Building the Identity Infrastructure for India’s Regtech Future : Nitin Pulyani, Cashfree Payments
As India’s digital economy scales at unprecedented speed, robust and inclusive identity verification is no longer a back-office function, it’s the bedrock of trust in online financial services. In an exclusive conversation with Express Computer, Nitin Pulyani, Head of Product at Cashfree Payments, discusses how the company is moving beyond digital payments to power the country’s Regtech revolution. With its AI-powered platform Secure ID, they are building the digital identity infrastructure of the future which is modular, multilingual, fraud-resilient, and tailored to India’s unique onboarding challenges.
He also outlines how Secure ID is helping financial institutions, fintechs and NBFCs scale rapidly by enabling real-time KYC, risk scoring and fraud detection, even in tier 2 and 3 markets. They are redefining secure onboarding at scale, from navigating the latest RBI KYC regulations to launching AI-driven video KYC with regional language support and deepfake detection. With measurable outcomes such as 80% higher user conversions and 75% lower operational costs, Pulyani shares why identity innovation and not just payments innovation, is the next big leap for India’s fintech ecosystem.
Cashfree Payments has been at the forefront of digital payments innovation in India. Could you start by sharing your broader vision for building innovation-driven products that drive seamless experiences in the digital economy, and how Secure ID fits into this mission?
Our core mission has always been to empower businesses to thrive in an internet-first economy by building infrastructure that is simple, secure, scalable, and fast. Innovation, for us, begins with listening and deeply understanding the evolving challenges faced by our merchants and then engineering solutions that unlock real business outcomes for them. Whether it’s simplifying integrations, reducing onboarding delays, or proactively mitigating fraud, every product we build is designed to enable them to superscale their business operations. Secure ID is a powerful manifestation of that vision. We identified a growing gap in digital onboarding and identity verification, especially for fintechs and NBFCs operating across India. Existing KYC processes were often exclusionary, operationally challenging, riddled with regulatory complexities, and vulnerable to fraud, particularly for users in Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets. Secure ID was launched to address this head-on. Built on extensive research and data across Cashfree Payment’s entire merchant network, Secure ID offers a unified platform for end-to-end user identity verification, risk profiling, and compliance, bringing together all of Cashfree’s verification solutions in one place. Our Secure ID suite of solutions help businesses in becoming risk-free and compliant. By combining AI-powered checks, a mobile-first design, real-time fraud detection, and multilingual accessibility, we are reimagining what secure, compliant, and user-friendly digital verification should look like.
Identity verification has emerged as one of the most critical components of digital transactions. What, in your view, makes it such a persistent challenge in today’s digital economy?
Identity verification has today become one of the most critical and complex pillars of the digital economy. The challenge lies in balancing trust, scale, and security. On one hand, users are increasingly cautious about sharing personal and biometric data due to growing concerns around privacy and misuse. This makes transparency and compliance with data protection regulations non-negotiable for any organisation handling sensitive information. Secondly, the sheer volume of digital transaction volume in different industries, from financial services to ecommerce, especially during peak activity, places significant strain on systems. Any lag or inefficiency here can directly impact user experience and conversion. Compounding this is the constant evolution of fraud tactics, with cybercriminals deploying increasingly sophisticated methods to bypass traditional verification flows. In this landscape, it is imperative that identity verification deploys systems that adapt in real-time, ensure compliance, and deliver seamless user journeys at scale.
How is Cashfree addressing this challenge and reimagining the future of digital identity and verification infrastructure in India?
In a fragmented landscape of onboarding and fraud prevention, Secure ID stands out as a unified, AI-powered platform that’s both intelligent and adaptive. By leveraging advanced technologies like Large Language Models (LLMs) and machine learning, it enables real-time identity verification, risk scoring, and fraud detection at scale. Our proprietary features like Smart OCR for document recognition with forgery checks, Face Match with liveness checks, and RiskShield for transaction risk monitoring empower businesses to make faster, safer, and more informed decisions, while staying compliant in a dynamic regulatory environment. Supporting a wide array of compliant onboarding solutions, including document verification (Aadhaar, PAN, Voter ID, DL, Vehicle RC), AI-powered biometric verification (Face Match and Liveness Check), Single-point OCR solution, Location and Device Intelligence, and Comprehensive Bank Account Verification, including beneficiary name check and more, Secure ID makes digital onboarding a highly customised experience. From startups with minimal tech support to large enterprises, it offers modular KYC workflows, multilingual video KYC, and comprehensive fraud APIs, all while delivering 50% higher conversion rates and reducing operational costs by 75%. With >99% success rates and 100% uptime, it’s not just a tool, it’s the identity infrastructure powering India’s digital economy.
