Verification of identity is the cornerstone of trying to prevent money laundering and criminal activities in the UK

Just because a person says they are Fred Bloggs, doesnt mean they are.

Most customers that you deal with will likely be legitimate customers just after using your service for legitimate means but every now and then  someone will have an ulterior motive and so in certain industries, everyone needs to be checked to confirm they are who they say they are.

Financial institutions, company formation agents, registered office and mail forwarding services, estate agents, solicitors, banks etc all need to confirm identity for anti money laundering regulations.

The usual way to do this is to get to see  passport or driving licence and utility bills to prove the address.  New regulations state that you should also check to make sure that the person isn't on the "death" register and that they are not a "politically exposed person" or appear on a sanctions list, or even checking to see if there is a mail redirection service on the address provided.  These checks can only be done using a computerised system and so to comply with the regulations you need to do these checks. Often, there are good reasons for things like Royal Mails mail forwarding service to be in use, if they have just moved address for example - but if they havent moved address, it could be an indication of wrong doing and you are advised about it in advance.  The regulations also state that you should have a policy document for all staff to know about  your money laundering checks.  You can arrange to get this policy document through your solicitor or legal team. They are likely to charge for 3 or 4 hours of time to get the information required and to produce the document. This could be upwards of £800 if they charge £200 per hour.  We've teamed up with a leading anti money laundering company to provide an anti money laundering policy document, targetted to your regulatory authority (i.e. FSA, HMRC etc) for a fraction of the cost

Money laundering regulations are there to help protect everyone from crime. If its harder for someone to open a bank account then its harder for them to do criminal activities. If they cant buy or rent a house without being checked out, its harder for them to launder money. You need to keep on the right side of the regulations by checking  the available online databases before dealing with new customers.