The economics of background verification are broken. Employers pay thousands per candidate for reports that are slow, one-time, and cannot be reused. There is a better way.
The economics of background verification in India have always favoured the agencies. Employers pay Rs 3,000 to Rs 20,000 per candidate depending on the scope of the check. The report is non-transferable, meaning the next employer pays the full amount again for the same candidate. The candidate has no say in what is checked or what the report says. If there is an error, there is no formal dispute process. If the candidate applies to five companies in parallel, all five pay separately for overlapping information. This model exists because historically there was no alternative. Employers had no way to access verified employment data except by paying someone to collect it. Candidates had no way to proactively prove their history except by providing documents that skilled fraudsters can fabricate. The agency acted as the intermediary and charged accordingly. AscentPassport changes both sides of this equation simultaneously. Candidates build verified career identities for free. Employers access verified data using credits earned through network participation rather than cash paid to an agency. The result transforms background verification from a repeated transaction into a shared infrastructure resource. Here is how the credit economy works in practice. When a company's HR team verifies a former employee through AscentPassport, they earn three credits automatically. A company that verifies its departing employees as a standard offboarding practice accumulates credits continuously. Those credits are immediately available for verifying incoming candidates. A company with moderate turnover, say 15% annual in a 100-person team, generates approximately 15 verification credits per month from confirming departing employees. At five credits per APID check, that covers three incoming candidate verifications per month at zero cash cost. For high-turnover industries like IT services, BPO, and retail, the credit accumulation is even more favourable. A 500-person company with 25% annual turnover generates 125 departing employees per year. If even 60% of them register AscentPassport profiles and trigger verification requests, that is 75 confirmations per year, 225 credits, enough to verify 45 incoming candidates annually at no cost. For candidates, the free model is unconditional. There is no premium tier, no subscription, and no feature that requires payment. Creating an account, claiming an APID, completing identity verification, adding employment history, and sharing your verified passport are all permanently free. You receive the full benefit of the platform whether you are a fresher building your first verified profile or a twenty-year professional adding your tenth role. The quality comparison with paid alternatives also matters. AscentPassport's six-agent AI system analyses more data dimensions than a standard agency employment check. Real HR confirmation from the actual employer is stronger than a callback from an agency representative. The AP Score is live and updates as new information arrives. A PDF report from an agency is static on the day it was generated and provides no signal about changes since then. For checks outside employment history, criminal records and financial due diligence for regulated roles, agencies retain their value. But the employment history component that accounts for the majority of BGV volume and cost is something you no longer need to pay for in 2026. One practical step for employers who want to start accumulating credits immediately: announce to your HR team that confirming former employee verification requests through AscentPassport is now a standard two-minute offboarding task. Every confirmation earns three credits. Build up a credit reserve now, before you need to use them, and you will find that employment history verification is effectively free from the day you start using the platform seriously. The credit system also creates a natural incentive for companies to participate in offboarding verification proactively. Every former employee confirmed through the platform earns credits. Companies that build this into their standard offboarding process accumulate credits continuously, creating a self-replenishing verification budget that grows as the platform network expands. Every company that builds this credit reserve today is positioning itself to verify incoming candidates at zero cost indefinitely. The network grows, the credit income grows, and the verification quality improves simultaneously. There is no scenario in which early participation in this model is worse than waiting.