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Address verification what, why and how does it work?

Passport Verification

Did you know that you can now add address verification as an option to our online verification service? But how can address verification support your customer onboarding? We’ve created this overview of the service to help you find out more about what it means, why you might need it and how it could help your organisation:

What is Address Verification?

Address verification is the process of proving that the address which your customer, user or applicant gives you exists and that they can be linked to that address by checking against trusted data sources such as electoral roll and credit reference records. This can be done by asking for a copy of a document such as a driving licence, bank statement or utility bill and entering the address into our validation service.

Why should you ask for proof of address?

Verifying not only the identity of your customer, user or employee but also confirming their address adds an additional level of security to your verification and onboarding process. Lots of organisations ask for proof of address when a customer is opening a new account, particularly in financial sectors. According to the 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive, it is in fact a requirement for organisations in regulated sectors to hold a verified photo ID and ask for a proof of address when carrying out Customer Due Diligence (CDD).

What are the benefits of using address verification? 

  • Increased confidence and security
    By combining identity document checks with address verification checks, not only can you validate an identity document to assess that it’s genuine, but also verify that the details given by the holder match their residential address. This gives you increased confidence in the identity of your applicants or customers.
  • Additional deterrent
    When your organisation advertises the use of identity and address verification, this can act as a powerful deterrent for anyone considering presenting a fake identity or hiding their identity behind a false address.
  • Streamline onboarding
    Capture and verify key information on your users, customers or applicants from anywhere at the point of on-boarding and save time and money in the long run.

If you’d like to find out more about our address verification service and how it could add additional security to your on-boarding process, please get in touch or

Request a demo here