Singular Key
Modern Authentication Strategies for FinTech Companies

In today’s experience-driven digital economy, eliminating unnecessary friction and delivering trust and safety across engagement channels is mandatory. FinTech companies like large banks, money remitters, payment and insurance firms are bound by regulatory requirements to offer their customers 2-factor authentication (2FA) to meet strong customer authentication (SCA) compliances. Legacy 2FA methods are clunky user experience, error prone and exposed to fraud. Singular Key’ end-to-end authentication solution addresses the complexities of on-boarding, user experience, security, customer choice, and regulatory compliances with just a couple of API calls or easy-to-deploy SDK. With phishing-resistant passwordless access which supports modern biometric authentication capabilities such as facial recognition, fingerprint, etc., FinTechs can reduce account takeover fraud, man-in-the-middle (MITM), replay and masquerade attacks without storing user’s sensitive information thus reassure users that their privacy is protected without harvesting biometrics, device and location information.

With emerging global regulations such as the Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) of the Revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) section 9.3 mandating FinTech players to use 2-factor authentication to improve security posture, organizations in the segment are equally obligated to choose the right technology platform capable of combating data breaches, scalable phishing, and account takeover attacks. Legacy 2FA methods like SMS based OTP are being deprecated or restricted. RTS specifically describes the use of “separated software execution environments” for achieving SCA “so that the breach of one does not compromise the reliability of the other”. FinTech companies, however, may lack the resources or expertise to design a robust authentication strategy. “For a FinTech company whose core business is not authentication, the process can get overwhelming. They also have to consider user interaction design, branding experience, adaptive risk-appropriate authentication, and transaction fulfillment methods, whether it is on device biometrics, security keys, SMS or Push-based OTP etc. We take all these complexities out of the equation and provide a simple way to integrate user-interaction design, branding, and security methods within authentication,” explains Jatin Maniar, CEO of Singular Key, a Washington-based FinTech solution provider.

By combining the power of open security standards such as FIDO, WebAuthn, public-key cryptography, and modern authenticators, Singular Key helps clients abide by all security, risk, and compliance protocols, all while reducing the cost of ownership.

“Our mission is to help FinTech firms focus on their core business and fulfill SCA requirements. They can do so by implementing few APIs that adapt in a dynamic, global regulatory landscape. With a few lines of code on the web, mobile, or other apps, our APIs, SDKs, and web widgets make it easy to deliver a simple intuitive experience. We also help FinTech companies save costs of SMS delivery, and call center engagements,” says Maniar, also stressing that Singular Key’s FIDO-based authentication service can optimize operations bringing economic efficiencies.

The effectiveness of Singular Key’s unified authentication service is best illustrated with the success story of Machnet Inc., a cross-border remittance platform provider that enables money transfer operators and money service businesses to remit money overseas. By leveraging Singular Key’s services, the client could simplify, standardize, and secure the user experience and reduce the costs involved in incorporating the ever-changing demands of authentication. The newly deployed authentication model allowed Machnet to reduce friction for customers, while reducing international SMS costs as an outcome of FIDO authentication and creating hurdles for fraudsters by eliminating SIM swaps and account takeover frauds.

The Singular Key team believes its solution is a part of the extensive digital identity, authentication, and anti-fraud ecosystem. This is why Singular Key’s expertise in the realm of PSD2, Strong Customer Authentication (SCA), and global privacy regulations, is paving the way for Maniar and his team to make a global splash. With ongoing projects in the U.S. and Asia and anticipated future opportunities in the Japan and Europe, Singular Key further plans to enter the LATAM and APAC markets over the next 12 months.