# Identity Insights for Accounts
source: https://developer.mastercard.com/identity-insights-for-accounts/documentation/index.md

## Overview {#overview}

Today's digital economy has transformed consumer behaviors and expectations. As more interactions are conducted virtually, consumers have come to expect every company to have a smooth, easy digital onboarding process.

For financial institutions especially, the balance between consumer friction and fraud detection is even more acute when assessing thin-file or unbanked consumers. Risk-averse banks often treat applications as fraudulent until proven otherwise to protect against growing identity fraud, leading to poor user experiences that may drive good consumers to competitors.

With additional identity insights and predictive signals, it is possible to balance customer acquisition goals while combating fraud. **Mastercard Identity Insights for Accounts** enable real-time risk assessments without disrupting potential customers. Unlike other account opening solutions, we provide dynamic data sources --- including device intelligence, individual attributes (PII) and predictive signals and scores --- in a single API response to enable businesses to optimize their onboarding decisioning.

#### Key Features {#key-features}

###### Individual Attributes (PII) {#individual-attributes-pii}

High-quality licensed data from global providers to access the validity of individual attributes and how they are linked together.

###### Device intelligence {#device-intelligence}

Real time signals to assess device authenticity, spoofed settings, or association with past fraud across our device network.

###### Predictive Signals and Scores {#predictive-signals-and-scores}

Network and model-derived predictions to assess the potential risk of an application and inform onboarding decisions and rules.

See [the product page](https://developer.mastercard.com/product/identity-insights-for-accounts) for marketing and case study details.

## How It Works {#how-it-works}

Identity Insights for Accounts can be used by financial services, merchants, eCommerce, marketplaces or by a one-to-many reseller partner (Payment Service Provider or Fraud Platform).

![how it works](https://static.developer.mastercard.com/content/identity-insights-for-accounts/uploads/IIA_Customer_Flow_Chart.png)

#### Execution Steps {#execution-steps}

1. The consumer initiates a digital account application.
2. The customer queries the Identity Insights for Accounts API directly to gain individual and device insights on the account opening request.
3. The customer leverages the predictive signals and scores for risk decisioning to determine how to proceed with the onboarding request.
4. Based on the onboarding decision, the customer can approve the new account application for low-risk applicants, initiate additional authentication steps for medium-risk applicants, or deny or initiate manual reviews for high-risk applicants.

## Good to Know {#good-to-know}

* We have created a [Reference Application](https://developer.mastercard.com/identity-insights-for-accounts/documentation/reference-app/index.md) to get you started
* Refer to the [Use Cases](https://developer.mastercard.com/identity-insights-for-accounts/documentation/use-cases/index.md) for additional details on how the API works
* Refer to the [Tutorials and Guides](https://developer.mastercard.com/identity-insights-for-accounts/documentation/tutorials-and-guides/index.md) for additional guidance

## Next Steps {#next-steps}

When you are ready to use the APIs, refer to the [API Basics](https://developer.mastercard.com/identity-insights-for-accounts/documentation/api-basics/index.md) page for API authentication, and environment details.