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What to look for when replacing multiple KYC APIs with a single provider

Relying on multiple KYC APIs can feel like running several onboarding systems at once. Each vendor comes with its own data sources, workflows, integrations, contracts, billing structures, and maintenance requirements. As a result, teams spend significant time reconciling mismatched data, chasing manual reviews, and stitching together different user journeys. 

For customers, the experience is often slow and fragmented. For compliance and fraud teams, the lack of a unified view increases risk. And for the business, scaling across markets becomes difficult and costly.

Consolidating to a single, end-to-end KYC provider solves these challenges by centralizing identity data, checks, workflows, and decisioning. But choosing the right provider is a challenge of its own: it requires a detailed evaluation of capability, coverage, adaptability, and compliance strength.

What a single KYC provider should deliver

1. Full KYC capability across the entire lifecycle

A strong unified platform should bring every major identity and fraud capability under one roof, including:

  • Identity data verification
  • Document checks
  • Biometrics
  • Sanctions and PEP screening
  • Fraud signals and behavioural analytics
  • Risk scoring
  • Case management and manual review tools

The more capability delivered natively, the fewer external systems you need, and the easier it becomes to maintain consistent, high-quality onboarding experiences.

Questions to ask:

  • Which KYC modules are supplied out of the box?
  • How are identity, fraud, and risk signals combined to reach a decision?

  • How frequently are templates, rules, and data sources updated?

Here’s how GBG, an identity verification company with 30+ years of experience in the digital identity space, does this:

GBG Go consolidates more than 80 identity, fraud and risk modules into a single platform, giving teams complete coverage across the KYC lifecycle without relying on additional vendors. Identity data verification, document authentication, biometrics, PEPs and sanctions screening, fraud signals, and case management all exist natively in one environment.

Instead of stitching together multiple APIs, teams get a single decisioning layer that helps produce a transparent outcome. Templates and data sources are continuously updated.

2. Dynamic orchestration instead of fixed workflows

Static onboarding flows treat every customer the same. This slows down low-risk users and fails to escalate high-risk cases early.

Dynamic orchestration adapts each journey in real time, based on geography, risk level, device signals, data quality, and regulatory requirements. For example:

  • Fast-track low-risk applicants
  • Trigger liveness or biometric checks for higher-risk profiles
  • Route complex cases to enhanced due diligence or manual review

Questions to ask:

  • Can the provider adapt flows to risk signals in real time?
  • Can your teams configure routing rules without developer input?
  • Can you measure pass rates and drop-off at every step?

How GBG does this:

GBG Go’s orchestration engine adapts every onboarding journey in real time. The platform automatically routes individuals based on geography, risk signals, device intelligence, regulatory requirements and data quality.

Low-risk customers can be fast-tracked using data-only checks. Higher-risk profiles can trigger liveness, biometrics, document authentication or enhanced due-diligence steps. Complex cases are routed to case management with full audit history.

All of this can be configured in minutes through an easy-to-use UI – no engineering resources required.

3. High match rates backed by authoritative data

Match rates influence conversion, manual work, fraud exposure, and user experience. The strongest providers draw from diverse and authoritative data sources, such as:

  • Government records
  • Credit bureaus
  • Telecom and mobile intelligence
  • Utilities data
  • Alternative financial datasets

Better data coverage typically means fewer false negatives, higher KYC automation, and stronger fraud detection.

Questions to ask:

  • Which data sources support each market?
  • How does the provider maintain accuracy and reduce false matches?
  • Is multi-bureau or multi-dataset decisioning supported?

How GBG does this:

GBG’s identity backbone combines hundreds of global and local authoritative data sources, including credit bureaus, government datasets, telco intelligence, utilities data, alternative financial signals and GBG’s cross-industry fraud network of more than 1,000 organisations.

This depth improves first-time pass rates, reduces manual verification, and strengthens fraud detection.

4. True global coverage: Data, documents, and regulation

Growing businesses need consistent identity verification across markets. This requires local data sources, regional document expertise, and up-to-date regulatory alignment.

