Sponsored by Verifi Identity Services.

By Vincent McCartney.

Phase 2 of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act (‘AML/CFT Act’) will require accountants in practice (as well as lawyers, estate agents and conveyancers) to perform customer due diligence on their clients from 1 October 2018, which includes verifying their identity.

The traditional method of identifying a client is to ask them to supply original, certified documentation in order to prove their identity and residential address. This typically involves the client spending time and effort to find a trusted referee who will certify their documents before mailing them to their service provider.

This method is not only irritating to clients, but may cause them to seek out a different provider with a more streamlined process. A solution is to employ electronic identity verification (EV), which has already been adopted by Phase 1 reporting entities such as KiwiSaver providers, brokers and FinTech companies.

What is electronic identity verification?

EV enables you to verify the identity (name, date of birth and address) of your client electronically, using their identity document details and their address.

These details are entered by your client and checked in real time against government, public and private databases. EV solutions can typically be integrated into your CRM, accounting package, website or used via a web portal or kiosk. 

For added fraud protection, you may also wish to utilise safeguards such as biometrics or image capture.

Why use electronic identity verification?

Using EV is efficient. It can save you time and money and helps increase client satisfaction (and therefore revenue) by capturing the client at the point of interest, rather than driving them to a competitor with a more streamlined process. Above all, the main benefit is a better client experience, courtesy of a fast and seamless identification process.

Introducing Cloudcheck

Cloudcheck is a market-leading 100% New Zealand-owned EV tool that allows you to verify the identity of your client, satisfying the requirements of the AML/CFT Act. Cloudcheck verifies client details against local data sources and international watchlists in one easy step.

Cloudcheck can be used in several different ways: as a standalone web application (Cloudcheck Direct), via bulk processing, as a fully integrated modern API or through a secure link delivered via a branded email to your client (Cloudcheck Go) to facilitate self-verification. 

Our image-capture extension (Cloudcheck Live) provides additional fraud protection by capturing images (via webcam or upload) of your client’s face and ID document. We can also integrate Cloudcheck into your existing practice management software. 

With complete control over which databases are checked (and in what order), what costs are incurred and how the service is integrated into your business, there isn’t a more comprehensive or flexible EV solution in New Zealand.

To learn more, or arrange a free trial, phone 0800 283 743/+64 9 217 4455 or visit www.verifidentity.com/cloudcheck