National insurance number requested from some banks but not others

Legacy_user

Does anybody know the reasons why some banks ask for national insurance numbers from potential clients when applying for a loan and other's don't?

As far as I know the government "do not" say that the national insurance number can be used to validate identity.

I also know for example that other banks such as Aldamore Bank expressly say that they "only" require your national insurance number if you're opening an ISA.

What other type of situations or instances require your NI number?

If anybody could shed any light on this I'd be interested

dealer_wins

beanfarmer wrote: »

Does anybody know the reasons why some banks ask for national insurance numbers from potential clients when applying for a loan and other's don't?

As far as I know the government "do not" say that the national insurance number can be used to validate identity.

I also know for example that other banks such as Aldamore Bank expressly say that they "only" require your national insurance number if you're opening an ISA.

What other type of situations or instances require your NI number?

If anybody could shed any light on this I'd be interested.

I guess they use that as part of their ID process. Its a good thing really.

Thrugelmir

Ensures that they check the right individuals record.

System

Here's a link that mentions a government report that suggests that national insurance numbers are not a relevant part of identity checks although they are sometimes requested

thestack.com/security/2017/02/03/uk-government-national-insurance-numbers-misused-as-national-id/[/url]

DCFC79

Only people I know who can provide an answer is the bank themselves.

jonesMUFCforever

....To help establish that you are a UK citizen for tax purposes or because you have an ISA with them?

System

I'm behind the times when it comes to all the new ways of digital verification. I presume this is the way forward and it does appear that the government is providing digital verification services via some chosen third party commercial entities

jonesMUFCforever

beanfarmer wrote: »

I'm behind the times when it comes to all the new ways of digital verification. I presume this is the way forward and it does appear that the government is providing digital verification services via some chosen third party commercial entities

Do you mean electronic verification via electoral role?
If so this has been used for many years.

System

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

Do you mean electronic verification via electoral role?
If so this has been used for many years.

I mean to say there seems to be systems set up by the government so that third parties can validate documents and it seems to be heading more that way

gov.uk/government/publications/identity-document-validation-technology/identification-document-validation-technology

gov.uk/government/publications/introducing-govuk-verify/introducing-govuk-verify

poppasmurf_bewdley

Because a bank or other loan company is not allowed by law to supply any service, including loans, to someone who is illegally in the country, and this is one way of checking.

Malthusian

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

....To help establish that you are a UK citizen for tax purposes or because you have an ISA with them?

It won't be that as thousands of people who aren't UK citizens have National Insurance numbers.

It is however a record which uniquely identifies a customer, more reliably than the combination of name and date of birth. Plus what Poppasmurf said.

beanfarmer wrote: »

I doubt there's a database that third party commercial entities can access to verify personal government issued documents such as driving licenses, passports and national insurance numbers

Sure there is. It's a routine part of working in financial services. You put the client's details into it along with their passport / driving licence number, and the database tells you if it's valid.