Cashfree Payments equips merchants with Secure ID to combat identity theft and fraud

As India’s fintech sector leads the way in global adoption rates, it’s made access to financial services and digital payments simple, efficient and convenient for the masses. However, this widespread adoption is also mirrored by the rise of digital fraud in the country. Digital payment frauds have increased fivefold to an estimated 14.57 billion rupees in the fiscal year ending in March 2024, according to the Reserve Bank of India. Cybercrimes such as identity theft, fraud, and security risks pose a risk to consumers and businesses alike, and most importantly, if left unchecked, can erode public trust in the country’s digital public infrastructure. In 2022, Statista ranked India first worldwide (amongst researched countries) based on the high rates of identity theft cases, resulting in an estimated 27.2 million adult victims. Criminals, who use stolen or synthetic identification information to open new accounts, are looking for vulnerabilities to exploit in the onboarding processes of apps, websites and financial institutions. To combat the rise in such digital crime, fintech companies are at the right digital intersection, connecting businesses to consumers, to help build security and fraud prevention solutions.

In light of all these developments, Cashfree Payments has been working on creating solutions that help businesses mitigate risk, prevent fraud, and enable seamless identity verification. It launched Secure ID, an identity verification, risk & compliance stack with a comprehensive suite of APIs and KYC components, which enables fintechs and startups to build compliant onboarding flows in minutes, eliminating drop-offs and monitoring frauds accurately. This was designed specifically to assist merchants who struggle to manage regulatory compliance while focusing on their core business.

A journey forged through innovation

Secure ID is a culmination of Cashfree’s innovations in the regtech space. The company’s ethos and approach has always been to tackle real challenges head-on by building innovative, future-ready products that empower merchants to focus on their core operations.

What separates the organisation from its competitors is that it is willing to walk the walk - Secure ID was tested at scale for Cashfree’s own large merchant base. Cashfree Payments built a robust and seamless onboarding and fraud monitoring platform, leveraging the expertise it gained by onboarding over 8 lakh merchants. This deep understanding of the space has helped Cashfree empower merchants to access the highest level of security, compliance and seamlessness. This is not a partial solution to a fragmented problem. SecureID is ‘Service as Software' delivering outcomes, not just tools. Unlike traditional SaaS, it offers businesses a software to manage compliance. It delivers the compliance itself i.e., fully managed, always updated, and tuned for results.

With the launch of Secure ID, the company is revolutionising AI-driven fraud detection tools. The platform leverages AI and a data-driven risk-scoring model, which allows businesses to identify suspicious users early and prevent fraud while scaling effortlessly. 

Empowering businesses at every touchpoint

Today, merchants don’t need just a tool. They require a solution that can solve the holy trifecta of Compliance, High Conversions and Fraud prevention. They require a solution that ensures compliance without compromising UX and blocks bad-faith actors - all without distracting them from their primary business.

Fintechs and NBFCs, have to navigate a complex regulatory landscape and adapt their KYC processes accordingly, which can be complex. This is where Secure ID is uniquely positioned to help. Built on years of information and data across Cashfree Payment’s entire merchant network, Secure ID offers the insights and infrastructure to proactively mitigate risk and streamline compliance.

Secure ID equips businesses with secure and seamless tools that instil confidence at every touchpoint. Among the most extensive identity verification platforms available in the Indian market, it provides a wide range of capabilities to address the increasing complexity of regulatory and security requirements. 

Secure ID offers end-to-end user identity verification and risk profiling by bringing together all of Cashfree Payments verification solutions into a single, comprehensive onboarding and fraud monitoring platform. Real-time verification solutions and upto 99.9% uptime enable merchants to reduce customer drop-offs by up to 50%.

In a compliance-heavy environment, Secure ID helps businesses by providing compliance-first solutions to businesses, allowing them to shave off 75% of their operational costs. 

An agile and adaptive AI core

In a sea of onboarding and fraud prevention, Secure ID stands out with its intelligent use of AI and Large Language Models (LLMs). The integration of these powerful technologies makes the platform sophisticated and adaptive, perfect for an ever-evolving fraud landscape. Moreover, the platform’s agility allows businesses to scale, while remaining compliant with changing regulations.

Secure ID’s AI/ML features assist with tasks like identity verification and robust fraud detection capabilities through features like:

• BharatOCR - An AI Native Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for seamless document reading.
• Face Match - A Selfie Verification with liveness checks to ensure authenticity.
• RiskShield - Device Intelligence for tracking and identifying anomalies in user behaviour.
• Data-Driven Risk Scoring to make informed, real-time decisions.

 Customised and comprehensive solutions for businesses of all sizes

Secure ID is built to cater to companies of any and all sizes - from early-stage startups to established businesses that are looking to grow. Timely, robust, compliant, and safe, this no-code solution offers:

Customised onboarding: Businesses can swiftly go live with their KYC and onboarding without the need for coding. Secure ID’s onboarding journey orchestrator offers a simple drag-and-drop interface that creates customised onboarding journeys. A few simple clicks can help merchants design workflows seamlessly. This is essential for companies with little to no tech support or expertise.

Comprehensive user verification: Secure ID supports a wide array of compliant onboarding solutions, including document verification (Aadhaar, PAN, Voter ID, DL, Vehicle RC), AI-drive biometric verification (Face Match and Liveness Check), Single-point OCR solution, Location and Device Intelligence, and Comprehensive Bank Account Verification, including beneficiary name check and more.

Continuous fraud detection: A powerful AI-driven identity theft API suite offers multiple layers of verification like AI-based OCR, selfie verification with liveliness checks, transaction risk monitoring, and more that easily detect identity theft and fraud.

Raising the bar

Digital adoption has already surpassed the inflection point, accelerating at an unprecedented pace. As businesses scale, it is crucial to equip them with solutions that seamlessly manage compliance and risk, allowing them to focus on growth. In fact, solving these challenges entirely would further amplify digital expansion. While compliance and risk are necessary considerations, the burden shouldn’t rest on merchants. SecureID serves as a trusted partner, handling these complexities so businesses can concentrate on what truly matters—driving success.

With 150 crore verifications under its belt, Secure ID has prevented fraud worth over Rs 50 crore, and is trusted by brands like Kotak Life Insurance, Bajaj Finance, Tata AIG, Cred, BookMyForex, Meesho, Winzo, Dream11 and Acko General Insurance, proving its impact across industries.

Secure ID recorded a growth rate of 52% year on year. Additionally, the platform delivers 50% higher conversion rates, reduces operational costs by 75%, and minimises fraud losses by up to 70%. It can process over 10 crore verifications monthly while maintaining an exceptional success rate of >99% and 100% uptime. Data aggregators such as banks, account aggregators, and more, find Secure ID effortless to integrate. It provides unmatched reliability by identifying suspicious activities, anomalies, and patterns indicative of fraudulent behaviour.

With the launch of Secure ID, Cashfree Payments has raised the standard of digital identity verification,fraud prevention and compliance. These days businesses are on edge, waiting for the next data breach or attack. Thankfully, Cashfree - a regulated entity - offers strong, compliant processes to mitigate fraud. The organisation’s commitment to delivering advanced and compliant technologies makes Secure ID a safe and agile platform that keeps businesses competitive and their transactions safe.