Why eIDV?

Historically, professional advisers have verified the identity of their clients by photocopying documents, storing the hard copies and submitting further certified copies to product providers, insurance companies, investment companies, fund platforms and mortgage lenders. Typically, it takes 45 minutes over 10 working days to obtain the documents and copy them. This is both time consuming and costly.

Whilst the majority of clients are who they say they are and pose no financial risk, fraudulent documents are increasingly easy to obtain and difficult to detect. Electronic Identity Verification is instant, provides an audit trail and output documents which are easy to store and retrieve electronically.

The web-based system works in a matter of seconds by matching client data against a number of databases, including share holding and credit databases, the electoral register, landline telephone directories. It can also validate passport and driving licence reference data as well as checking for alerts on the Politically Exposed Persons and Bank of England sanctions lists.

The eIDV system produces two output documents in PDF format for easy electronic filing and retrieval. The full audit trail document confirms the data input, the databases matched, and records manual checks undertaken. It is ideally used for internal compliance purposes, whilst the Confirmation of Verification of Identity or CVI document is designed to be used with third parties such as product providers as confirmation that your firm has verified the identity of its client in accordance with the JMLSG Guidance.