An Inside Perspective on Electronic Verification

FCS OnLine in conjunction with Sensis® Business Information Services recently conducted an information evening “Electronic Verification is a REAL option (an industry perspective)” with AUSTRAC and ING Direct.

With the new AML/CTF legislation taking effect in December 2007, many companies were interested in finding out how Electronic Verification can assist them meet their obligations under the Act. With AUSTRAC presenting, customers were able to hear first-hand how the legislation caters for Electronic Verification and the wider benefits to the community.

Held at the new Telstra Experience Centre in Sydney, over 70 guests attended from a variety of companies including large financial institutions, credit providers, online banking, collections agents, and credit managers from large corporates. Also present were Terry Collins CEO AICM and Ron Hartaker CEO Australian Finance Conference, representing the interests of their members.

Tony Fitzgibbon, CEO of FCS OnLine and Peter Barclay from Sensis BIS kicked off the evening, taking the audience through the importance of having the right range and quality of data sets to underpin electronic verification. They highlighted the main things to look for when shopping for an EV provider:

• Ensure that the provider uses a number of independent data sources to verify customer identification.

• Up-to-date information. All Electronic Verification solutions are not as they seem. Some are based on old technology with limited capabilities and potentially using data that is at best, suspect and at worst, restricted by the Privacy Act e.g. credit reports.

• Scalability - users of EV should look for a provider who ensures their EV platform is scalable enough to support the inclusion of new data sets as they are approved by regulators, such as the electoral roll. This future-proof’s the organisation from having to make costly updates. 

• EV customers also need to ensure their provider is up-to-date on the legislation incorporated in the AML/CTF Act and has sufficient broader knowledge of the Australian market.

Gavin Durbin from AUSTRAC’s speech was highly anticipated, with all guests keen to hear direct from AUSTRAC on the implication for their business.  The legislation evokes two main requirements, with this presentation focusing on Identification:

1. Identification procedures etc. (Section 27)

A reporting entity must carry out a procedure to verify a customer’s identity before providing a designated service to the customer. However, in special cases, the procedure may be carried out after the provision of a designated service.

2. Report suspicious matters (Section 41)

At the relevant time or a later time, the reporting entity suspects on reasonable grounds that information that the reporting entity has concerning the provision, or prospective provision, of the service.

Of particular interest to all attendees was AUSTRAC’s explanation of the AML/CTF requirements for Customer Identification (Part B). As outlined by AUSTRAC, requirements must be designed to include applicable customer identification procedures for customers of the reporting entity. Minimum requirements for low risk situations may include:

Part B: Collection of Information

Customer Name plus Date of Birth and Address.

Part B: Customer Identification

Customer Name plus either Address or Date of Birth

That’s clear and straight forward, but what exactly is considered “risk” for AML/CTF and does AUSTRAC view AML/CTF Risk to be the same as commercial credit risk?

Gavin’s response was clear and articulate, AUSTRAC do not see the process currently used to manage an organisation’s Credit Risk as satisfying the AML/CTF legislation. The level of risk depends greatly on the type of services offered, the organisation and the organisation’s structure, not to mention how the services are provided i.e. branch based vs. online. For example, a home loan may be considered high credit risk for the organisation, but low risk for AML/CTF because the customer discloses a large amount of information. Each organisation must do their own AML/CTF assessment on the services they offer.

Now that everyone was up-to-speed on the legislation, it was valuable to hear from the industry, to see how they are working with Electronic Verification to meet their obligations.

Mark Mullington, CFO of ING Direct spoke as an early adopter of EV. He pointed out that a lot can be learned from the US and UK, where Electronic Verification is now widely used and accepted. ING Direct has leveraged this international experience to deliver a local solution.

As an online banking provider, it is critical for ING Direct to partner with an EV provider that supports a range of distribution channels – online, phone and mail. It must be suitable for an organisation that doesn’t have a bricks and mortar channel, yet still ensure compliance.

ING Direct is implementing EV, because for them the main benefits are:

• Technology neutral

• Cost effective and convenient, even for remote customers

• Robust

• Applicable for all channels

ING Direct has entered into an agreement with FCS OnLine and Unisys to provide them with Electronic Verification services under the AML/CTF Act. For ING Direct, this is an important association, in that FCS provides expertise in infrastructure capability as well as data management and acquisition.

Data integrity and being able to provide a range of independent data sources was a critical requirement. FCS OnLine use a number of independent datasets and are continuously seeking to improve their services through relationships with the public and private sector and well as continuing to lobby for access to additional government data sources such as the credit bureau and register of Births, Deaths and Marriages.

Following the speakers was a Question & Answer session – a great opportunity for attendees to ask their burning questions or go into further depth on topics covered during the presentations.

Overall, the evening was considered a great success with attendees getting an inside view of the legislation, an actual industry example and a much greater overall understanding on how Electronic Verification can help their organisation meet their obligations.

