For remote onboarding, eID and the EUDI wallet now come first.
Documents, selfies and video ident are not banned, but they can only be used with a recorded reason. Wallets arrive in December 2026, the new rules in July 2027. [6] [10]
This autumn the regulator rewrote Europe's KYC rules. Checking a passport and a selfie moves to the back seat, and the digital ID issued by the state takes its place. We look at the market, the players, where the money goes and what products still miss, with the UK side by side.
For remote onboarding, eID and the EUDI wallet now come first.
Documents, selfies and video ident are not banned, but they can only be used with a recorded reason. Wallets arrive in December 2026, the new rules in July 2027. [6] [10]
Selfie and document specialists are under pressure from two sides.
The new rules favour eID providers, while newcomers sell full KYC for $0.33. Those who want to stay in the game are buying KYB and monitoring companies. [17] [23]
Growth is in KYB, ongoing monitoring and audit evidence.
One time checks get cheaper, while knowing companies and watching customers over their whole life grows. One KYB data provider grew 46% in a year. [26]
The technology in this market is mostly ready. The hard part is the decision: which method, which provider, and how you defend it in an audit. In 2027 banks and fintechs will have to answer these questions again.
The stars of the first wave lived only in the first layer. Today the provider that sells the whole chain in one contract gets ahead.
| Market | 2025 | 2030 | Yearly growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Europe, UK included [1] | $3.53bn | $7.72bn | 16.9% |
| UK [2] | $0.85bn | $1.83bn | 16.5% |
| US [1] | $4.34bn | $8.16bn | 13.5% |
| World [1] | $14.34bn | $29.32bn | 15.4% |
Numbers vary by source; IMARC puts the same UK market at $521m [3]. The direction matters more than the exact value: Europe grows faster than the world average.
The biggest use case is KYC, KYB and onboarding, the biggest buyers are banks and insurers. The fastest growing sector is gaming and gambling, the fastest growing country is Italy. [1]
Services grow faster than software [1]. Companies buy setup, review teams and operations support on top of the API. Often the real competitor is not another software, it is Excel and people.
AMLA sent the final draft of its customer due diligence standards to the Commission on 30 September 2026. For remote onboarding the priority is eID, the EUDI wallet and qualified trust services. Other methods can only be used when the customer cannot come in person and has no eID, and the reason must be recorded. [6] [7]
Main method. Any eID with enough assurance is accepted. [6][7]
Main method. Can even be used in a branch. [6]
Fallback. Only if the customer has no eID, with the reason recorded. [6][7]
Fallback, with stricter conditions. [8]
27 countries will apply the same text.
AMLR applies from July 2027. From 2028 AMLA will directly supervise around 40 institutions. Providers can sell one product across the EU, which will push prices down. [4] [5]
Fewer attacks, but better ones.
The share of advanced attacks went from 10% to 28% in one year. One in five biometric fraud attempts is a deepfake. A selfie on its own is no longer safe enough. [12] [13]
Finding a company's real owners got harder.
Beneficial ownership registers are no longer open to everyone since 2022. France and Denmark limited access, Czechia closed its register. A bank with business customers from five countries deals with five different routes. [15] [16]
Providers that bring eID and wallets into one flow will get ahead. Identity companies coming from Türkiye have an edge here: Turkish banks have been onboarding remotely by reading the ID chip with NFC since 2021 [46]. Europe is only now moving to this model.
We placed each type on two axes: how much of the chain it sells, and how ready it is for the 2027 rules. Scores go from 0 to 10 and are our estimate. Tap a square or a name.
Many national eIDs, qualified e-signatures, methods BaFin accepts.
Weak outside Europe, patchy products from acquisitions.
Add KYB and ongoing monitoring and sell the whole chain.
