Certification of documents for identity verification

ChiefGrasscutter

dunstonh wrote: »

You are asking the person certifying them to take on a legal liability. Given the fines issued over the years, banks have pulled back from doing this sort of thing for that reason.

No the certifyer is not.
The word inserted are that the copy signed is indeed a true copy of the original as inspected by the signer.
That is - nothing more
The person doing the certifying is NOT in anyway verifying that the pasport is genuine or it looks like the person or anything else: merely that it is indeed a true copy.

As other have said solicitors are getting used to this - walk in off the street, they get out their stamp, take a copy of the passport (as that means they know it is a true copy!) - sign the copy - job done -£5.

bowlhead99

ChiefGrasscutter wrote: »

dunstonh wrote: »

You are asking the person certifying them to take on a legal liability.

No the certifyer is not.

Yes the certifier is. You are asking them to make a statement and put their name to something, and also to provide their contact details in case the person who ultimately receives the certified copy wants to check that it was indeed certified by the person by whom it was allegedly certified.

There is no reason for this to be a free service at all. I popped into my local Lloyds a couple of years back to ask if they would certify something and they said it was policy not to these days, unless it was for account opening for a product within their group. As my answer was no, it's for an application to take money out of your group and invest with someone else, they didn't want to do it . Not really a problem for me as I know a bunch of accountants and solicitors.

The word inserted are that the copy signed is indeed a true copy of the original as inspected by the signer.
That is - nothing more
The person doing the certifying is NOT in anyway verifying that the pasport is genuine or it looks like the person or anything else: merely that it is indeed a true copy.

Actually, some financial services groups ask for the passports or driving licences to be certified as a true copy and true likeness which is a reasonable thing to ask when you want to properly identify your customer and are opening accounts for transactions which will not be conducted face-to-face. Not all groups request this. And I agree for a utility bill or something it is just about being a true copy of the original document which is produced to them. However, this does not mean the signer has no liability for their signed statement.

dunstonh

No the certifyer is not.
The word inserted are that the copy signed is indeed a true copy of the original as inspected by the signer.
That is - nothing more

In term of money laundering ID requirements, a financial services employee is taking liability as well as their employer. Whilst the law may not be an issue, the FCA is for those that are regulated under the FCA (either directly or as an employee of a company that is).

The enforcement actions from the FCA in recent times have focused on systems and controls and things like this just scare firms off. It is easier to restrict the staff of a large firm, like a bank, by saying they cannot do these things rather than prove that the staff are trained to do it.

In financial services, one regulated financial firm can accept the certification done by another regulated firm. If it is found that the check by the staff member of the first firm was flawed, then that first firm and staff member are subject to disciplinary action.