canonical: https://jentic.com/apis/prembly.com/prembly

# Prembly API

Prembly provides identity verification and fraud prevention services focused on emerging markets across Africa and beyond. The API supports document verification, biometric face matching, liveness detection, PEP and sanctions screening, company searches, transaction monitoring, and background checks across 32 endpoints. It covers the full KYC lifecycle from initial ID document scanning through ongoing fraud monitoring.

## For AI agents

Verify identities with document checks, biometric face matching, liveness detection, and PEP/sanctions screening across African and emerging markets.

## Scope

Does not handle payment processing, credit scoring, or account management - use for identity verification and fraud screening only.

## Capabilities

- Verify government-issued identity documents with face comparison in a single call
- Screen individuals against global PEP and sanctions watchlists
- Detect facial liveness to prevent spoofing during biometric onboarding
- Run background checks on candidates with configurable verification packages
- Monitor transactions for suspicious patterns and flag potential fraud
- Search company registrations by person name or registration number
- Submit and track fraud reports linked to verified identities

## Use cases

### Customer Onboarding KYC

Verify new customer identities during account registration using government-issued ID documents combined with biometric face matching. Prembly processes the document image, extracts data fields, compares the document photo against a live selfie, and returns a verification verdict. This covers markets across Africa where traditional credit bureau checks are unavailable, enabling fintech and banking products to onboard users in minutes rather than days.

Example prompt: Submit a Nigerian national ID card image and a selfie to the document-verification-face endpoint and confirm the verification status is approved

### PEP and Sanctions Screening

Screen individuals and entities against politically exposed persons lists and international sanctions databases before processing transactions or establishing business relationships. The Prembly PEP/sanctions endpoint accepts a person's name and returns matching records with confidence scores, enabling compliance teams to make informed decisions. Screening runs in real time and supports ongoing monitoring for changes in status.

Example prompt: Submit a full name to the pep-sanction endpoint and parse the response to determine if any matches exceed a 0.8 confidence threshold

### Employee Background Checks

Conduct pre-employment background verification by creating candidates, attaching verification packages, and tracking results through completion. Prembly supports configurable packages that can include ID verification, criminal record checks, and education verification. The candidate lifecycle tracks from submission through completion with status polling or reinitiation if additional information is needed.

Example prompt: Create a new candidate with personal details, assign a standard verification package, and poll the candidate status until verification completes

### AI Agent Identity Verification Pipeline

AI agents use Prembly through Jentic to build automated identity verification pipelines that combine document scanning, face comparison, and liveness detection without manual integration work. The agent searches Jentic for identity verification operations, loads the required schemas, and executes multi-step verification flows including document upload, biometric matching, and status checking in a single orchestrated sequence.

Example prompt: Search Jentic for 'verify identity document with face match', load the document-verification-face operation schema, and execute with a test document image and selfie

## Key endpoints

| Method | Path | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| POST | `/document-verification` | Verify an identity document |
| POST | `/document-verification-face` | Verify document with face comparison |
| POST | `/face-liveliness` | Detect liveness in a facial image |
| POST | `/pep-sanction` | Screen against PEP and sanctions lists |
| POST | `/face-comparison` | Compare two facial images |
| POST | `/candidates` | Create a background check candidate |
| GET | `/verification-status` | Check status of a verification request |
| POST | `/tm-transaction-monitoring` | Monitor a transaction for fraud |

## Key resources

- **Verification** — Document verification, face matching, and liveness detection operations
- **Candidates** — Background check candidate lifecycle management
- **Packages** — Configurable verification package templates
- **Fraud Reports** — Submit and query fraud reports
- **Company Search** — Search companies by person or registration number

## AI readiness

This API is usable in Jentic One now. Its AI-readiness score against Jentic's framework shows where it stands today and where improvements would make it even easier for agents to use.

