Banking, FinTech & Digital Assets
Remote KYC, returning-user verification, new-device enrolment and biometric account recovery.
The challenge
Remote account opening and account recovery are the two moments where a financial institution or digital-asset platform has the least certainty about who is actually on the other side of the session. Document-only checks and knowledge-based questions can be satisfied with stolen, purchased or synthesised material, and every additional manual review step reduces conversion and slows onboarding.
Digital-asset platforms carry an added complication: once assets move, there is often no reversal path, so a weak recovery flow is a direct route to irreversible loss. Providers such as ZenGo have had to combine document verification with a biometric check that confirms the person recovering an account is the same person who enrolled it, without reintroducing passwords or seed phrases as a fallback that undermines the whole model.
Key use cases
Remote identity verification (KYC)
New customers capture an identity document and a 3D face scan during onboarding. The system checks the document, confirms a live person is present, and binds the resulting biometric to the verified identity, giving compliance teams an auditable record of who was verified at account opening.
Biometric account recovery
Where a customer loses a device or forgets credentials, recovery is completed with a face scan matched against the biometric captured at enrolment, rather than knowledge-based questions or a support-desk identity check that can be socially engineered.
New-device and returning-user verification
When a login or high-value action originates from an unrecognised device, the session steps up to a liveness and face-match check against the enrolled identity before proceeding, reducing reliance on device trust or SMS codes alone.
Step-up verification for high-value transactions
Sensitive actions such as large transfers, withdrawal address changes or key recovery can require a fresh 3D liveness and match check at the moment of the action, adding friction only where the risk justifies it.
Core capabilities
3D liveness detection
Confirms a real, present person is completing the session rather than a photo, video or mask, using standard device cameras.
3D face matching
Matches the live capture against a previously enrolled biometric or a document portrait with a defined confidence threshold.
Document and ID scan with face binding
Captures and validates an identity document, then binds the extracted portrait to the live face for onboarding checks.
Cross-platform capture
Consistent enrolment and verification flows across web, iOS and Android without dedicated hardware.
Recovery from a new device
A customer who has lost their phone tries to regain access to their digital-asset wallet from a new device. Rather than routing the request to a call centre for knowledge-based questions, the app asks for a short face scan. The system checks liveness, confirms the person is physically present, and matches the capture against the biometric recorded at onboarding. A confident match restores access without a password or seed phrase ever being needed; a failed or low-confidence result routes to a reviewed manual path instead of being waved through.
- 1Customer initiates recovery on a new device
- 23D liveness and face-match check against enrolment biometric
- 3Confident match restores access; low-confidence results escalate to review
Expected outcomes
- Recovery and onboarding flows that do not depend on passwords, seed phrases or knowledge-based questions
- A consistent, auditable record linking each verified session to the original enrolment
- Fewer manual review escalations for legitimate returning customers
- A recovery path suited to irreversible digital-asset transfers, where a wrong decision cannot be undone
How CyberLane helps
CyberLane advises financial services and digital-asset firms on where biometric verification and recovery genuinely reduce fraud risk versus where they simply relocate it, working through onboarding, step-up authentication and recovery workflows before any vendor is selected. We help define the business case, the confidence thresholds and manual-review fallbacks, and plan a proof of concept against real onboarding and recovery journeys, coordinating delivery with FaceTec or a qualified implementation partner rather than building the integration ourselves.
- Onboarding and recovery workflow design covering biometric, document and fallback paths
- Risk-based business case for biometric verification against existing KYC and recovery costs
- Proof-of-concept plan with defined confidence thresholds and review criteria
- Independent oversight of the implementation partner during integration
CyberLane is independent and works on the decision rather than the deployment. Product-specific delivery is coordinated with the vendor or a qualified implementation partner.
Official vendor sources
Capability descriptions are based on the vendor's published materials; CyberLane's wording is independently written.
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