REPORT
    Know Your Customer Systems: Identity Verification
    Technology Capabilities Matrix and 2026 XCelent Awards
    8th January 2026

    Identity verification is integral to the customer onboarding process at financial institutions, which need to ensure that a new client is who they say they are and not an imposter, fraudster or bot. IDV solutions provide this assurance through ID document authentication, liveness checks, and other techniques.

    IDV is becoming an important support for anti-financial crime efforts at financial institutions. Many providers of IDV solutions have expanded their capabilities to support anti-fraud at onboarding as well as for ongoing authentication of customer sessions.

    Increasingly, IDV providers are also supporting KYC processes by offering KYC features or integrating via APIs with KYC solutions such as customer lifecycle management (CLM) systems.

    At the same time, AML-KYC vendors are providing IDV capabilities through partnership, acquisition, or proprietary development. This is a sure indication that IDV is becoming embedded as an important link in the KYC value chain.

    This report recognizes the growing importance of IDV in financial crime compliance by focusing on IDV as a process in the know your customer value chain, which Celent calls KYC identity verification. Many of the vendors featured in the report are IDV providers who add value by offering KYC features or, conversely, anti-financial crime vendors who integrate IDV capabilities within their suite of offerings.

    The report provides in-depth profiles of ten providers of KYC identity verification solutions: AVOS Tech, Data Gear, Experian, Fenergo, FIS, Fourthline, LexisNexis Risk Solutions, Plaid, Signicat and Zoot.

    We assess the capabilities of each using Celent's proprietary Technology Capabilities Matrix and recognize the top performers by handing out XCelent Awards for Advanced Technology, Breadth of Functionality, and Customer Base and Support.

    This is the first in a new five-part series of reports evaluating KYC systems. The other four reports will examine:

    • Adverse media screeners,
    • Customer due diligence / customer lifecycle management systems,
    • Orchestration platforms and
    • KYC data providers.
    Author
    Neil Katkov
    Neil Katkov
    Director, Risk