Companies from Europe are increasingly looking to expand their reach into the United States. Beyond the potential to connect with a larger market, the US market also provides access to capital and investment and has ample opportunities for increased innovation and collaboration. However, as the economic potential broadens for organizations making this type of move, so do a host of operational challenges. For many organizations, there is concern that this type of expansion invites exposure to more fraud and begs the question of how to deal with it.
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Balancing Opportunities and Challenges: European Businesses Making Moves in the US

First, expanding into the US market presents a huge range of opportunities for U.K. and EU companies, making it a strategic move for business growth. 

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The United States is a global economic powerhouse with a robust GDP of more than $26 trillion in 2023. Entering this market enables EU companies to participate in a dynamic economy, fostering increased revenue potential and long-term financial stability. However, it's important to also acknowledge that despite its economic prowess, the US market presents challenges and limitations for businesses striving to grow. Navigating competition, regulatory intricacies, and adapting to diverse consumer preferences are essential considerations in the pursuit of success within the complex landscape of the US business environment.

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Beyond some of these considerations, here's a closer look at why venturing into the US can be an advantageous part of a growth strategy for companies based in the EU:

Innovation & Capital Access

The US is renowned for its innovation and entrepreneurial spirit. Companies expanding into this market gain exposure to cutting-edge technologies, industry trends, and a thriving ecosystem that encourages creativity and forward-thinking. As a sign of the country’s dedication to innovation and dedication to market disruption, consider that almost $160 billion of venture capital money flowed into US startups in 2023. Compare that with China, which had the second most venture capital funding that year with $48 billion.

A Global Business Network

Operating in the US provides a gateway to a massive global business network. Companies can use their US presence to establish strategic partnerships, collaborations, and alliances with American and international entities, fostering growth and market influence. Through these connections, businesses can not only foster organic growth but also significantly enhance their influence in both local and global markets.

Market Dynamics and Trends

The US has a significant cultural impact worldwide. For EU companies, establishing a presence in this market not only enhances brand recognition but also opens doors to global markets where American culture and business practices are commonly accepted. The US market is dynamic, characterized by evolving consumer preferences and industry trends. EU companies can benefit from staying ahead of the curve, adapting quickly to emerging market dynamics, and gaining a competitive edge. They also need to consider how this market evolution is impacted by corresponding fraud trends.
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How Fraud Mitigation From Prove Supports the Expansion Journey

The opportunity looks quite bright, but it also comes with major challenges. Expanding a business across borders is a complicated, multidimensional process. From grappling with a different set of market dynamics to tackling regulatory barriers, there is no denying that the task requires a great deal of work. One particularly critical concern is the growing challenge of preventing fraud when acquiring new consumers.

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Companies embarking on this journey should start by establishing an effective fraud defense strategy. Prove has built a position over the past 10 years as the fraud solution leader in the US market, and, with its success as a provider in the EU as well, it is uniquely capable of supporting EU companies expanding globally.

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Prove has brought to the EU the most advanced fraud solutions that address the specific needs of companies in this rapidly growing and changing market. We work directly with leading global data and information providers to acquire and utilize their critical identity data to help companies rapidly, and accurately, identify and onboard more “good” customers.

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The identity verification and authentication solutions offered by Prove do this by relying on a ubiquitous tool possessed by nearly every adult consumer: the mobile phone. This approach empowers businesses to extend service access to a broader range of consumers, irrespective of their demographic or data profile. By leveraging the widespread use of mobile phones, Prove significantly diminishes consumer friction and minimizes bias, ensuring more inclusive and equitable access to services.

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Prove’s EU customers can use the following elements to drive their expansion efforts into the US:

Mobile Intelligence Signals

Unlike legacy solutions that rely on credit header information and minimal data sets, Prove uses mobile intelligence signals, which provide a holistic view of user identities that adds layers of important detail to authentication methods. This delivers persistently orchestrated information to increase the accuracy of identity profiles.

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Using these signals, the Prove platform can evaluate a comprehensive array of phone and mobile signals that undergo analysis and synthesis to offer valuable insights for identity verification, identity authentication, and fraud prevention. Key examples of telecom signals contributing to phone intelligence include:

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• Phone Line Tenure: The duration for which a phone line has been active, providing a historical perspective on its usage.
• Phone Behavior Metrics: Insightful data on phone behavior, encompassing calls, texts, logins, and ad views, offering a comprehensive understanding of user engagement.
• Phone Line Change Events: Events such as ports, snap-backs, win-backs, true disconnects, and phone number changes, shedding light on alterations in phone line status.
• Phone Number Account Takeovers: Instances like SIM swaps indicate potential unauthorized access or changes to the associated phone number's account.
• Velocity and Behavior of Change Events: Analysis of the speed and patterns associated with change events, providing a dynamic view of how alterations occur over time.

