Providing Public Personal Authentication (JPKI) and Facial Image Capture with Passive Liveness Detection Options for 'LIQUID eKYC' in Chiba Bank's Web Account Opening

Liquid, Inc. of the ELEMENTS Group (Headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Representative Director: Hiroki Hasegawa) will provide the public personal authentication (JPKI)*1 of the online identity verification service 'LIQUID eKYC', along with facial image capture and a passive facial liveness detection option*2, when opening a WEB account provided by The Chiba Bank, Ltd. (Headquarters: Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture, President: Tsutomu Yonemoto).

With this, facial capture complements the weakness of public personal authentication (JPKI)—namely that 'unauthorized applications by third parties are possible if the card and PIN are aligned'—realizing more rigorous identity verification. Additionally, because facial capture is performed using passive detection*3, it prevents breakthrough methods using deepfakes and the like by attackers that occur in active detection*4, providing more robust security.

*1 A method compliant with Article 6, Paragraph 1, Item 1(ka) of the Ordinance for Enforcement of the Act on Prevention of Transfer of Criminal Proceeds

*2 "'LIQUID eKYC' Equipped with a New Detection Function to Prevent Spoofing During Facial Recognition" (May 31, 2023) https://liquidinc.asia/2023-05-31/

*3 A function performed only from a frontal facial image captured by the end-user. No additional movements are required, and it determines in real-time the authenticity of whether the person captured their own face. Since actions like shaking the head by the end-user are unnecessary, it strengthens anti-fraud measures while reducing the burden on users without giving attackers hints to deduce the detection criteria.

*4 Determining whether the image received from the end-user is not a previously taken photograph but was captured at the time of identity verification, through actions by the end-user such as shaking the head or blinking.

## Summary
- Liquid provides the public personal authentication (JPKI) of the online identity verification service 'LIQUID eKYC', along with facial capture + passive facial liveness detection options, for Chiba Bank's web account opening.
- Through this, facial capture complements the weakness of JPKI ('unauthorized applications by third parties are possible if the card and PIN are aligned'), realizing a stricter and more robust identity verification process.
- In addition to anti-fraud measures via a robust identity verification process, the deciding factor for adoption was the 'IC Omakase Pack' (the fact that 'LIQUID eKYC' supported App Clips).

## Background
Due to the revision of the Ordinance for Enforcement of the Act on Prevention of Transfer of Criminal Proceeds scheduled for April 2027, methods utilizing IC chips will become the premise for non-face-to-face identity verification moving forward.

Public personal authentication (JPKI) is an identity verification method using the IC chip of a My Number card and the PIN of an electronic signature certificate. While this method covers a broad user base and has advantages such as reducing the operational hours for identity verification screening, it also has the weakness that 'unauthorized applications by third parties are possible if the card and PIN are aligned.'

Liquid will now provide the public personal authentication (JPKI)*1 and facial capture of the online identity verification service 'LIQUID eKYC' for Chiba Bank's web account opening. Through this, the public personal authentication (J