Sumsub chooses Volt’s Open Banking capabilities to ‘power’ verification offering

Global real-time payments platform Volt has formed a strategic partnership with global verification platform Sumsub, through which Volt’s Open Banking capabilities will enable Sumsub’s ‘Penny Drop Verification’ flow.

The verification flow works by directing an end user to their banking app after scanning their identity document, where they will be asked to make a 1c payment via Volt’s hosted checkout, which is later returned to the end user in real time.

‘Matchmeter’, which is one of Volt’s account information services (AIS) solutions, will match the data in the payment flow – specifically, the name of the account holder – to the name in the end user’s identity document.

Through the new partnership, Sumsub will use Volt’s payment initiation services and AIS Open Banking capabilities across Europe to improve its onboarding and identity verification offerings.

The two companies said that the additional layer is particularly critical in markets such as Germany, where the end user’s qualified electronic signature (QES) is often used to complete the verification process.

A QES is recognised as a compliant identification method by European Union Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulators. Therefore, ensuring the validity of a QES signatory’s information is “essential” to businesses onboarding new users at scale, Volt and Sumsub said in a press statement.

According to Andrew Novoselsky, chief product officer at Sumsub, Europe saw the second-highest increase in fraud globally, with cases surging 150% year-over-year – “driven, in part, by increasingly sophisticated fraud tactics”.

“AI-powered fraud is escalating rapidly, with deepfake-driven fraud alone increasing 4x worldwide from 2023 to 2024,” he said.

“These rising threats highlight the urgent need for secure, real-time verification. Our Penny Drop Verification solution ensures businesses can confidently stay ahead of increasingly advanced fraud attempts, safeguard their operations and protect users in an increasingly risky digital world.”

Matthew Rickard, Volt’s senior partnerships manager, added: “Working with Sumsub exemplifies Volt’s commitment to partnering with innovative brands that recognise the value of real-time networks within their technical infrastructure.

“From day one, Sumsub has had a clear vision of unifying the consumer verification experience across multiple markets. Volt’s global orchestration of account-to-account networks aligns closely with this vision, and I’m excited to continue driving this innovation forward.”

London-based Volt has offices in Berlin, Warsaw, Kraków, Sydney and São Paulo, and enables payments in 31 markets across the UK, the EU, Brazil and Australia.

Further reading: Payments orchestration platform chooses Volt for real-time payments