The what, why and how of ID verification for eSignatures

How do you know your signers are who they say they are? As instances of cyber-related fraud continue to pick up the pace, you have every right to be wary. In fact, a little extra caution is good business practice. 

Think about it. Every agreement is based on identity and intent. And, while sending a link to the signer’s email address is enough to prove identity for many standard documents, certain types of high-value or highly-sensitive agreements demand more scrutiny. Sometimes, the law demands it, too, when rules like Know Your Customer (KYC) come into play. 

In fact, 91% of businesses are planning to increase their investment in ID verification in the next one to three years.

The good news? Confirming the identity of people signing your agreements and contracts is easy — and it doesn’t have to detract from the signing experience. You can still keep everything digital, user-friendly, compliant, and enforceable.

It’s all possible through Docusign Identify

Docusign Identify is our family of enhanced identity verification and authentication products. They’re built to solve the business problem of automating identity verification while maintaining a secure, simple and user-friendly experience that’s a step above simply asking the signer to confirm their email address. 

It’s designed to make identity proofing and authentication a seamless part of eSignature — so you can protect your important agreements and your customer experience.

There are a few different ways you can verify a signer’s identity using Docusign Identify:

1. ID verification. Here, signers can digitally verify themselves — on any device, anywhere — as part of a secure, intuitive, mobile-first signing process. All they need to do is upload a government-issued ID like a driver’s licence or the Australia Post Digital iD solution. Then, our in-built AI verifies the ID for you.

   You can also apply biometric checks such as AI-enabled liveness detection to video selfies and help confirm signers are real, IDs are authentic and that faces match ID photos. 

2. SMS or phone authentication. Here, signers receive a One-Time Password (OTP) by SMS or phone call. To confirm their identity, they then simply enter the code sent to their device, using their keyboard. Only once they have successfully passed the authentication challenge, can they access and review their documents as usual. 

Both techniques only take a minute or so, and are easily integrated into the eSignature workflow. Your customers will appreciate the simplicity — there are no downloads or plugins required, just a trusted, mobile-first signing experience.

And, behind the scenes, Docusign Identify is fully secure and supports your compliance needs. All records are safely stored in the Certificate of Completion, which can come in handy for audit purposes. 

ID, check

From loan and lease agreements, to equipment financing or car sales, the opportunities to embed ID verification into the signing experience — and combat identity fraud — are endless. To see how easy it is to verify signer identities using Docusign Identify, get in touch.