Veriff and Vantage Recreational Finance: Verifying ID and preventing fraud in “less than two minutes”
Fast-growth financial solutions firm integrated Veriff in under a fortnight to guard against potentially devastating identity scams.
Chris Hooper
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About Vantage Recreational Finance
Vantage Recreational Finance is a financial solutions company, founded in 2012, which caters for the US domestic marine and recreational vehicle (RV) industry. Put simply, the company matches consumers looking to purchase a boat or RV with the best lender, based on their individual financial profile. The goal of the company is to make the purchasing process as safe, convenient and comfortable as possible, by accessing lending programs with low rates, extended terms of up to 240 months, low monthly payments, fast online credit decisions and a customer-friendly loan-closing process. Vantage can help buyers with all levels of credit. It is a member of the US National Marine Lenders’ Association and the Marine Retailers’ Association of the Americas. They are also accredited by the Better Business Bureau and have been named to the Inc5000 Fastest Growing Companies list.
What business problem did Veriff solve for Vantage Recreational Finance?
Vantage is a company operating within a highly competitive landscape. Having earned valuable brand equity within the industry, prospects now actively seek its services. However, a recent incident in which fraudsters targeted the company using a stolen identity highlighted how vulnerable Vantage and its competitors can be.
Scammers purchased a stolen identity from the internet, used PDF-altering software to create a fake driver’s license and also created counterfeit sales documentation. Until that point, Vantage had little experience of identity fraud and it was generally considered a low risk within the recreational finance sector. The Vantage team realized, however, that having been successful once the fraudsters were likely to return again and again.
Vantage needed a low-friction customer identity verification solution which not only de-risked their onboarding processes, but also put their customers at ease. The company was well aware that confidence and trust are essential when discussing customers’ private financial data. The identity verification process also needed to be as fast and frictionless as possible, helping to expedite a credit decision in a swift and secure way.
“I'm very happy to tell you that since Veriff’s deployment, we have easily stopped fraud worth in excess of $750,000.”
What made the difference to Vantage Recreational Finance when choosing Veriff?
Veriff was able to demonstrate how its solution would fit into Vantage’s digital backbone with the least amount of disruption and friction possible. Within two weeks Vantage had deployed Veriff. The Vantage senior leadership team and senior consultants took the unique step of verifying their own identities before committing to the solution. As Dana C Endicott, Senior Vice President, Vantage Recreational Finance, explained: “We asked every senior consultant and senior leader in Vantage to go through the Veriff identity verification process so we could get feedback. We found that the whole process took them less than two minutes each and everyone agreed it’s easy.”
“The first thing our new customers are required to do is share their sensitive financial information, so once they’ve done that we need the identity verification process – checking they are who they say they are – to be as smooth and friendly as possible,” she added.
What limited friction the solution did generate was welcome, because Vantage wanted its customers to know they were taking steps to ensure the security and integrity of its onboarding process. The company pointed out that both buyers and sellers were required to go through verification, and so everyone’s best interests were being protected, including Vantage.
“The first thing our new customers are required to do is share their sensitive financial information, so once they’ve done that we need the identity verification process – checking they are who they say they are – to be as smooth and friendly as possible.”
What was the immediate impact of implementing Veriff?
“I'm very happy to tell you that since Veriff’s deployment, we have easily stopped fraud worth in excess of $750,000,” said Endicott. “That would have been devastating for a company of our size, but that figure also does not take into account the reputational damage these attacks would have caused our brand.”
Veriff was also able to clearly outline how its solution would integrate with Vantage’s tech stack. Despite the financial services firm’s platform being 100% proprietary, within ten days it had written an API and the solution was operational and verifying customer identities.
Thanks to this integration work, every single successful ID verification was visible on Vantage’s system, with vetted customers’ names showing green and declined customers colored red. There was no need for employees to switch to another platform to view customer status.
“We asked every senior consultant and senior leader in Vantage to go through the Veriff identity verification process so we could get feedback. We found that the whole process took them less than two minutes each and everyone agreed it’s easy.”
About Veriff
Veriff is the preferred identity verification platform for the world’s biggest and best digital companies, including pioneers in financial services, crypto, gaming, and the mobility sectors. We provide advanced technology, deep insights, and expertise from our foundation in digital-first Estonia and honed in leading the digital identity revolution. The partner of choice for businesses who need to rapidly and effortlessly verify online users from anywhere in the world, Veriff delivers the widest possible identity document coverage.
By supporting government-issued IDs from more than 230 issuing countries and territories and with our intelligent decision engine which analyzes thousands of technological and behavioral variables Veriff enables trust from the first hello.
