Open Gateway solutions for insurance and financial services

The use of the Internet and social media have underscored the importance of privacy and identity in the online world. These new technologies have given rise to benefits such as the accessibility of online shopping, transactions from any device or easily signing up with entities or institutions in just a few minutes.

In the case of financial and insurance services, such ease and convenience fosters a better relationship with customers by simplifying operations and offering new business opportunities, but the downside comes with the risks of fraud or identity theft, which are more prevalent in an online environment.

Telefónica Open Gateway offers standardised APIs a range of different solutions to streamline, secure and facilitate these types of transactions and services. Below you will find out what these APIs are and what advantages they can bring.

One of the most common forms of online fraud is identity theft or criminal impersonation. This involves one person obtaining the credentials of another and criminally impersonating the latter to extract a profit or operate without them knowing. 
 
With the Know Your Customer-Match API you can validate any customer record against the carrier's data. This validates the quality of the information provided, avoids fraud, and confirms that the company or institution's database is reliable.  
 
This way, you have closer, more personalised communications with your customer and provides for a higher sign-up rate. It also facilitates digital onboarding, which has become increasingly common in recent years. It also prevents digital identity theft and criminal impersonation.  

Nowadays, most business is done on the mobile phone, but the phone’s security is not given as much as importance as other devices, such as a laptop or a desktop computer.  
 
For both sign-ups and transactions, companies need to ensure the veracity of the data for a new customer, and the Number Verification API provides that filter. Normally, the most common validation process is SMS-OTP whereby the bank sends an SMS with a code. 
 
This process is simple, but it requires exiting the app to view the code, which complicates the interaction for the user. Through the Number Verification API, the validation is automated so the user does not have to do anything. The API checks whether the SIM from which the person is operating is associated with the phone number. The data is quickly and simply verified and it is ensure that no scam is taking place. It also makes it easier for customers to retrieve data, such as passwords. 
 
Another form of validation is through the device location. Much as in the previous solution, the Device Location Verification API makes sure that the person operating is the right one. In this case, by triangulation of the network antennas, both the SIM and the device are located. If this information does not match the GPS information, the fraudulent access is blocked. 

Fraud is the third area which affects banks, insurance services and users. It results in the loss of money, the discredit of the institution, hindered negotiations, etc.   
 
To combat attempted fraud, Telefónica Open Gateway has tools that reduce the risk and anticipate possible problems. Using a device's roaming status, the Device Status API protects the device and adds value to products and services.  
 
With this API, which checks whether a device is connected to a national network or is roaming, not only does it give additional protection, it can also redirect personalised, travel-oriented messages and ensure that the SIM is not in potentially hazardous locations. It gives extra peace of mind to any user who might have to do business with their bank or insurance company while they are abroad, who know they will be protected wherever they go. It also protects customers' wallets, avoiding surprise bills by managing the roaming status of the SIM card in real time.  
 
Another of the new forms of crime and fraud is ‘SIM Swap’, or in other words, making a duplicate SIM card without the owner's knowledge in order to receive all their messages on a second device, including identity validation messages.  
 
To combat this problem, there is a solution in the form of the SIM Swap API. Once integrated, it can analyse SIM changes to detect possible fraudulent movements and, in addition, to place a double layer of security to protect any transactions.

This API bolsters, for example, all the protection that patients' medical records must have. In this way, the progress of the digitalisation of medicine can continue moving ahead.  

These cases of fraud and identity theft prevention are already under way in banking institutions, such as Daycoval, one of the largest banks in Brazil. The Device Status API prevents fraudulent transactions by securing transactions and the devices from which they are made. Thanks to Telefónica's telephone carrier Vivo, transactions are secured by confirming the user’s location.  
 
Telefónica Open Gateway makes these APIs and others available to companies and institutions to take a qualitative leap forward by making the most of the network's capabilities.   
 

One of the ways to start joining Telefónica Open Gateway is through the Telefónica Open Gateway Partner Program. The benefits of being part of the Partner Program include full access to our API catalogue, technical and business consulting throughout the implementation process, the possibility of working together with other partners, documentation or priority access to new APIs and use cases that are developed in the Developer Hub. Register here!  
 
Telefónica Open Gateway expands the capabilities of the network and makes them available to experience creators, companies, developers, institutions, etc., in order to jointly build the network of the future. And if you want to keep up to date, subscribe to the newsletter so you don't miss a thing!