The insight explores how low-friction, global identity verification enabled fintechs to scale securely while tackling fraud and cross-border AML risks.
Shufti, the global identity verification provider, has released a new insight titled “Fintechs went global because IDV made it possible,” examining how fintech’s cross-border growth has depended on identity verification, not just product innovation or technology.
The publication observes that the fintech market reached $340 billion in 2024 and is projected to surpass $1.1 trillion by 2032. It shares that this expansion “wasn’t just about speed or software, it was about building trust.”
Identity Verification (IDV) providers became “the silent infrastructure” that enabled fintechs to expand across borders without compromising fraud and compliance controls.
“Fintechs went global because it became possible to verify users on different documents, in different scripts, under different rules, with enough confidence to keep saying ‘yes’ as they expanded.” ”
— Shahid Hanif, CEO of Shufti
The insight outlines the scale of borderless finance. As of 2024, cross-border payment value is approaching $1 quadrillion, flowing through banks, fintechs, and digital wallets.
According to the report, e-commerce redefined how the world buys, and fintech redefined how it pays. Beneath both lies a trust layer powered by identity verification. While fintech accelerated access and scale, the expansion exposed risk factors around fraud, identity, and regulatory compliance that financial software alone could not solve. It was IDV systems that absorbed these pressures and made global scale operationally feasible.
“Fintechs did not go global just because they could build better apps and interfaces,” said Shahid Hanif, CEO of Shufti. “They went global because it became possible to verify customer on different documents, in different scripts, under different rules, with enough confidence to keep saying ‘yes’ as they expanded.”
The publication explores the structural complexity underpinning this trust infrastructure. Identity documents vary widely across jurisdictions, in type, layout, data fields, and language. Many include non-Latin scripts or handwritten elements. Transliteration rules, formatting inconsistencies, and fragmented registries introduce constant verification friction.
Under the section “IDV: Foundation for global expansion,” the insight examines practical use cases. A fintech in Malaysia targeting global growth must support identity checks in multiple jurisdictions, each with its own document formats, verification standards, and data laws.
A European fintech expanding into Asia must process non-Latin scripts, adapt to multilingual data structures, and meet onboarding standards requiring precise transliteration and ID validation.
Simultaneously, compliance requirements are far from harmonised. Regulations such as GDPR, CCPA, and region-specific data residency laws create overlapping and at times conflicting obligations.
The threat landscape is also evolving. Fraud has shifted from individual attacks to industrial-scale deception. Synthetic identities, deepfakes, and AI-generated spoofs now bypass basic document checks, fueling account takeovers and scams.
As fintechs expand into new markets, they face increasingly localised threat models and typologies. The insight references $16.6 billion in online scam losses in 2024, citing FBI data, as an illustration of the global environment in which verification decisions are made.
In this context, the report argues that the right IDV partner reduces friction and expands reach. An effective solution standardises workflows, integrates jurisdiction-specific rules, applies multilingual OCR, and automates regulatory alignment. The result is faster onboarding, lower abandonment, and stronger fraud resilience across markets.
The final sections shift from coverage to conversion. Global reach is necessary, but insufficient; the ability to convert genuine users at scale is what defines a verification system’s true value.
“Global coverage? That’s just the surface,” Shahid Hanif added. “Fintechs are looking for verification that can handle regional document formats, adapt to regulatory differences, and counter emerging fraud techniques, while still improving pass rate success and keeping journeys seamless. That is where identity verification becomes part of the growth strategy, not just a control.”
In its concluding section, “Shufti and the future of trust in fintech,” the report explains how successful fintech expansion depends on IDV systems that can adjust to regional regulations and risk environments.
Shufti’s platform enables this through:
-Support for 10,000+ global identity document types, including ICAO-compliant and non-standard formats
-Integrations with national identity schemes for electronic verification
-NFC-based ID reading where supported
-Certified facial biometric and liveness checks to resist spoofing
-Jurisdiction-specific policy controls to produce audit-ready compliance and adapt to AML/KYC frameworks
The report positions Shufti not as a plug-in tool, but as a complete verification infrastructure partner, helping fintechs verify globally, scale responsibly, and build trust with every onboarding interaction.
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