Maya has reduced the overall turnaround time for consumer onboarding by 84 percent after integrating the Philippine Statistics Authority’s National ID eVerify service into its onboarding process and using artificial intelligence to automate parts of identity verification.

The fintech company, which presented the findings at the recent Bangko Sentral ng Plipinas AI Summit, said the integration combines the National ID system with AI and automation to make account opening faster while maintaining required safeguards.

“By combining the National ID with homegrown AI and automation, we can remove friction for customers while keeping verification robust and scalable,” Maya Chief Technology Officer Alfred Lo said.

Under the streamlined process, eligible customers can upgrade their accounts by entering their National ID number instead of photographing or uploading a physical ID and manually re-entering information already held in government records.

Maya then verifies the customer’s information through National ID eVerify and completes the identity verification process through a video selfie. If additional information is required, customers are asked to provide only the missing details.

Customers who cannot be verified through National ID eVerify can still proceed through Maya’s regular ID-upload process without restarting their application.

Maya said the streamlined process does not reduce its safeguards and continues to comply with applicable Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas requirements on know-your-customer procedures, identity verification, screening and other regulatory checks.

“For us, the real test of AI is not how advanced the model sounds. It is whether it solves a real customer problem safely, reliably and at scale,” said Melecio Valerio, Maya’s head of data governance.

Behind the process, Maya uses agentic AI to perform defined verification tasks under set controls. The technology helps validate information, identify potential duplicate accounts, conduct required checks and route exceptions to human employees for review.

The National ID-based process was among the use cases presented at the BSP AI Summit, where Maya was one of three companies invited to demonstrate how AI is being used in the Philippine financial sector.

The initiative comes as the BSP has proposed requiring supervised financial institutions to integrate with National ID authentication services for customer due diligence and identity verification.

Maya said the National ID-first onboarding initiative forms part of its broader AI strategy, which also uses machine learning, decision engines, behavioral scoring, anomaly detection and intelligent automation across areas including credit, fraud management, customer care and operations.