Case Study: Polarify achieves passwordless authentication and e-KYC for Japan with Daon

How a joint venture of SMFG/SMBC, Daon, and NTT Data ignited the Japanese market for real-time, cross-channel biometric authentication and eKYC

Polarify, the joint venture of SMFG/SMBC, Daon, and NTT Data, set out to help banks and service providers in Japan replace high-friction password-based authentication with secure, convenient biometric authentication, while also enabling paperless Know Your Customer (KYC) onboarding. The challenge was to reduce customer frustration, lower support costs tied to password resets, and meet Japan’s growing demand for a safer digital identity experience. Daon provided the biometric authentication and digital onboarding technology used in Polarify’s API, app, and SDK offerings.

Using Daon’s biometric platform, Polarify delivered real-time, cross-channel authentication by face, voice, and other modalities, plus e-KYC capabilities that let customers upload an ID document and selfie instead of visiting a branch. The solution helped Polarify become a de facto market standard for biometric identity services in Japan, and it is now used by major customers including Nippon Life Insurance, SBI Forex Trading, and SMBC retail banking. Daon’s ongoing assessment of biometric technology also gave Polarify a future-proofed solution with support for evolving security features like liveness detection.

Polarify

Tomohiro Wada

Chief Executive Officer