The Lloyds Banking Group which comprises of Lloyds Bank,Halifax and Bank of Scotland has announced a new service for customers toupload photos of identification documents for online account opening withouthaving to visit a bank branch.
According to the Group, the new electronic identificationand verification checks will start to be deployed to customers next week butthe service will initially be limited to customers looking to add an additionalparty to an existing account. Furthermore, the service will provide real timefeedback as to the readability and suitability of documentation and will get abroader deployment this summer.
Miguel-Ángel Rodríguez-Sola, Group Director of Digital said,“The industry wide Current Account Switch Service has already demonstrated apositive effect on switching in UK banking, and we believe this use of digitalelectronic identification technology can have an additional beneficial impact.Hundreds of thousands of customers will receive a smoother, speedier and moreconvenient experience in opening their accounts with us using the new service.”
While the service’s initial limitations might result is slowuse, it highlights that the Lloyds Banking Group is committed to improving theaccount opening process and follows Barclays Bank which last month announcedthat it would enable mortgage brokers to take photos of paperwork for immediateupload to customer case files.
Overview by Tristan Hugo-Webb, Associate Director, Global Payments for Mercator Advisory Group
Read full story in Finextra
