South African regulation software and services provider e4 Group has embarked on an aggressive expansion into new territories, including Australia, the UK and the USA.In a briefing to media yesterday, Stuart Hosford, managing director of e4 Australia, said his firm's virtual VOI (verification of identity) application for mortgage brokers has been running in beta format (ie, a test phase) via consumer mortgage search website HashChing.At the briefing, Hosford claimed that the e4 platform can provide a level of digital identification that allows brokers to be satisfied of a customer's identity entirely via their digital device, with the conversation recorded in real time. The e4 app relies on a live integrated video feed, and runs in a similar way to Skype or Apple's FaceTime. To this is added real time biometric matching, live uploading of all required documents for validation via industry data sources (for example the Australian government's Digital Verification Service), along with other measures such as customer geotagging.The e4 app, which operates, has so far involved just a few brokers from HashChing's panel of around 500 brokers. It will have a commercial launch "within a few weeks", Hosford said. If a customer applying for a home loan meets all the inbuilt checks, this will meet local anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism rules for paper-based and electronic identification to a "safe harbour" level, he said.Hosford added that this platform, which cuts out the need for a potential new customer to visit a bank branch or Post Office to verify their identity in person, would reduce the time and cost for mortgage applications from hours to minutes, while also cutting "customer attrition" (moving off a bank's website because it seems too much trouble to visit a branch in person) and meeting Know Your Customer regulations.In addition to HashChing, e4 is targeting large broker groups to establish its credentials with these third party mortgage aggregators, using a transaction-based model (ie, brokers will pay for what they use). "We are in conversation with Connective, Aussie and AFG," Hosford said.While conceding Aussie is owned by Commonwealth Bank, Hosford said he is otherwise steering clear of the Big Four as his selling point is that the e4 app keeps customers out of branches, whereas, he asserted, the majors want to "get people in the branches because they can cross-sell."Hosford's other line of attack is to go to market through via the business lines of mid-tier Australian banks, "digital first" banks and other financial services providers of scale outside of the majors: ING Direct, Gateway Credit Union, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, HSBC, CUA and Liberty were mentioned by Hosford as being firmly in his sights.Hosford said the cost of his firm's service per transaction was around one-third of competitors, especially where face to face contact was required. Prior to the arrival of e4, these costs were in the range of A$15 to $30-plus.He has high expectations that other industry players such as the automated mortgage settlement platform PEXA and other online home loan sites such as professional