- **Score:** 62 / 100
- **Maturity:** AI-Aware
- **Dimensions:**
  - Foundational Compliance: 85 / 100
  - Developer Experience & Jentic Compatibility: 63 / 100
  - AI-Readiness & Agent Experience: 48 / 100
  - Agent Usability: 94 / 100
  - Security: 50 / 100
  - AI Discoverability: 52 / 100
- **View full report:** https://jentic.com/apis/prembly.com/prembly/scorecard
- **How the score is calculated:** https://docs.jentic.com/reference/api-readiness-framework/overview/
- **More about the dimensions:** https://docs.jentic.com/reference/api-readiness-framework/specification/#dimensional-model-overview

### Score it yourself

Every API in the directory is allowlisted, so you can re-score it with no key required.

- **Score your own API:** https://jentic.com/scorecard.md
- **Scoring CLI agent skill:** https://github.com/jentic/jentic-api-scorecard/blob/main/skills/jentic-api-scorecard/SKILL.md

```sh
npx @jentic/api-scorecard-cli score <openapi-url>
```

## Why Jentic

- **Setup:** Wiring the Prembly API by hand means putting your secret key in the Authorization header against api.prembly.com and building your own multipart uploads for document and face-verification calls. Through Jentic you install once, import the Prembly API from the API Directory, store the API key once, and your agent calls it.
- **Permission scoping:** Prembly takes the document images and identity details in the request body rather than as a path resource, so scoping is by operation: you limit the agent to the operations it needs, such as document verification or a sanctions check. Face liveliness, face comparison, or transaction monitoring are included only if you add those operations.
- **Credential handling:** Your Prembly secret key is stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected at execution time. It never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
- **Discovery method:** Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'verify an identity document with a face match' or 'run a PEP and sanctions screen', and Jentic returns the matching Prembly operation with its input schema so the agent calls the right endpoint without browsing the reference docs.

## Related APIs

- **Onfido API** — Global identity verification with broader document coverage but less African market focus
- **Veriff API** — Video-based identity verification with strong anti-fraud capabilities
- **Sumsub API** — Full compliance platform combining KYC, KYB, and transaction monitoring
- **Stripe API** — Payment processing that pairs with identity verification for compliant onboarding

## FAQ

### What authentication does the Prembly API use?

The Prembly API uses API key authentication passed in the Authorization header. Through Jentic, your API key is stored encrypted in your Jentic One instance and agents receive scoped access tokens, so the raw secret key never enters the agent context.

### Can I verify identity documents with face matching in a single request?

Yes. The POST /document-verification-face endpoint accepts both an identity document image and a selfie, performs document data extraction and facial comparison together, and returns a combined verification result with confidence scores.

### What are the rate limits for the Prembly API?

Rate limits depend on your Prembly subscription tier. You can check your current usage capacity via the GET /wallet-balance endpoint which returns your remaining verification credits. Higher-tier plans include increased throughput and priority processing.

### How do I run a PEP and sanctions screening through Jentic?

Search Jentic for 'screen person against sanctions list', load the pep-sanction operation schema, and execute with the person's full name. The response includes matched records with confidence scores. Install the SDK with pip install jentic and authenticate with your JENTIC_AGENT_API_KEY.

### Which countries does the Prembly API support for identity verification?

The GET /countries endpoint returns the full list of supported countries. Prembly focuses on African and emerging markets including Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, and others, with document types varying by country. The GET /check-types endpoint lists available verification methods per country.

### Can I track the status of an ongoing background check?

Yes. After creating a candidate via POST /candidates, poll GET `/candidates/{id}` to check the verification progress. If a check stalls or needs re-submission, use POST `/candidates/{id}/reinitiate` to restart the process with updated information.

### Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the Prembly API?

Yes. Because you run Jentic One yourself, your own rules decide which Prembly operations and credentials the agent may use. Prembly takes document images and identity details in the request body rather than as a path resource, so scoping is by operation: you can restrict the agent to only the calls it needs, such as document verification or a PEP and sanctions screen. Operations like face liveliness, face comparison, or transaction monitoring are available only if you explicitly add them.