In late 2013, global cash network ZipZap announced they’d be adding thousands of locations across the United Kingdom from which customers could buy bitcoin.
In total, there are about 28,000 locations in the country where customers can make this happen, but before they do so they must undergo a KYC (know your customer) and AML (anti-money laundering) check to make sure they’re not known criminals or using bitcoin to launder funds.
The merchants at this locations are responsible for collecting the customers’ National Insurance Numbers or Social Security Numbers to be verified, according to website I Have Bitcoins.
It’s become a reality not only in the bitcoin industry, but in the entire financial sector, and to say it’s a hindrance on customer experience is an understatement.
Now, ZipZap is partnering with IDology — the company which handles ZipZap’s AML/KYC checks in the USA — to carry out the same tasks in the UK.
“Extending our relationship with IDology to provide robust verification and fraud solutions in the UK not only allows us to comply with local KYC regulations, but also gives us a competitive advantage,” said Alan Safahi, CEO of ZipZap. “At ZipZap, we employ a ‘best of breed’ approach to ID verification and fraud. We do everything available to approve real customers with minimal friction and stop those attempting fraud. This helps us lower operating expenses and provide our customers with a positive experience.”
IDology is also excited about the partnership:
“We are very excited to be expanding our partnership with ZipZap into the United Kingdom,” said company CEO John Dancu. “Our end-to-end identity verification and fraud prevention platform not only helps ensure ZipZap is compliant with the various KYC requirements in the UK, but it also streamlines vital processes that protect against fraud. At IDology, our main goal is to provide innovation and leading solutions for identity verification and fraud that are easy to deploy and manage while also enabling our customers to drive revenue and prevent fraud at an effective cost on a worldwide basis.”
Given the current method of identity verification is cumbersome, the partnership to aims to make things a little less painful for the consumer.
For additional reading: I Have Bitcoins