Architecture and Components
🏗️ KYC Architecture and Components
📊 KYC Architecture Diagram
🏛️ KYC Architecture and Components
The KYC (Know Your Customer) system is a modular platform for automated identity verification based on uploaded document images, selfies, and other sources. The system architecture flexibly adapts to various business scenarios and requirements — from banking and fintech to marketplaces and government services.
Supported scenarios:
- Document — the user uploads a photo of a passport, ID card, or other identification document.
- Selfie with document — verifying the match between the user’s face and the document photo.
- Selfie — verification using a single face image.
- Liveness check — confirming that a live person is in front of the camera, not a photo or forgery.
- Combined scenarios — e.g., document + selfie with document + liveness.
Component purpose:
Each KYC component is responsible for a specific stage of processing and verification:
- Document image processing: detection, alignment, classification, and segmentation of the document into fields (photo, name, dates, etc.).
- Text recognition (OCR): extracting data and validating checksums.
- Face image analysis: comparing the face to the document photo, estimating age and gender.
- Anti‑fraud mechanisms: detecting photocopies, screenshots, Photoshop edits, screen captures, physical wear.
- Liveness check: detecting whether a living person is in front of the camera.
- External database integrations: checking the document and user against police, bailiff, and blacklist databases.
- Decision Engine: the final stage, where all results are aggregated and a final decision is formed: “Approved”, “Rejected”, or “Manual review required”.
Thus, the KYC architecture is built around a set of independent, scalable, and interconnected modules that allow it to quickly adapt to any verification scenario.
🗂️ Architecture and Module Interaction
Text diagram of the typical DOCUMENT + SELFIE WITH DOCUMENT workflow
Text diagram of the typical DOCUMENT + SELFIE WITH DOCUMENT workflow
User sends images (document + selfie with document) via WebSDK/API
|
v
+---------------+
| API Gateway |
+-------+-------+
|
+--------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+
| | | | |
v v v v v
+------------+ +-------------+ +----------------+ +----------------+
| Document | | Selfie | | Liveness Check | | External |
| Detector | | Detector | | | | Databases |
|(doc image) | |(selfie+doc) | | | | (police, etc.) |
+-------+----+ +-------+-----+ +-----------+----+ +-----------+----+
| | | |
v v | |
+-----------------+ +-------------------+ | |
|Quality Check | |Selfie Verification| | |
|(format, size, | | - Face Matching | | |
| lighting, align)| | - Gender, age | | |
+-------+---------+ | - Doc detector | | |
| --- | --- |
v | | | |
+-----------------+ +---------+---------+ | |
|Document Type | | | |
|Classification | | | |
+-------+---------+ | | |
| --- |
+-----------+ | | |
| | | | |
v v v v v
+-------------+ +-----------------+ +---------------+ +--------------+
|Segmentation | |Antifraud Checks | |Liveness Result| |External Check|
|(fields, doc | |(screens, copies,| | | |Results |
|photo, stamp)| | editors, wear, | +--------+------+ +-------+------+
+-----+-------+ | logic) | | |
| +-----------------+ | |
v | |
+-------------+ | |
| OCR | | |
|(text, MRZ, | | |
|tampering) | | |
+-----+-------+ | |
| | |
+-------------+------------------------+----------------+
|
v
+----------------+
| Decision Engine|
| (Final Decision)|
+--------+-------+
|
v
+--------------+
| Result |
| (Approved / |
| Rejected / |
|Manual Review)|
+------+-------+
|
v
+--------------+
| API Gateway |
+-------+------+
|
v
User1. Document Detector
Responsible for detecting the presence of a document in the image, validating quality, and preparing it for further processing.
Functions:
- File format validation (JPEG, PNG)
- Image size and resolution check
- Lighting and shadow check
- Document alignment and normalization
2. Selfie with Document Detector
Responsible for verifying the selfie with document, matching identity, and detecting fraud attempts.
Functions:
- Face Matching between selfie and document photo
- Age and gender consistency check
- Detection of screen images (photo of a monitor/phone)
- Detection of graphic editor traces
- Detection of photocopies/prints
- Document detection in selfie and document type identification
3. Liveness Check
Responsible for confirming that a live human is in front of the camera. The module analyzes face behavior, skin texture, micro‑movements, and signs of real presence.
Functions:
- Analysis of image sequences or video for liveness signals
- Rejection of photos or screen captures
- Deepfake detection — identifying manipulated or AI‑generated face images
- Detection of fully synthetic images (GAN/Stable Diffusion/FaceApp etc.)
4. External Database Verification
Responsible for checking the user against official registries, government databases, financial datasets, and sanctions lists.
Functions include:
- Document & identity checks
- Passport validity check
- Driver license verification
- Passport validity checks (number verification, lost/stolen database)
- Debts & financial checks
- Court Enforcement Office debt search
- IRS/ HMRC tax liabilities
- Self-employment tax status (IRS Schedule SE / HMRC Self Assessment)
- Credit bureau score (Equifax / Experian / TransUnion)
- Short-term loan default risk score
- Mortgage and lien records search
- Phone number activity & carrier history
- Name-to-phone reverse lookup validation
- Legal and judicial checks
- U.S. Bankruptcy Register / UK Insolvency Register
- Commercial court cases (UK: High Court / US: Commercial Division)
- Civil and criminal court cases
- Register of company directors (Companies House / SEC records)
- Corporate affiliation records (SEC/Companies House)
- Wanted lists: FBI / U.S. Marshals Service / HM Prison & Probation Service
- Identity data checks
- Social Security Number (SSN) ↔ full name validation
- Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) lookup by name & ID
- Email ↔ Full name correspondence check
- Phone number ownership check
- Sanctions & restrictions
- Terrorist lists
- Sanctions lists (EU, UK, OFAC, UN)
- Frozen business accounts (IRS/OFAC compliance)
- Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) register
- Child support debtors (Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement)
5. Document Classification & Segmentation
Responsible for determining the document type and extracting important regions.
Functions:
- Document type classification (passport, driver license, ID card, etc.)
- Segmentation into fields (photo, text areas, stamps, signatures)
6. OCR & Field Verification
Recognizes the text and validates authenticity.
Functions:
- OCR text extraction
- Detection of tampering (inserted/replaced fields)
- MRZ checksum verification
7. Document Antifraud Checks
Responsible for identifying attempts to forge or alter the document.
Functions:
- Detection of screen images
- Detection of photocopies/printed documents
- Graphic editor manipulation detection
- Document wear/damage detection
- Logical consistency validation (dates, numbers, series)
8. Decision Engine
Aggregates all results and produces the final KYC decision.
Functions:
- Collecting outputs from all modules
- Producing final status: “Approved”, “Rejected”, “Manual review”
- Returning error codes and diagnostic descriptions
