iDenfy, a prominent player in the global RegTech landscape, has introduced Mobile-ID, a SIM card-based digital identity verification method, enhancing its suite of verification and fraud prevention solutions.
This new feature is seamlessly accessible to all iDenfy users via direct, no-code enablement on the identity verification dashboard. Mobile-ID caters specifically to the needs of Estonian and Lithuanian businesses, allowing user onboarding through credentials embedded in the SIM card, eliminating the need for uploading identity documents during the verification process.
Standard-Based Digital Identification
Mobile-ID, a SIM-based electronic ID (eID), is offered by mobile operators in Estonia and Lithuania, integrating approximately 3 million individuals across these markets, including 705,000 active users, reflecting a 21% adoption rate.
It functions as a standard-based solution, rated at eIDAS Level of Assurance (LoA) High, aligning with the assurance levels of national identity systems within the EU. This certification validates Mobile-ID's equivalent reliability to national identity systems, allowing users to access various e-services and sign documents legally equivalent to handwritten signatures.
SIM Card Verification Process
The SIM-card-based Mobile-ID uses a unique SIM card as an additional secure element during onboarding
Unlike application-based eID solutions, the SIM-card-based Mobile-ID uses a unique SIM card as an additional secure element during onboarding. It is frequently employed for electronic signing and as an authentication tool. Consequently, iDenfy's integration facilitates businesses in verifying users and automating access to Mobile-ID for digital signatures on any mobile device, without requiring additional applications or multiple APIs.
The authentication process for Mobile-ID involves a non-biometric, two-factor authentication system utilizing SIM-resident credential-based PINs, bypassing the need for facial biometrics. Users benefit from not needing to carry physical ID documents, leveraging their Mobile-ID connected to the phone SIM. This approach streamlines access to services, especially for remote document signing, frequent in online service provision where face-to-face interaction is unnecessary.
Insights on User Experience
Domantas Ciulde, CEO of iDenfy, noted the ease and familiarity Mobile-ID brings to users, particularly in Lithuania, reflecting on the country's local onboarding practices.
"We know how important a customized, native experience is. Given our history and the first HQ that we built and still have in Lithuania, we know firsthand why users like Mobile-ID and similar, country-specific onboarding options," Ciulde explained. This method reduces drop-off rates compared to workflows requiring photographic ID uploads, while KYC-compliant ID workflows remain available as alternatives.
iDenfy's solution ensures Mobile-ID's system cross-references the user's given name, family name, and nationality. Date of birth may be included depending on configuration or consent. This automated process provides businesses with authenticated identity attributes from the SIM card, avoiding manual document extraction and its potential image quality issues.
Integrating Mobile-ID and Smart-ID
The introduction of Mobile-ID follows iDenfy's expansion into the Smart-ID onboarding workflow
Businesses operating in Lithuania or Estonia are advised to enable Mobile-ID workflows. If users lack a Mobile-ID, alternative options such as the Smart-ID general authentication application, or a custom biometric check with document capture, are available.
"Businesses can use iDenfy to route users to a SIM-based identity verification path automatically when document capture is unavailable or fails due to image quality or lighting conditions," noted Ciulde. Given Estonia’s and Lithuania's advancements in digital ID infrastructures, failing to support these systems could exclude users dependent on SIM-based credentials.
The introduction of Mobile-ID follows iDenfy's expansion into the Smart-ID onboarding workflow, another mobile eID application utilized in Estonia and Latvia. This development positions iDenfy as a notable KYC provider with eIDAS-compliant workflows for both document-dependent and non-document-based onboarding, cost-effectively supporting businesses with varying integration needs. Mobile-ID is available to all iDenfy clients at no extra charge through the company's identity verification platform and dashboard.
iDenfy, a global RegTech company that provides identity verification and fraud prevention solutions, has integrated a new digital ID verification method, Mobile-ID, a SIM card-based non-document onboarding workflow.
It’s now available for all iDenfy users, with direct, no-code enablement using the ID verification dashboard. The new addition of Mobile-ID specifically targets Estonian and Lithuanian businesses that need to onboard their users through a credential embedded on the SIM card instead of asking the customer to upload their identity document during their verification journey.