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This mobile intelligence plays a pivotal role in enhancing security measures and decision-making processes related to identity and fraud management. Growing your audience in a new market requires enhanced fraud prevention, and the use of mobile signals provides the most effective measure, irrespective of where the users originate.

Fraud Detection Capabilities

From spotting anomalous behavior to flagging suspicious transactions, Prove offers near real-time insights that businesses can trust. Our fraud detection capabilities empower customers to not only verify identities and prevent fraud but also to monitor transactions and support credit underwriting processes.

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Leveraging these mobile intelligence signals, Prove's customers gain the ability to elevate both new customer onboarding and ongoing client engagement seamlessly, ensuring a frictionless, rapid, and secure experience. Through the Prove Pre-Fill^® digital identity solution, users can streamline customer account openings while effectively mitigating the risks associated with fraudulent account creation. This solution automatically populates online applications with consumer information sourced from authoritative databases, offering an enhanced customer experience by saving time and concurrently reducing risks related to fraud.

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The process uses identity verification using the Prove Identity^® digital identity verification solution, optionally incorporating Know Your Customer (KYC) measures, which will be mandatory for US business operations. This comprehensive approach ensures that clients have versatile tools at their disposal to tailor the onboarding process according to specific requirements while maintaining a high level of security and efficiency.

Seamless User Experience

Here's the beauty of it all—while the Prove Identity^® solution is busy safeguarding against potential risks, it ensures that users enjoy a seamless experience. Integration is smooth, and users can engage with the platform confidently, knowing that their identities are not just protected but also seamlessly woven into their journey.

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Legacy identity verification solutions create excessive friction, require redundant data entry, and are frustratingly time-consuming for users. Customers who expect a seamless and efficient onboarding journey are instead confronted with a seemingly endless set of steps, leading to frustration and potential abandonment of the onboarding process. The inability to detect evolving fraud tactics exposes both customers and businesses to increased risks, undermining the sense of security that should come with an identity verification process built to align with the customer experience.

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The Prove Pre-Fill^® solution has revolutionized the entire onboarding experience by matching consumers to trusted data sources, simplifying the validation process for customers. This innovative and patent-pending approach harnesses billions of near real-time signals extracted from authoritative, phone-related sources to construct robust and consistently accurate identity profiles.

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At its core, this approach revolves around leveraging information from a consumer's phone. With an overwhelming 99% of consumers owning a personal phone number, the phone-centric identity approach by Prove allows authentication and verification based on the possession of the phone, utilizing 128-bit encryption tied to the mobile phone. This, coupled with a behavioral-based reputation profile, enables Prove to assess user risk comprehensively. The coordination of all of this information with details like name, address, phone number, and email facilitates swift and seamless authentication, ensuring a rapid and smooth user experience while upholding accuracy in identity checks.

The Prove Pre-Fill® solution drives this process with the use of cryptographic authentication, a robust measure ensuring that only information provided from trusted data sources is automatically filled. This cryptographic layer adds an additional level of security, instilling confidence in the accuracy and reliability of the auto-filled information.

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^{Partnering with Prove}

^{As part of your expansion across the Atlantic, consider the role that fraud prevention plays in supporting faster, more efficient growth. The Prove platform is comprehensive in its approach – it isn’t just about identifying and reducing fraud, nor is it a simple check for identities. With the following solutions, Prove’s EU and US customers have a single solution to address how a fraud defense can enhance rapid customer acquisition:}

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• ^{Prove Pre-Fill®: Enables companies to onboard consumers in as few as 10 seconds by auto-filling application forms with data from authoritative sources to thwart account opening fraud. Users will benefit from a faster, easier, and more secure sign-up process, where information is only auto-filled with their consent.}
• ^{Prove Identity®: Validates consumer-provided personal identity information and confirms phone number ownership using authoritative data, including device and phone number data while maintaining privacy for all customers.}
• ^{Trust Score®: A near real-time measure of phone number reputation that can be leveraged for identity verification and authentication purposes. The Trust Score® API analyzes behavioral and cryptographic authentication signals from authoritative sources at the time of a potential transaction to mitigate fraud such as SIM swap and other account takeover schemes.}

^{Mobile Auth℠: Provides a near real-time authentication of the status of a consumer on a mobile network by silently authenticating that consumer while requiring no action on their part.}