| Player | What we know | What it means to us |
|---|---|---|
| Signicat | Revenue grew 35% in 2023 to over NOK 1bn. Bought NFC chip reading company Inverid. [27] [18] | The widest eID network. It may gain the most from the new rules. |
| IDnow | 2024 revenue of €79m. Corsair Capital took a majority stake in March 2025. [19] [20] | Strongly tied to video ident. It will need to change as that method becomes a fallback. |
| Sumsub | One of the few big players that publishes its prices. Valued at over $1bn. [21] [17] | The strongest example of the everything in one contract model. |
| Veriff | Prices start at $0.80. Bought KYB company Vespia in February 2026. [22] [24] | Trying to move from identity checks to a platform. |
| GBG | £285m revenue in the year to March 2026, 3.2% growth. [25] | Data heavy incumbents grow slowly. |
| Kyckr | Revenue up 46% in the year to June 2026. [26] | KYB data is the fastest growing part of the market. |
| Didit | Full KYC for $0.33, 500 free checks a month. [23] | The player pulling prices down. |
| Promise | Who says it | Who they sell to | After 2027 |
|---|---|---|---|
| We have the method the regulator approves | IDnow, Signicat, Namirial | Banks, insurers, investment firms | Strong on eID |
| Fastest decision, highest conversion | Veriff | Neobanks, gaming, platforms | Harder in EU banking |
| One contract, all of compliance | Sumsub, Persona, Ondato, iDenfy | Crypto, iGaming, payments, fintech | Strong |
| We catch the fraudster | Entrust, iProov, Au10tix | High risk sectors | Becoming a standard feature |
| We have the most data | Moody's, Experian, LexisNexis, GBG | Large banks | Safe but slow |
| We connect to registers live | Kyckr, Topograph, kompany | KYB platforms, banks | Value is rising |
| Open prices, start for free | Didit and the big players' self serve plans | Startups, low volume | No enterprise trust yet |
A user verified once does not start again in another app. Since the EUDI wallet will offer the same thing for free, the future of private players here is unclear.
Verifying the company, its owners and its representatives on the same screen. This is why Veriff bought Vespia. [24]
Sumsub says the next step is verifying agents that act on behalf of a person. [43] When an agent opens an account or makes a payment for you, three questions come up: Who owns this agent? With what authority and up to what limit does it act? Can that authority be taken back? Today this is mostly a marketing line. As agents spread, a new product area that joins person, company and authority will appear.
Onboarding a business customer can take three to four months [35]. Emails going back and forth for company documents, shareholder lists, papers of a parent company abroad and translations drag the process out [34]. Open a KYB file step by step.
Asking for the register extract, waiting for a PDF, going to another country's register for a company abroad.
Services that pull the official register record and documents through one API. Kyckr connects to over 300 registers. [26]
With connected EU registers and the European Business Wallet, one query could be enough. [37]
Day counts are our estimate for an EU company with two ownership layers. Sources only confirm the direction: manual KYB takes weeks, automated flows take hours or days. [34] [36]
In November 2025 the Commission proposed a separate wallet for companies. It will hold company data and authorisations and make banks' KYB easier. [37] [38]
A credential that digitally signs the company's identity and the representative's authority. Banks can even issue a customer's LEI during onboarding. [39]
Ownership registers are being connected and five years of ownership history is required. But access rules still differ by country. [15]
Tools that read the articles of association, build the ownership chain, screen in parallel and record the decision. Companies like Dotfile sell this. [36]
The profile of a company verified once moves from bank to bank with the company's consent. When something changes, everyone hears about it at the same time.
The accountant or notary who knows the company best approves its data digitally. The bank checks this approval instead of asking for documents.
The state gives people a digital identity. Companies do not have one yet. Whoever fills this gap will own not only the checks, but also the relationship between companies and their banks.
The products look very similar, so the one that tells the story best wins. Seven methods stand out:
The week AMLA published its standards, IDnow, Signicat, Fourthline and Shufti all released guides on it. Every date on the calendar means a webinar and a checklist.
Pages like "best KYC providers" and "X vs Y" are published in dozens of languages. The target is not only Google, but also the AI assistants buyers now ask. Open prices, tables and FAQs work well here. [23]
Sumsub shows Chartis and KuppingerCole badges even on its pricing page. Bank buying teams still look at these rankings. [21]
Sumsub offers partners two options: refer customers for a commission, or resell under their own name. BaaS companies and consultants are a natural part of this channel. [45]
When age checks became mandatory in the UK, Yoti ran a fun social media campaign. Its app passed 6 million downloads in the UK. [44]
No provider talks to the end user. Rejected and stuck people complain in reviews, but providers only speak to companies.
Most providers charge per verification plus a monthly minimum. The calculation uses published list prices only. Add ons and enterprise discounts are not included.
A striped bar means usage is below the minimum, so you pay the minimum. This is exactly where small companies get tied to a provider.
Banks and large volumes get serious discounts. People in the industry also talk about providers working for free for a while to win a big reference customer. The list price is only where the negotiation starts.
As the one time check gets cheaper, watching customers over their whole life and showing evidence in audits will be what makes money.
Big data companies are buying digital players: Entrust bought Onfido, Experian KYC360, LexisNexis IDVerse, Moody's kompany [55]. But in the reviews the problem is always in the same place: no one takes care of the rejected user.
Valid document, good light, rejected again. No explanation.
