Maya is using the Philippine National ID system and artificial intelligence (AI) to automate parts of its customer verification process, cutting overall consumer onboarding turnaround time by 84%.
The fintech company said it has integrated National ID eVerify, the Philippine Statistics Authority’s identity-verification service, into its know-your-customer (KYC) process, allowing eligible users to upgrade their accounts without photographing or uploading a physical identification card.
The deployment comes as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has proposed requiring supervised financial institutions to integrate with National ID authentication services for customer due diligence and identity verification.
“National digital infrastructure gives us a trusted foundation to build on,” said Alfred Lo, chief technology officer at Maya. “By combining the National ID with homegrown AI and automation, we can remove friction for customers while keeping verification robust and scalable. It shows how shared digital infrastructure can make financial services easier to access and safer to scale.”
Since early this year, eligible Maya customers have been able to enter their National ID number instead of uploading a physical ID and manually providing information already contained in government records.
Maya verifies the information through National ID eVerify against National ID records and completes the identity check using a video selfie. If information is missing, the system asks the customer to provide only the additional details required.
Customers who cannot be verified through National ID eVerify can switch to the regular ID-upload process without restarting their application, the company said.
Maya said AI and automation are also being used to handle repetitive verification tasks behind the process.
The company uses agentic AI, or AI systems designed to carry out defined steps within a controlled workflow, in its National ID-based KYC and account “deduplication” processes. The technology helps validate information, detect possible duplicate accounts, conduct required checks, and send exceptions for human review.
According to Maya, the changes have reduced overall consumer onboarding turnaround time by 84%, while allowing employees to focus on exceptions, investigations, and cases requiring human judgment.
The company said the automated process continues to apply BSP and other regulatory requirements covering KYC, identity verification, screening, and related checks.
Maya presented the National ID use case at the recent BSP AI Summit, where it was among three companies invited to discuss applications of AI in the Philippine financial sector.
“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, head of data governance at Maya, who presented the company’s experience at the summit themed “From Pilot to Practice: AI Adoption in the Philippine Financial Sector.”
The National ID integration forms part of Maya’s broader use of AI across its financial services operations. The company said it uses machine learning, decision engines, behavioral scoring, anomaly detection, and intelligent automation in areas including credit, fraud management, personalization, customer service, and operations.
