verify the authenticity of any format of the National ID, including the Digital National ID.

“AUB knows from the start the significance of the eVerify system as the most effective way to check a customer’s identity when opening an account. It’s a game changer — it will change how banking transactions are done,” said Ms. Dela Rosa.

After Hello Money, AUB also plans to integrate eVerify with its branch banking service. This means when a potential customer already registered with the PSA’s National ID system opens a new account with AUB, they will no longer be required to present two valid IDs and fill out forms, explained Dela Rosa.

“Your face is your ID. So you just need to look at the camera on the iPad in our branch for facial recognition and have a liveness test.”

She also envisioned that the eVerify system can be used as well for over-the-counter cash withdrawals, doing away with signatures as proof of authorization or a one-time password for mobile banking transactions.

In addition, eVerify also helps banks prevent identity fraud using the“your face as your identity” technology. Even with the proliferation of deepfakes (computer-created artificial videos),security is ensured as “the safekeeping of client data remains the responsibility of the bank.What we as financial institutionsget from the PSA are the e-verification and e-KYC information presented during the National ID registration.Your identity cannot get verified if you do not have the correct biometrics and you did not go through the liveness test. It’s the best security measure the Philippines have so far,” Dela Rosa said.