The market for financial products that teach kids about budgeting, saving, and spending has opened up massively. So, how does KYC for these types of digital financial services work? Let's take a look...
The market for children’s financial products is huge and growing fast. It makes sense when, according to Ofcom research, in 2020, 55% of all children aged 5-15 had their own smartphone and 61% their own tablet. The evolution to the first stages of financial independence through a digital financial product makes sense.
Giving young people access to controlled amounts of money for spending and saving via their phone or a card can be a way to learn about budgeting, saving, and financial management.
Fintica estimates a potential market value of more than $50 billion worldwide for products aimed at children and teenagers. This considers retail tech for kids and the market includes a range of apps such as those for financial education, digital pocket money, trading, and money-for-chores.
There’s been a rise in the popularity of subscription-based financial products for children. Most of these services allow parents or guardians to set spending limits and some receiving limits. And with this comes the question of KYC or know your customer. Who is due diligence performed on? When does KYC happen? And how is risk monitored?
But first the players to provide an idea of how these products work.
One player in this space is Rooster. It allows cards to be issued to children over the age of eight. The money can be stored in different “pots” – Spend, Save, and Give – and the money in the Spend pot can be used on the card. This means parents and guardians can predetermine how much money the child spends on the card. For added security, with Rooster, the card generates a new CVV code every time a payment is made.
One of the biggest players in the UK is GoHenry. It allows parents to control up to four child accounts from one app, complete with prepaid and customizable Visa debit cards. The parent or guardian loads funds onto their side of the account, which can then be used to generate a regular allowance to the child or children, or it can be used to make one-off payments.
Gimi helps parents and children keep on top of allowances and chores via a virtual piggy bank, with defined rewards for specific tasks - similar to GoHenry - and it also supplies financial education in the form of earning, saving, and spending lessons.
There might be a proliferation of financial products that can be managed from a phone and accessed via a card, but traditional banking has always offered accounts to children.
In the case of a good old bank account, a child becomes a part of the compliance process. Currently, a child has to be at least 11 years old to open their own bank account and some bank accounts for children have a higher minimum age.
Usually, a parent or guardian will need to be present to set up a bank account for a child – unless that child is aged 16 or above. Some banks offer separate accounts for teenagers with extra features that aren’t present on a younger child’s account.
To set up a bank account for a child in the UK, for example, you usually need to provide two identification documents, such as a name ID (passport or birth certificate) and address ID (these can be in the parent’s name if the child lives with the adult).
This is a necessary part of know your customer (KYC) activity to ensure fraud and money laundering are prevented through a tax-free account. In fact, the FT reports a rise in children being recruited as “money mules”, with fraudsters encouraging them to open new accounts for cash. This sort of crime has risen during the pandemic.
KYC is a process financial services providers go through before offering products to customers. It means the banks or provider will verify the customer and assess their risk level - identifying any significant issues such as sanctions exposure, which ultimately could lead to off-boarding.
However, for many of the newer, digital financial products, KYC isn’t carried out on the child at all i.e., the person receiving or using the prepaid card. Instead, KYC is carried out on the parent or guardian who is subscribing to the product and funding the card.
The subscriber i.e., the parent or guardian, is the person who goes through a verification or customer due diligence (CDD) process. This involves checking their ID and address details to verify they are legitimate. In most instances, the risks are considered to be low, and the KYC is relatively straightforward.
But what happens when the subscriber’s child grows up or reaches 18? Does that individual then go through a KYC process? The answer is probably not.
With many of the new digital financial products for children, the account is allowed to carry on as long as the subscription is paid, regardless of whether the child has now become an adult. The child could - for instance - be a student and still need access to the bank of mum and dad.
It could be argued, however, that there is a risk posed at this point to the financial institution. Potentially they have a fully grown adult receiving funds via an app or prepaid card without them having gone through a KYC or anti-money laundering (AML) process. There isn’t a legal requirement for KYC to take place on the child, and because it's assumed they are a child or a dependent the perceived risk is low.
There is a possibility this opens an avenue for money laundering. It's perhaps time to consider a stage in the KYC process that accounts for this and do additional risk monitoring. Adding this step automatically would put in place processes and decision checkpoints to ensure ongoing reviews that could help avoid risk and identify suspicious activity taking place on an account.
Regtech solutions can automate and manage any kind of KYC process, and they can be used for perpetual KYC or set review periods. Moody’s Analytics KYC can be configured to onboard and monitor risk for any product or customer - kids, adults, or something in between.
The software can also build flags into an automated compliance process to, for instance, highlight when a child turns 18 and re-run due diligence checks, or start a new process altogether. This way, whether you are a high street bank or a digital provider, you can be more certain the adorable, toy-collecting kid you thought you knew at 11 hasn’t transformed into a master criminal aged 18.
Moody’s Analytics is transforming risk and compliance, creating a world where risk is understood so decisions can be made with confidence about whom to work with.
Our customers build their own unique KYC ecosystem using our flexible workflow orchestration platform, leading datasets, analytical insights, and integrations with global providers to create solutions that help identify risks and the threats of financial crime.
Get in touch any time to talk about your KYC program – we would love to hear from you.