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What is an Identity Verification API?

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Identity Verification APIs allow businesses to streamline the process of checking the identities of new users by automatically, and in some cases instantly, verifying their provided identifying information.

A good identity verification API should allow you to embed the identity verification process into your onboarding flows and processes, enabling easy ID and bank account verification, criminal database checks, and more directly into your product. Using an identity verification API can help prevent fraud and increase the safety of your business, by ensuring that the users signing up for your platform are indeed who they claim to be.

Identity verification APIs can be used across a wide variety of industries, including finance and banking, healthcare, and education, among others. With an identity verification API businesses can:

  • Capture IDs and extract ID information, including driver’s licenses, passports, etc.
  • Verify authenticity for the information captured from those IDs
  • Match selfies and photos to IDs
  • Validate Social Security numbers (SSNs) and Tax Identification numbers (TINs)
  • Verify phone numbers
  • Use utility, government, and bank login portals to verify an identity
  • Pull credit reports and other banking and financial information


Businesses can use a service like Plaid, for example, to help verify new user identities. When using Modern Treasury, businesses can take advantage of our partnership with Plaid to easily and quickly verify new users and their relevant banking information. Learn more about our partnership with Plaid here.

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