Questions to ask:

  • Which countries are supported for data verification, document checks, and biometrics?
  • Are local data sources used to improve match rates?
  • How does the provider maintain performance across different regions?

How GBG does this:

GBG supports identity data, document verification and biometric authentication across 195+ countries. The document library spans more than 8,500 ID types, curated by forensic experts, and biometrics include ISO-certified passive liveness and deepfake-injection detection.

GBG Go adapts journeys to local regulatory requirements, regional data availability and country-specific onboarding expectations. This allows businesses to expand into new markets without rebuilding or revalidating their onboarding stack from scratch.

5. Alignment with KYC, AML, and data privacy regulations

A consolidated provider must help you stay compliant as regulations evolve. Look for:

  • Built-in audit trails
  • Configurable rule sets
  • Support for local data processing and storage requirements
  • Rapid updates when regulations change

Questions to ask:

  • Is data stored and processed in accordance with local laws?
  • Are audit logs complete and exportable?
  • How quickly can workflows be updated when rules change?

How GBG does this:

GBG Go includes built-in audit logs, configurable rule sets, clear decision rationale and exportable compliance reporting. Screening connects to continuously updated global PEP, sanctions and adverse-media lists.

The platform is designed for regional data-privacy alignment, including configurable data handling, local market data processing and the ability to update flows rapidly as regulations change.

6. Easy integration and strong developer experience

Replacing many APIs with one should simplify your technical setup. That means:

  • Clear API documentation
  • SDKs and clean, consistent endpoints
  • A unified dashboard for configuration and reporting
  • A single contract and predictable pricing

Questions to ask:

  • How long does integration usually take?
  • Does one API cover all KYC modules?
  • Can teams configure journeys and reporting through a no-code UI?

How GBG does this:

An API connects businesses to every identity, fraud and risk module in the GBG ecosystem. The DevEx portal includes SDKs, sandbox environments, documentation and test simulations to shorten implementation time.

 

The unified dashboard centralizes configuration, monitoring, journey performance and reporting, reducing engineering overhead and eliminating fragmentation across multiple systems and contracts.

7. Flexible, brand-consistent user journeys

Different markets, risk thresholds, and products require tailored onboarding flows. A good provider should offer:

  • Customisable steps
  • Regional variation
  • White-labelling options
  • Insights for optimizing conversion

Questions to ask:

  • Can we customize flows by geography, product, or risk level?
  • Can the user experience be fully white-labelled?
  • Are analytics available to help improve conversion?

How GBG does this:

GBG Go provides ready-made journey templates and a visual journey builder that allows teams to customize flows by market, product line, or risk profile. Business users can change steps, thresholds and routing without developer involvement. White-labelling ensures the user experience remains on-brand.

Final thoughts

Moving from multiple KYC vendors to a unified provider isn’t just a technical upgrade. It’s a transformation of your onboarding, compliance, and fraud management strategy. The right partner should help you:

  • Reduce operational complexity
  • Improve match rates and onboarding speed
  • Strengthen fraud and AML controls
  • Support regulatory compliance
  • Scale globally with confidence

With GBG, for example, you can replace fragmented systems with an intelligent, streamlined KYC process that enables easier scaling and better ROI.

FAQs

Why should businesses consolidate multiple KYC vendors into a single provider?

Using one provider reduces operational overhead, simplifies compliance, lowers integration costs, and improves accuracy by unifying risk signals and decisioning. It also reduces the likelihood of mismatched data or inconsistent customer journeys.

What is the main risk of relying on several KYC APIs at once?

Fragmentation leads to duplicated records, inconsistent decisions, and poor visibility across the onboarding process. This increases compliance exposure and creates unnecessary friction for genuine customers.

Can a single provider support onboarding across multiple countries?

Most enterprise-grade KYC platforms, such as GBG Go, now offer broad global coverage, including local data sources, region-specific document checks, and compliance-aligned workflows. This is essential for businesses expanding internationally.

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