Identifications

Swan users need to prove their identities at key points during their user journey: during account onboarding, when accepting an account membership, and if they need to reset their passcode. To facilitate the process, Swan provides secure identification options using live video and artificial intelligence.

Removing identifications

For users with non-sensitive access to accounts, defined by their account membership permissions, identification might not be necessary in some B2B situations.

Overview

Users can complete their identification at any time—24 hours a day, 7 days a week. After starting the identification process, users have 10 minutes to finish before the process times out.

Identification typically involves users presenting an identity document and recording their face in order to validate the following elements:

Is the identity document authentic?
Is this person real?
Does the face presented actually match the identity document?

Note that users must log into Swan to access the identification process.

Encourage identification

Your users have the option to complete their identification when signing up for Swan.

Swan also sends your users a text message with a link they can use to start their identification. The link can be used one time. If your users need a new link, they can request a new text message. If you're using Swan's provided Web Banking interface, your users can also start their identification from the app.

If your users aren't completing their identification despite these automated efforts, you can encourage them by sending an authentication link:

Follow the guide to get a user access token.
In step 2.1, add the identificationLevel parameter to the scope.

Levels and processes

Two key terms are essential to understand identifications at Swan: levels and processes.

Level: what your users must be awarded to meet local identification regulatory requirements.
Process: the specific process your users can follow to fulfill a level.

Processes vary in strength; in other words, there is a hierarchy between them. This means that one process can award more than one level. The process your users should complete depends on the type of account and location.

Identification levels and processes have the same names in the Swan API. The following table explains each process and indicates which levels a successful completion awards.

Process	Explanation	Levels awarded
Expert	Requires a manual, asynchronous review by an expert in identifications. It can be used to verify an account holder's legal representative as well as account memberships.	Expert level only
PVID Prestataires de vérification d'identité à distance	Verifies a user's identity by capturing and verifying identity documents, then performing facial recognition. Any individual opening an account from an eligible account country can use PVID to complete identification, if you configure it that way. Refer to the table in the recommendations section for eligible account countries. PVID translates to Remote Identity Verification Service Providers in English.	PVID and Expert levels
QES Qualified Electronic Signature	Confirms who created a document, and that the document hasn't been altered since being signed. If both elements are confirmed, QES validates the authenticity and integrity of the document. Then, the user signs Swan's Terms and Conditions. Qualified electronic signatures are compliant with EU Regulation No 910/2014 (eIDAS Regulation) for electronic transactions within Europe. Qualified electronic signatures are the digital equivalent to handwritten signatures. QES predominantly verifies individual account holders and requires a manual, asynchronous identity review by an expert before starting the signature.	QES and Expert levels

Examples

Your user successfully completes the PVID process. They're awarded both PVID and Expert levels.
Your user successfully completes the QES process. They're awarded both QES and Expert levels.

Find the list of identificationLevels in the user query.

To start an identification, follow the guide to get a user access token.

Recommendations

Accepted identification processes vary by country based on local regulations. For each account country and type of account, Swan recommends a process and, if possible, offers other acceptable processes.

Refer to the following table for accepted and recommended identification levels for individual and company accounts. The first process listed is in bold with a checkmark (✓), indicating it's the process Swan recommends.

Account country	Individual accounts	Company accounts
🇫🇷 France	✓ PVID Expert + first transfer QES	✓ Expert QES PVID
🇩🇪 Germany	✓ QES + first transfer	✓ Expert QES
🇳🇱 Netherlands	✓ Expert QES PVID	✓ Expert QES PVID
🇪🇸 Spain	✓ Expert QES PVID	✓ Expert QES PVID

Self-employed account holders

For users who are self-employed account holders, recommendations depend on their status.

🇫🇷 France unregistered self-employed: PVID, or Expert + a first transfer
🇫🇷 France registered self-employed: Expert
🇩🇪 Germany self-employed: QES + a first transfer

Tracking identifications

You can access all identifications performed by users who are onboarding into your project with the user query, which allows you to:

Follow identifications in real time.
Access a detailed list of reasons identifications aren't accepted. The list can help you guide users so they can successfully verify their identity.

Refer to the guides in this section for full sample queries and payloads of the user query.

You can also use the Event Simulator (Dashboard > Developers > Event Simulator > Sandbox identifications) to test various combinations of statuses, identification processes, and rejection reason codes.