Opening a bank account today looks very different than it did a decade ago. Behind each transaction is a growing reliance on advanced identity verification technologies that help protect both customers and banks.
As AI-powered fraud becomes more sophisticated, financial institutions are under pressure to strengthen identity verification without adding friction for customers. AI-driven deepfake fraud is projected to increase 495 percent in 2026 compared to 2025, highlighting how quickly fraud techniques are evolving. Rather than isolated incidents, financial institutions are confronting a broader shift in which AI enables fraud to scale more rapidly, making it increasingly difficult for traditional authentication methods to keep pace.
In Mexico, that effort has taken the form of new requirements issued by the National Banking and Securities Commission (CNBV). On July 1, 2026, the agency published amendments to the General Provisions Applicable to Credit Institutions, expanding existing identity verification requirements to include facial biometrics alongside fingerprint verification for in-person banking transactions.
Previous regulations relied primarily on fingerprint verification for in-person identity confirmation. Under the new rules, financial institutions have 90 days to implement liveness verification methods while continuing to protect biometric information from being sold, shared or transferred to third parties. The amendments also require facial biometric verification to achieve a minimum 90 percent match against government identity records, strengthening identity authentication requirements across financial institutions.
The update reflects a trend across Latin America. Governments are placing greater emphasis on the use of biometrics, financial services are becoming more digital and fraud is growing more sophisticated. Organizations such as the FIDO Alliance were founded to help advance stronger authentication standards as identity threats continue to develop. Together, regulations and industry standards reinforce the importance of building identity verification systems that can adapt over time rather than simply satisfy today’s requirements.
For banks, complying with these requirements means implementing authentication systems that can verify the biometric sample is being presented by a real person. Fraud techniques will keep evolving, and platforms built only to satisfy the current rule risk falling behind.
