TrustElevate is chosen from 58 companies to be part of the UK Financial Conduct Authority’s regulator sandbox
TrustElevate is the only secure, accurate and privacy-preserving provider of child identity verification and parental consent and is delighted to win a place on the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) regulatory sandbox. The regulatory sandbox enables TrustElevate to benefit from the advice and guidance of the regulator while banks test TrustElevate’s innovative proposition in the market.
TrustElevate’s KYC Youth product enables the digital onboarding of child and teen bank accounts in compliance with KYC and AML requirements. In the UK, over 10M children under 16 currently do not have a bank account due to the friction involved in going in-branch for identity and parental responsibility verification processes.
TrustElevate transforms the current onboarding process by removing the reliance on parents to have a form of ID — either a driver’s licence or passport and three months of recent utility bills, paid by direct debit — to open a child bank account. TrustElevate’s KYC product the reliance on utility bills and ID documentation and enables parents to open bank accounts for their children online.
TrustElevate’s innovation is particularly relevant to a significant proportion of adults living in poverty who so often do not have bank accounts and pay for utilities via expensive prepay meters and, as such, don’t receive utility bills. These people not only miss out on direct debit discounts and incur extra costs on prepay meters, but they also may not have enough money to pay for ID documents. To date, the absence of documentation precludes them from opening a bank account either or themselves or their children and exposes them to paying a ‘poverty premium.’ The Poverty Premium comprises several areas in which people in poverty pay extra to access goods or services.
Having a bank account enables financial inclusion and fosters financial literacy, which refers to the financial awareness, knowledge, skills, attitude and behaviour required to make sound financial decisions and achieve individual financial well-being. Better financial literacy enables people to access, effectively use and derive maximum benefit from financial services. Understanding how to make financially responsible decisions and managing one’s credit and debt are skills that are essential to our daily lives, without which people are vulnerable to financial predators and poor choices. Financial literacy is critical to avoid high levels of debt, excess fees for financial products, accessing credit and saving for retirement. Dr O’Connell, TrustElevate’s founder, says
“Our technology has brought the onboarding process for child and teen bank accounts into the digital age — no need to bring parents, children and teen customers in-branch. We are thrilled to be part of the FCA regulatory sandbox and excited to continue our work with traditional and challenger banks.”
The FCA received 58 applications for its cohort 7 of the regulatory sandbox. Applications came from firms operating in the UK and overseas. The FCA notes that innovative firms wish to trial and scale innovative products or services across multiple jurisdictions.
