A bank that lets you open accounts in a matter of minutes without background checks or personal ID. What could possibly go wrong.
Disclaimer: I work for the company that provides this service to revolut.
Side note: It's actually surprisingly difficult to verify that a document isn't fraudulent, and traditional in-person banks that accept documents in person are more susceptible to fraud than you might think. Is the average account exec trained as a border control agent? Do they read the MRZ lines?
Keine Bonitätsprüfung, kein Adressnachweis.
If the person opening the account is physically standing in the bank lobby, showing ID is strong evidence they are who they say they are.
But accepting a scanned copy of an ID online is in many ways more risky than alternative verification methods, it only tells you that the person had access to a picture of an ID. It's assumed that would be difficult if they weren't who they say they are, but that's not a reasonable assumption and banks clearly know that.
I wouldn't be surprised if identity thieves have access to real scans of IDs at this point. A lot of online services have been asking people to scan and upload them for things like "verifying" your Twitter or Facebook account, so people may not be as cautious about doing that as they should be.
For a concrete example, I opened a savings account with Capital One 360 about a year ago. I did it at home from the comfort of my computer and it took me just a few minutes.
I'm not sure how efficient it is, but it's not as bad as your parent implies. It was about the same procedure as for N26. Orange Bank on the other hand just asks for scans.