Comparison
Video KYC or qualified signature: remote client identification in Lithuania
Lithuanian anti-money-laundering law permits identifying a client who is not physically present in more than one way. The market knows one of them well: video verification, where the client photographs an identity document and their own face. There is another: the client signs with a qualified electronic signature.
These are not the same product at different prices. They are two different ways of answering the same question, and they leave very different traces – one creates a set of biometric data, the other does not.
Side by side
| Question | Video verification | Qualified signature (Tvarka) |
|---|---|---|
| What it relies on | A photograph of an identity document and of the person's face | A qualified certificate, issued only after the person's identity was established |
| Biometric data | Yes – a facial image is processed and stored | None. No video, no selfie |
| What the client has to do | Open or install a verification flow, photograph the document and themselves | Sign a prepared document with a means they already hold |
| What you receive as evidence | The vendor's report on the outcome of the check | An ASiC-E container with the signed document, the register responses and the attorney's attestation |
| Who can check that evidence | You have to trust the vendor's report | Any qualified-signature validation tool, years later |
| Does it establish the role in the company | Usually not – that is a separate KYB service | Yes – the personal code in the certificate is matched against the register record for the role |
| Commitment | Monthly minimums or contracts are the market norm | No minimum. You pay for a delivered package |
| A check that does not succeed | Vendor-dependent – some bill attempts | Free. An identity mismatch, an unfinished signing or a role nobody holds all cost nothing |
| Clients without a qualified signature | Works with documents from many countries | Works with EU qualified signatures; without one, another method is needed |
When to choose video verification
- You onboard clients from many countries, a large share of whom hold no qualified electronic signature.
- You verify at consumer volume and the price per check is what matters most.
- You need the identity document itself examined – whether it is genuine, whether it has expired – and not only who the person is.
- Your supervisor or your internal policy specifically requires video identification.
When to choose a qualified signature
- Your clients are Lithuanian companies and the people behind them, who already hold and use a qualified signature daily.
- You want evidence rather than a report – something a supervisor or a court can verify independently two years from now.
- You would rather not process facial images at all: not collect them, not store them, not have to explain where they live.
- You need identity together with authority: not only who the person is, but whether they really hold the role they are relying on.
- You onboard a modest number of clients and do not want a monthly minimum for a system that sits idle.
How the Tvarka identification package works
You order it with a company code and a role. The registers say who holds that role. The person signs a prepared document with their own qualified electronic signature, and the personal code in their certificate is matched against the register record automatically. The responsible attorney-at-law attests that correspondence with a qualified signature of their own, and you receive one ASiC-E container. It is delivered through the Tvarka Due diligence API, so it can be wired into your own onboarding flow.