What are the latest changes in the RBI’s KYC guidelines and how do they impact the ecosystem?
The RBI’s updated KYC guidelines mark a significant shift towards making digital onboarding more secure, transparent, and inclusive. Key mandates such as verifying user presence during video KYC, time-stamped and auditable video recordings, and robust data encryption underline the regulator’s push for a digital-first, fraud-resilient, and inclusive financial ecosystem. These changes mean businesses can no longer rely on manual or outdated verification methods. The expectation now is clear: businesses must adopt AI-driven, audit-ready KYC solutions that not only detect risk in real-time but also deliver seamless user experiences. Importantly, the RBI has emphasised that the goal is not just stronger compliance, but broader access, ensuring that financial services remain available and secure for users across geographies, especially in rural and semi-urban regions. Secure ID is built to meet both the letter and spirit of these guidelines making onboarding faster, safer, and more inclusive for every user in India.
Artificial intelligence is playing a growing role in cybersecurity. Could you elaborate on how Secure ID leverages AI to proactively detect and prevent identity fraud or misuse?
We believe the future of secure digital onboarding lies in real-time intelligence and AI-driven decisioning. With Secure ID, we’ve built an identity verification engine that doesn’t just follow rules, it learns, adapts, and evolves with the threats it’s designed to combat. Our AI models are trained to analyse thousands of data points during a verification session, checking not only for liveness and face match, but also for behavioural inconsistencies, document tampering, background anomalies, and even deepfake indicators. If there’s even a slight deviation from the expected patterns, the system flags it in real time, enabling proactive intervention. This tech-first, AI-led approach empowers businesses to stay ahead of fraud, and not just respond to it. And equally importantly, it allows genuine users to onboard swiftly, securely, and seamlessly. That’s the real promise of AI in identity verification: security without compromise on experience.
How is Cashfree’s recently launched AI-Video KYC transforming the way financial institutions scale securely in a digital-first world?
Our recently launched AI-powered Video KYC is built to solve a critical challenge for regulated entities: secure, compliant, and seamless digital onboarding at scale. Tailored for NBFCs, banks, lending platforms, insurers, and more, the solution empowers institutions to verify and onboard users pan-India, including in tier 2 and 3 regions where connectivity and accessibility have traditionally been barriers. It is mobile-first, compatible with 10k+ devices and provides access to over 20 regional languages with live AI-based translation during calls, ensuring every Indian gets onboarded with ease, regardless of device or language. Further, by reducing fraud and drop-offs, and enabling real-time verification even in remote areas, this solution will help businesses expand and scale faster. It’s a step forward in our mission to power growth with accessible, trusted, and future-ready financial infrastructure.
From a performance standpoint, what measurable benefits can clients expect with AI-Video KYC?
Our AI-powered Video KYC delivers measurable gains across key performance metrics. Merchants can expect up to 80% improvement in user conversion rates by eliminating common onboarding drop-offs through 7x faster form-filling, smart reminders, and a simplified call experience. In fact, with call durations reduced to under 3 minutes, agent productivity sees a major boost as each agent now gets empowered to handle 200+ calls per day, significantly reducing manpower costs. The platform’s intelligent routing and priority queuing further optimise resource utilisation. In terms of fraud prevention, the system performs 20+ real-time checks, including deepfake, spoof, and liveness detection, leading to a sharp reduction in onboarding-related fraud and ensuring full compliance with RBI and IRDAI guidelines. Altogether, merchants benefit from faster onboarding turnaround times, lower operating costs, improved user satisfaction, and a scalable, audit-ready onboarding stack, purpose-built for today’s and tomorrow’s digital economy.
