Paris, February 10, 2021 - A company created on September 16, 2020 by four trusted third parties (Caisse des Dépôts, EDF, Engie and La Poste), to provide Europeans with high value-added digital trust services, Archipels announces the launch of its first offer for the certification of information related to individuals and companies via the blockchain. Archipels inaugurates the marketing of this service dedicated to the certification of documents with VIALINK, the French leader in the automation of customer files (KYC) for the banking, insurance and real estate industries.
A 1st document certification offer to fight against fraud
While 7 out of 10 companies were victims of a fraud attempt in 2019, players in many sectors of activity, including banks and regulated professions, are expected to carry out around 50 million online checks per year.
Archipels' document certification offer will enable many sectors (banks and neo-banks, brokers, insurers and social service providers) to verify the authenticity of documents, particularly in the context of KYC (Know Your Customer) procedures - by matching the documents transmitted with the issuers' reference systems via the blockchain.
To verify the documents handed over to them, Archipels' customers now have a reliable means of carrying out these checks: whether they are company-related documents (Kbis, Articles of Association, lists of beneficiaries), or invoices, the issuer establishes a cryptographic digital fingerprint integrated into the blockchain; Archipels plays the role of a repository, a veritable register of certified documents.
Proof of auditability and traceability, the Archipels blockchain enables a document to be checked against a digital fingerprint repository. Simply load the documents to be checked onto an online platform developed for the customer, which instantly indicates whether the document is authentic or not. If PDFs are altered or falsified, they are not authenticated. The sovereignty and confidentiality of the documents are thus guaranteed throughout the customer journey, at a time when scandals surrounding the violation of user data are on the increase.
"Thanks to the blockchain, Archipels offers companies certification and protection of incoming data: the data is encrypted and only disclosed at the end of the chain, to guarantee optimal confidentiality. In the long term, our ambition is to bring together a maximum number of companies - players in the private sphere such as issuers of important documents, telephone operators, insurers - but also the public sphere. Thanks to our unique offer, we want to become a reference in data security for companies and individuals in Europe" observes Hervé Bonazzi, CEO of Archipels.
VIALINK, a first partnership in 2021
As a French player in the automation of customer file processing (KYC) for banking, insurance and real estate, VIALINK offers solutions to automate, secure and facilitate critical and complex customer journeys across all channels using digital technology.
As security and protection of personal data are part of its DNA, it is quite natural that VIALINK has chosen to call on Archipels to strengthen its KYC offer. Where a manual analysis was previously the norm, the benefits of automatically analysing a 360° customer file in a matter of seconds, thanks to Archipels' certification service, provide VIALINK's customers with productivity gains, risk minimisation and an improved user experience thanks to a smooth and simple customer journey for their end customers.
For Philippe Sanchis, CEO of VIALINK, the complementary nature of Archipels and VIALINK is obvious: "I immediately embraced the principle and idea of Archipels. Many of the documents we analyse for our customers come from organisations such as EDF and Engie. Archipels provides a guarantee in the authentication of these documents, confirming that they are originals. It is an additional guarantee with high added value in terms of assurance as to the reliability of these documents, and therefore an innovative and effective solution to limit fraud".
Archipels, a consortium blockchain infrastructure for document certification
Archipels also markets access to its blockchain infrastructure in order to offer a simple hosting service, in "platform" mode, to third-party partners wishing to deploy their own data or document certification service.
"We are proud to have been able to launch and support Archipels alongside EDF, Engie and LaPoste. In line with our actions at Caisse des Dépôts, Archipels offers a platform of digital trust services on the Blockchain, secured and verified in compliance with European standards. The aim is to enable citizens and companies to secure their data exchanges and to fight against document fraud", says Benoit Parizet, Chairman of the Archipels Strategic Board and Chief Digital Officer of Caisse des Dépôts.
About VIALINK
As a trusted third party, VIALINK revolutionises customer processes with its solution for automatically verifying supporting documents in customer files and its electronic signature solution.
Its innovation, recognised by numerous French and international awards and certifications, capitalises on extensive experience in the most demanding professions in terms of personal data protection and trust.
A subsidiary of the BRED Banque Populaire banking group, VIALINK was recognised in 2019 as one of the 10 customer knowledge automation (KYC) solution publishers to watch worldwide and in 2020 as the leading KYC "Artificial Intelligence Driven" solution in France, it already has more than 200 customers in France.
About Archipels
Archipels is a consortium created by La Poste, EDF, Engie and the Caisse des Dépôts. Archipels is developing a documentary certification platform based on blockchain technology, the prototype of which was presented at Vivatech in 2019.
Archipels' value proposition is based on a solution to guarantee the authenticity of documents used to guarantee identity. To do this, Archipels' solution enables the identity of individuals and legal entities to be verified - particularly in the context of KYC procedures - from a repository of digital fingerprints provided directly by the issuers.
Archipels' ambition is to become the reference provider in the certification of identity-related data for companies and individuals in Europe.