The Fintech Power 50 Annual 2025

THE CORE CHALLENGE: FRAGMENTED IDENTITY EXPERIENCES Every day, fintechs face situations where identity systems fail customers, quietly diminishing trust and loyalty. These are not merely occasional technical glitches but symptoms of an outdated model where identity is managed in isolation across multiple channels. Identity Continuity addresses this fundamental flaw by treating identity as a unified, persistent connection. It follows a simple yet powerful principle: “One Customer. One Record. One Platform.” Instead of forcing customers through repeated verification cycles, this approach allows consistent authentication across every interaction - simplifying verification, streamlining authentication, and significantly reducing friction during account recovery. MEETING RISING EXPECTATIONS AMID ADVANCED DIGITAL THREATS The acceleration of digital banking has condensed years of evolving customer expectations into months. Customers now anticipate instant and secure financial services via their mobile devices. Concurrently, institutions face unprecedented threats from increasingly sophisticated fraud. Deepfake technology now convincingly replicates voices and faces, while synthetic identities – carefully crafted combinations of Identity Continuity provides fintechs with a strategic advantage by ensuring security, streamlining user experiences, and proactively defending against rapidly evolving threats real and falsified data – easily circumvent traditional defences. Synthetic identity fraud losses are estimated by Deloitte at almost £20billion by 2030 in the US alone. Identity Continuity proactively mitigates these evolving threats by establishing a continuous identity connection. Rather than performing isolated checks, it integrates verified biometric data with real-time monitoring, creating a dynamic defence that continuously adapts to new threats. Persistent biometric authentication which includes deepfake detection and prevention makes impersonation much more difficult.

Imagine Identity Continuity in practice: A customer opens a new account using their mobile driving licence and facial biometrics. Months later, updating their address requires only a facial scan – no additional paperwork or repeated verification. When applying for a loan, their identity is already securely established, allowing fintechs to focus solely on assessing financial eligibility. Transferring any amount of money, small or very large, becomes frictionless because their identity remains authenticated continuously across interactions. Even recovery from device loss is simplified. In today’s digital-first financial services landscape, identity management must be a foundational component rather than an afterthought. Identity Continuity provides fintechs with a strategic advantage by ensuring security, streamlining user experiences, and proactively defending against rapidly evolving threats. The question for industry leaders is no longer whether to adopt continuous customer identity verification and authentication but how they can embrace it to advance their business.

Simultaneously, tolerance for friction- laden authentication processes has evaporated with a growing transition to passwordless credentials. Biometric authentication offers a compelling alternative by combining security with instant convenience: face or voice verification takes seconds and substantially reduces friction. Layered approaches provide customers with flexible, context-sensitive

options across channels, reinforcing accessibility and user satisfaction.

Fintech companies need to prepare for the rise of digital wallets. No longer limited to storing payment methods, digital wallets are evolving into comprehensive identity hubs – secure repositories where customers can store and manage verified credentials. Identity Continuity ensures credentials remain consistently valid, up-to-date, and seamlessly recognised across digital and physical channels. For instance, government- wallet-backed mobile driving licences offer superior authenticity compared to traditional IDs, catering directly to mobile-first consumers and highlighting forward-looking institutional support for digital identities.

DAON COMPANY INFO

OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE AND STRATEGIC ADVANTAGE

Who is Daon: Daon, the Digital Identity Trust company, enables market-leading organisations worldwide to easily and accurately proof, verify, authenticate, and secure customer identities across the entire customer lifecycle. Daon delivers its solutions through its AI and ML-powered IdentityX® platform, chosen by leading companies in financial services, telco, travel & hospitality, and other industries to secure and process hundreds of millions of digital identity transactions daily. What it does: Daon enables market-leading organisations worldwide to easily and accurately proof, verify, authenticate, and secure customer identities. Company: Daon Founded: 2000 Category: Software development Key people: Tom Grissen, chief executive officer (right) Head Office: Fairfax, Virginia Local presence in: Ireland, Serbia and Australia Website: www.daon.com Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/daon/

Identity Continuity (coupling of identity verification and continuous authentication) delivers tangible operational and strategic benefits, beyond robust fraud prevention: n Reduced administrative overhead: Eliminating redundant systems and repetitive verification processes streamlines operations and reduces organisational costs. n Lower account recovery costs: Customer resets represent almost half of all support calls, costing businesses annually in lost productivity; alternatives significantly diminish these expenses. n Simplified compliance: Centralised identity management eases adherence to evolving KYC and AML regulatory requirements. n Enhanced customer personalisation: Consistent customer recognition supports seamless, adaptive experiences tailored to individual preferences and needs. n Frictionless authentication: Seamlessly transitioning verification into a continuous identity relationship improves customer engagement and loyalty.