The Cost of Inefficiency
Industry estimates put the cost of a full Video KYC onboarding in India at roughly ₹200 to ₹800. For a bank onboarding 100,000 customers a month, that is a large operational overhead. But the bigger cost is the friction: widely cited industry figures put drop-off during a full KYC flow as high as 40%, because it is too cumbersome.
Reusable KYC—enabled by DigiKYC—changes the paradigm from "Verify Every Time" to "Verify Once, Reuse Everywhere" — within the credential's validity window, and subject to the verifier's own reliance policy.
How Reusable KYC Works
Imagine a customer who has already completed their KYC at a major bank. With AssureLocker, that bank (the Issuer) provides the customer with a Verifiable Credential.
When that same customer goes to open a mutual fund account or apply for a loan at a different institution (the Verifier), they simply present their credential. The Verifier validates the credential via AssureLocker's API in milliseconds.
Three roles make this work, and the split between them is the whole point:
- The Issuer — the institution that ran the original verification — signs a Verifiable Credential with its own key. That signature, not a shared database lookup, is what carries the trust to the next institution.
- The Holder — the customer — keeps the credential in their own control and presents it only when they choose to. Nothing is pulled from a central store behind their back; the credential moves because the customer consents to share it.
- The Verifier— the next institution — receives the presentation and checks it cryptographically: the issuer's signature is valid, the credential has not been revoked (a live check against the trust registry), and the person presenting it is the subject it was issued to (holder binding).
Together those checks answer "is this credential genuine, current, and presented by its rightful owner?" as a validation call — rather than by re-running document capture, liveness and data entry from scratch. What they deliberately do not do is make the onboarding decision: that stays with the Verifier, which is where the regulation puts it.
The Economic Impact
The traditional-flow figures below are widely cited industry ranges for a full KYC; the reusable-flow column describes the mechanism, not a benchmarked product metric — a credential presentation is a validation call against an existing verification, not a fresh onboarding.
| Metric | Traditional Flow (industry range) | Reusable (DigiKYC) Flow |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per Onboarding | ₹200 - ₹800 | No repeat Video KYC — a validation call, not a fresh verification |
| Onboarding Time | 20 - 45 Minutes | Seconds — a credential check, not a live session |
| Drop-off Rate | 20% - 40% | Lower — nothing new to submit or re-scan |
The Benefits Across the Ecosystem
For Banks & Fintechs
- Reduced Acquisition Cost: Reuse an existing credential instead of re-running a full KYC on every customer.
- Higher Conversion: Seamless onboarding means fewer lost customers.
- Reduced Liability: Stop storing raw PII and documents.
For Regulators
- Higher Integrity: Cryptographic proofs are harder to forge than doctored PDFs or photos.
- Auditability: Real-time visibility into the health of the identity ecosystem via the registry.
For the Customer
- Better Experience: One-click onboarding.
- Privacy: No more sharing photocopies of sensitive documents.
Regulatory Permissibility
Is reusable KYC allowed in India? The answer is a resounding yes. The RBI's Master Direction on KYC already allows for reliance on third-party verification under specific conditions. Furthermore, the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) vision of India encourages exactly this kind of portable, interoperable trust layer.
AssureLocker's DigiKYC is designed specifically to meet the "Reliance on KYC" sections of the RBI, SEBI, and IRDAI guidelines.
The end of redundant KYC
Redundant re-verification is avoidable. Institutions that can rely on a customer's existing, cryptographically verifiable credential — within the RBI/SEBI/IRDAI reliance framework — cut cost and friction without cutting compliance corners.
Book a demo to see how reusable KYC fits your onboarding and reliance policy.