Standard-based solution
Mobile-ID is a SIM-based eID provided by mobile operators in Estonia and Lithuania. It combines approximately 3 million people from the two markets, currently connecting 705,000 active users with a 21% adoption rate among the general population.
Currently, Mobile-ID is issued by a local mobile operator as a standard-based solution, which is ranked at eIDAS LoA High (Mobile-ID’s eIDAS High certification places it fully within that framework), putting it at the same level of assurance as the nationally issued national identity systems recognized across EU member states. From the end-user’s perspective, Mobile-ID allows users to access multiple e-services and sign documents, which is the legal equivalent of a traditional, handwritten signature.
National identity systems
In contrast to the eID solutions that are application-based, this SIM-card-based option is built on a unique SIM card, which is itself another “secure element” in the onboarding. Mobile-ID is widely used for e-signing and as an authentication measure.
That means, using iDenfy, businesses will be able to verify users and automate access to Mobile-ID and its use of digital signatures across any capable mobile device without the necessity of downloading any additional applications or implementing multiple separate APIs.
Physical ID documents
Authentication for Mobile-ID happens through a non-biometric two-factor process that asks the users to input their SIM-resident credential-based PINs, instead of asking for their facial biometrics on their smart devices.
End-users don’t need to carry physical ID documents and can use their Mobile-ID linked to the SIM on their phone. This innovation makes Mobile-ID an accessible way for any Estonian and Lithuanian user, who are often already familiar with this workflow and use it for accessing documents, especially when remote signing is often required due to many services being provided online without the need to communicate with the other party face-to-face.
Image quality problems
“We know how important a customized, native experience is. Given our history and the first HQ that we built and still have in Lithuania, we know first hand why users like Mobile-ID and similar, country-specific onboarding options,” commented Domantas Ciulde, the CEO of iDenfy.
The user sees a process that they have completed multiple times in their lifetime and is more likely to convert to other businesses’ services, without dropping off. That has been an issue for other onboarding workflows that require uploading a real photo of the user’s ID. iDenfy also mentioned that the standard KYC-compliant government-issued ID workflow won’t go anywhere, but global businesses are looking for better U/X and alternatives to match each country’s requirements.
Authenticated identity attributes
Using iDenfy’s automation solution, Mobile-ID’s system cross-matches the user’s given name, family name, and nationality as deterministic attributes. Date of birth is available as a conditional attribute depending on configuration or user consent. This structured verification output allows businesses to receive authenticated identity attributes from the SIM card credential, and doesn’t have to use manual document extraction methods with their associated image quality problems.
iDenfy suggests businesses enable the Mobile-ID workflow if they operate in Lithuania or Estonia, and then, if the user doesn’t have a Mobile-ID, they can onboard themselves via Smart-ID (which is more of a general authentication option, not e-signing, and has a wider user base), or trigger another, custom workflow, such as a general biometric check with a document capture.
Mobile-based authentication
“Businesses can use iDenfy to route users to a SIM-based identity verification path automatically when document capture is unavailable or fails due to image quality or lighting conditions,” explained Domantas Ciulde, the CEO of iDenfy.
Also, it is worth placing it in context that Estonia is one of the leading digital governments in the world, with a full digital ID infrastructure on which government and commercial services are built. Lithuania has been on a similar path, with mobile-based authentication widely deployed in banking and government services. Mobile-ID is part of that infrastructure alongside app-based options such as Smart-ID, together covering the range of options on how users in those countries could execute the authentication process. A business with an offering across Estonia and Lithuania, but only supporting document-based authentication, will be losing a good proportion of users who rely on SIM-based credentials.
Smart-ID onboarding workflow
The news of Mobile-ID adoption came shortly after iDenfy announced that it offers automated access to the Smart-ID onboarding workflow, another mobile electronic identity (eID) application used in Estonia and Latvia.
This makes iDenfy one of the few KYC providers that offer eIDAS-compliant, EU-adopted workflows for both document-based and non-document-based onboarding in the market. For business, this saves costs, especially on implementation. Mobile-ID support is available across iDenfy’s identity verification platform and is available via the dashboard to all clients at no additional cost.
