Vincent McCartney*
Phase 2 of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act (AML/CFT Act) is now live for accountants in practice and lawyers. These professionals are now required to perform ‘customer due diligence’ on their clients to verify their identity and ‘know your customer’ (KYC).
The traditional method of identifying a client is to ask them to supply original, certified documentation to prove their identity and residential address.
This typically involves the client spending time and effort visiting their lawyer or trying to find a trusted referee who will certify their documents before mailing them to their service provider. This method may not only be irritating to clients, but also may cause them to seek out a provider with a more streamlined process especially in time sensitive matters
A way to simplify the process and improve the client experience 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. Your client’s details are checked in real time and can be verified in less than four seconds.
EV solutions typically can be integrated into your CRM, accounting package, website or—alternatively—used via a web portal.
You may also wish to use safeguards such as automated biometric photo comparison tools for added fraud protection.
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.
The Cloudcheck Tool
Cloudcheck is a market-leading 100% New Zealand-owned EV tool that assists you in verifying the verify the identity of your client in seconds against Australian and NZ identity documents, local data sources and international watchlists.
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 biometric add-on (Cloudcheck Live) provides additional fraud protection by capturing images of your client’s face and ID document and comparing them for likeness in real time. We can also integrate Cloudcheck into your existing practice management software.
With complete control over which databases are checked (and in what order), flexible price structures, the ability to pass the costs on to your client (Cloudcheck Pay), and how the service is integrated into your practice, there isn’t a more comprehensive or flexible EV solution in New Zealand.
Author Bio:
Vincent McCartney is the Managing Director & Co-Founder of Verifi Identity Services Ltd, an electronic identity verification tool that permits businesses to meet their AML/CFT requirements.