By John Kontos, Senior Vice President, Scotiabank Automotive Finance
Automotive fraud is a growing challenge across Canada, with increasingly sophisticated methods affecting dealers, consumers, and automotive finance companies. Falsified documents and misrepresented information continue to pose significant risks, making fraud prevention a business priority at every level. Today, identification verification is more critical than ever, and as an industry we must work together to address these threats and safeguard our clients, assets, and reputations.
This is where new technology is playing an important role. The auto industry is increasingly adopting advanced ID verification solutions that integrate real-time biometric recognition, document verification, and apply AI-powered risk indicators into the sales workflow.
These tools enable teams to quickly validate government-issued IDs, perform a liveness check to verify whether an individual is real, and cross reference applicant data. Often, validation is delivered in as little as 15 seconds.
As fraudsters continue to become more sophisticated in their methods, the benefits of leveraging modern ID verification tools are clear. Not only are they key in preventing fraud by verifying that the client is who they claim to be, but they also mitigate financial risk by ensuring that application information is accurate, preventing losses from money laundering or fake applications.
Just as important, ensuring proper client identification and record keeping helps to meet requirements from regulatory bodies, such as Canada’s Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC), which can protect dealerships from significant fines or legal investigations for non-compliance.
Dealerships can do their part by continuing to train frontline staff on identity verification and fraud detection. And ID verification should be a required step in every transaction. In fact, enhanced ID verification tools may assist dealers in adhering to FINTRAC’s new anti-money laundering rules set to take effect in April 2026.
In partnership with our dealers, Scotiabank Automotive Finance provides ongoing training on how to identify fraud, and Scotiabank employees at all levels are equipped to spot and report potential financial crimes.
As the leader in automotive finance in Canada1, we at Scotiabank appreciate your partnership as we navigate this evolving landscape together.
John Kontos, Senior Vice President, Scotiabank Automotive Finance
This article was originally published in Automotive News and is republished with permission.
1 Scotiabank has the highest market share in Prime Retail Automotive Finance among Canadian Banks as calculated using industry reports.
