Fortunately, technology improves identity verification speed, accuracy and reliability, the first step of an effective AML program. Leveraging APIs, AI/ML, biometrics and advanced optical character recognition (OCR) technologies enables banks to gather more information and analyze it more intelligently. Consideration of numerous alternative sources such as email history, mobile data and mobile app analytics can assist in risk assessments. The result is a higher likelihood of detecting synthetic and fraudulent identities before issuing an account.