Most complaints on one provider's review page look like this. Some users cannot even withdraw money they earned. [29]
The app sends me to the provider, the provider sends me back to the app.
The company makes the decision, the provider designs the screen, and responsibility falls in between. [31]
Even my registration certificate from the city office was not accepted.
A German Meldebestätigung example. Error messages asking users to switch off a VPN they don't have also come up often. [29]
I waited 40 minutes and the call dropped eight times.
The experience depends a lot on the agent you get. One competitor entered the DACH market with exactly this problem in mind. [30] [54]
Applications stuck in loops, wrong selfie rejections, rejections for people with no credit history.
G2, Gartner and Reddit reviews show the same three complaints for all big providers. Young people and newcomers to a country are rejected the most. [28] [32]
Minimums don't fit our volume, and the invoice is hard to follow.
In KYB, once volume grows, almost every provider asks for a custom contract and a yearly minimum. [33]
| Gap | Who has it today | Opportunity |
|---|---|---|
| Explaining rejections and appeals | No one | A layer that tells users why and what they can do |
| Support for rejected users | Stuck between company and provider | Shared support, one ticket number |
| Newcomers to a country | Partly credit bureaus | Different data and documents for migrants, students and diaspora |
| Local documents | Bits and pieces | Wider document support by country and language |
| Reason for a fallback | Just starting | A module that records the reason automatically |
| Company passport | Almost no one | A company profile that moves from bank to bank |
| Fair pricing for small volume | Newcomers | Plans with no minimum and clear add ons |
Deniz is a software developer who moved from Izmir to Berlin. He is made up, but what happens to him comes from real reviews and real rules. Tap a year.
A 40 minute video call
Deniz moves from Izmir to Berlin. To open a bank account he waits 40 minutes and the call drops twice. On the third call the agent asks him to show his passport to the camera, page by page.
As long as video ident is the main method, waiting times stay a problem. After 2027 it becomes a fallback.
The UK cancelled its national digital ID in July 2026 and left identity checks to private companies certified by the state.
| EU | UK | |
|---|---|---|
| Rules | AMLR, the same in 27 countries from July 2027 [4] | Its own money laundering rules |
| Digital ID | Every country offers an EUDI wallet by December 2026 [9] | National ID plan cancelled on 21 July 2026 [40] |
| Remote checks | eID and wallet first, documents and selfies as fallback [6] | Certified providers, documents and selfies stay the main method |
| Certification | eIDAS assurance levels | 65 certified services from 47 providers in September 2026 [41] |
| Company register | Ownership registers are not open to everyone [15] | Register is open. Companies House has verified directors' identities since November 2025 [42] |
| Local players | Signicat, IDnow, Namirial, WebID, Nect, Fourthline | GBG, Experian, Yoti, Credas, Thirdfort |
UK identity verification market, 2025 [2]
certified verification services, September 2026 [41]
age checks in the second half of 2025, 23 times the six months before [47]
rise in deepfake attacks in one year [43]
Deniz opens two accounts on the same day: one at a bank in Berlin, one at a fintech in London. Go step by step.
In the EU the first method offered is the wallet issued by the state.
The UK has no state ID. The options are a certified app or a document.
In the EU the provider that connects to eID gets ahead, in the UK the one certified by the state. Selfie and document checks become a fallback in the EU but stay the main method in the UK. Anyone selling to both markets will have to run two different products.
Most banks will review their providers for the new rules at the same time, which makes the first half of 2027 very important for sales. Where there is no source, it is our estimate.
If people are slow to take up the EUDI wallet, fallback methods stay the main method in practice.
If the Commission softens AMLA's standards, document checks could be on equal terms again. [7]
A large data leak or deepfake scandal could shake trust in the market overnight. A big provider was named in a data breach notice in January 2026. [53]

When we built insha on a BaaS platform, we were tied to one identity provider. There were times we were not happy, but adding a second provider was not in our hands.
So when we launched RUUT in the UK, our first question was: which partner is strong in both KYC and KYB, works end to end and can handle different cases? Choosing an identity provider looks like a buying decision, but it is a product decision you live with for years.
2027 is a good time to make this decision again. The rules are changing, prices are falling, and you have a strong hand in the negotiation.
Mehmet Burak · fspark9
fspark9 helps banks, fintechs and companies with customers choose the right partner and turn new rules into product decisions.
Information checked on 2 November 2026. AMLA's standards are still a draft and the Commission can change them. Market sizes are estimates by research firms. Prices are published list prices. Competition map scores, KYB day counts, expectations and the sections marked Our view are fspark9 analysis, not legal advice.