Arina Rumiantseva, Senior Legal Counsel at Sumsub, joins FinTech TV’s Raghda Ibraheem for an interview nominated by MENA Fintech Association, covering the state of identity fraud and verification across the UAE, wider MENA region, EU, UK and CIS.
Sumsub, the AI-driven global verification platform, is currently tracking 23,000 fraudulent attempts a day, most combining genuine ID documents with falsified photos and deepfake biometrics. Rumiantseva explains how Sumsub counters this with ten years of dedicated R&D across biometric verification, document analysis and behavioural signals.
The conversation covers the regulatory shift from onboarding checks toward full-lifecycle monitoring, the Middle East’s ambitious digital sandbox and digital identity initiatives compared with Europe’s heavier, unified compliance requirements, the differences between verifying crypto users and bank customers, and the unresolved legal question of AI explainability in verification decisions.
Her closing point: the highest-risk fraud does not happen at onboarding. It happens afterward, through social engineering and account takeovers, once verification is already complete.
Topics discussed: deepfake and synthetic identity fraud, ongoing KYC and transaction monitoring, MENA and EU regulatory approaches, crypto versus banking verification, AI explainability, account takeover risk.
Guest: Arina Rumiantseva, Senior Legal Counsel, Sumsub
Interviewer: Raghda Ibraheem, FinTech TV Nominated by: MENA Fintech Association