Address Verification

Overview

The Address Verification service offered enables reliable international address verification as part of the KYC process. This service covers 53 countries and leverages trusted in-country data sources, such as government agencies, credit bureaus, and utility companies. By directly accessing these sources, the system ensures that verification results are accurate and up-to-date.

Check Type ID: 1

This is the check type used for Address Verification. It validates the individual’s address against trusted data sources, such as government registries and utility records.

Required Profile Information

To perform Address Verification, the following fields are required in the profile section of the request:

• Personal Details:

  • firstName (Required): The first name of the individual.

  • lastName (Required): The last name of the individual.

  • dateOfBirth (Optional): Improves match accuracy when included.

• Address Details:

  • currentAddress.structured (Preferred): A structured address format that includes:

    • flatApartmentSubBuilding (Optional)

    • BuildingNumber (Optional)

    • BuildingName (Optional)

    • RoadStreet (Optional)

    • townCity (Optional)

    • postZipCode (Required)

    • countryCode (Required): Must be a valid ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code.

  • currentAddress.unstructured (Fallback): If structured data is unavailable, unstructured data can be provided, though this decreases match accuracy.

See Request Structure for more information on structuring a request.

How it works

1. Data Sources: Verification utilizes regulatory-quality data sources, including government registries, voter databases, and utility records. Mobile and marketing data sources are not used to ensure compliance with regulatory standards.

2. Match Process: Verify matches the provided address details with available data sources. A positive match confirms residency at the stated address.

3. Data Protection: Personal data is shared temporarily with data providers for matching purposes. Strict legal agreements ensure GDPR compliance and limit data usage.

International residential address verification uses a number of data providers with access to regional data source providers within the supported countries. Verify by Tiller uses data sources direct from government agencies, credit agencies, utility companies and landline telecommunication providers. Mobile telecommunication providers, marketing lists or other sources which do not meet regulatory standards are not used.

When verifying the address, Verify determines which in-country data sources are available and most likely to be able to obtain a match and get the provider to confirm if the credentials provided match their records. By matching directly to the original data source provider, we ensure the data is as up to date as possible. The number and degree of match is then used to confirm if the individual is a resident at their stated address.

Address sources

Tiller partners with a number of carefully selected agents who have access to specific in-country regulatory-quality data sources. Tiller’s Verify application will use one or more of the following data source types to verify the residential address of an individual:

• Credit Agency Databases,

• Government Databases (e.g., Voter, Social Security, Population/Citizenship Registries)

• Utility Company Databases (e.g., Electricity, Water, Gas, Telephone (excluding Mobile)).

Most regulators make provision for the address to be verified against such data sources and Verifications includes which data source types were used in the verification results it provides back via its API.

It is necessary to support residential address checks to temporarily share name and address PII information with a data source provider for the match check to be performed. Tillers legal agreements with our providers strictly restricts the use and retention of the PII information shared. PII data is only permitted to be used for the purposes of confirming a name and address match and may not be retained or used for any other purposes. The providers are also contractually required to adhere to all provisions of GDPR.

Tillers systems and data are hosted within the EU/EEA, however, where an individual being checked is resident outside the EU it is necessary for Tiller to share that individuals PII data with the data source providers in that individual’s country of residence. Tillers legal agreements with our providers include the modernised 2021 EU SCC (Standard Contractual Clauses) that have been “pre-approved” by the European Commission, ensuring appropriate data protection safeguards covering international transfers of PII data.

The above data handling & verification model is that same as that used by our larger enterprise customers such has HSBC, who received a confirmation of ‘no objection’ from the JSFC (Jersey Financial Services Commission) when they submitted their outsourcing request to use Tillers services to them.