For further information and a customised solution contact FCS Online on

(02) 8912 1030 or go to www.fcsonline.com.au

As published in Credit Management in Australia Volume 15, No 3 March 2008

1. Online Identity Verification for AML/CTF
2. AMLMagazine Article - AugSep-FCS.pdf
3. AMLMagazine Article - OctNov-FCS.pdf

• FCS Launches EV – Electronic Verification for Business and Consumer
• Industry Support
• FCS IMA National Conference
• AICM Professional Development Series
• NSW Rating Professionals Annual Conference
• FIA Annual Conference
• New Data Sets activated
• OnLine Payment Gateway
• Helpful Hints

• FCS was the proud GOLD sponsor & exhibitor at the conference in Sydney on the 17-19th May 2007.
• FCS would like to thank all the IMA members for their continued support.

• FCS was proud to support the AICM Professional Development series through providing a tailored presentation and knowledge expert for the topic “Debtors Skip Tracing [Methods and Procedures]”.
• FCS would like to thank all those that attended and encourage all in Perth to attend the AICM Professional Development Series on the 14th of June 2007.

• FCS was a proud sponsor and exhibitor at the conference in Wollongong on the 19-20th March 2007.
• A free trial was offered to all attendees and we are happy to extend the offer if you missed the opportunity please contact Katrina Goncalves on 02 8912 1016.
• Congratulations to Penny Chisolm from Tenterfield Shire Council who is the winner of a $550 Search package.

• FCS was a proud sponsor & exhibitor at the conference in Melbourne in February 2007, and would like to thank all the FIA members for their continued support.

RecoNexus™ is a complete customer contact recovery solution. Losing contact with a customer can cost you twice as much as it cost you to acquire them. In fact losing contact with your customer has other associated costs such as:

• Lost revenue – how much is a customer truly worth?
• The high cost of undelivered mail
• Unrecoverable debt

ContactMonitor™ is an automated service that:

• Monitors changes to your customer contact details
• Notifies you by email when a new address or phone number for your customer is found
• Keeps you in contact with your customers
• Takes the cost out of manually trying to locate lost customers
• Reduces the cost associated with lost customers

Business Uses:

• AML Compliance - Maintain KYC and Customer Due Diligence compliance
• CRM - Improve the data quality of your CRM system
• Charities - Keep track of your high valued donors
• Universities or Associations – Find lost alumni or members
• Collections – Improve the chances of finding clearouts
• Dialler Systems – Improve your right party connects
• Mail outs – Reduce dead/return mail

The two new product brands, replace AutoLocator™ & SkipFlash™.
For further information call 02 8270 2944 or email us at info@fcsonline.com.au

1. “*” for the WILDCARD - The * can be used in many situations and within most search fields to assist in locating persons.
   This is particularly useful when locating an individual who could be in a neighboring suburb, for example try 206* in the Postcode field in order to broaden your search criteria around the Lower North Shore Sydney suburbs.
2. Phone Notification - When you see a star next to a phone number in the search site, this is an indication that the number has been updated in the last 3 months, possibly a new telephone connection.
3. ABN Lookup - Provides live access to the publicly available information provided by businesses when they register for an Australian Business Number (ABN).
4. Did you know you can use the AddressAssist tool to help predict an address as you type it in? The tool will only bring up results that are accurate addresses found in our database. FCS OnLine AddressAssist can predict the suburb, postcode and street name simply by having the user enter a few characters.
5. Name Assist helps with variations to names. Click on Name Assist (located with the little “N” in a blue circle at the left hand side of the Search Criteria screen). This feature can be used for First, Second & Surname fields, these fields will appear yellow when function has been activated. Enter the first couple of letters into the selected name field, a drop-down list of all possible names available in our database will appear. (Insert N Picture Here)
6. Name Suggest can assist with other Names spelt the same “Phonically”. To activate this function, you have to type the name in question into the field and hit the TAB button. A light bulb will appear next to the field, when you click on it, a drop down list will appear again with other suggestions. (insert Globe picture here)
   
   

FCS OnLine and Premiere Global Services (www.premiereglobal.com), a US business process solutions outsourcer, has entered an agreement that allows FCS OnLine to bundle the Collections Accelerator solution with FCS OnLine’s skip tracing tools.

“The combined solution will help users reduce the cost and time involved in tracking lost customers and locating lost debtors,” explained Tony Fitzgibbon, managing director of FCS OnLine. “Call centre agents will not have to waste time calling dead telephone numbers, instead they can concentrate right party connects; numbers where a person is actually on the other end of the line. In addition, they will be able to use FCS Search for those contacts who are proving difficult to contact much earlier in the collections process.” 

For more information please contact our customer service team on 02 8270 2944 or email us at info@fcsonline.com.au

From time-to-time websites or CD’s emerge offering users reverse search functionality. These – even sometimes free – services give rise to a number of questions regarding their legitimacy and whether it is lawful to use them.

Aside from the often dubious nature of the origination of the content on these sites and CD’s (refer Desktop Marketing Systems Pty Ltd (DtMS) v Telstra Corporation Limited), Section 285 of the Telecommunication Act clearly states that the use of public numbers (including names and addresses) are only to be made available if they do not “…enable a person who only knows a customer’s [phone] number to readily identify the customer’s name and or address.”

Using products or services (free or otherwise) to find individuals by a Reverse Search can result in significant privacy issues for the end user. FCS OnLine, as a responsible provider of public number information - which it sources from the Integrated Public Number Database - provides a directory lookup service in accordance to the regulations set out. We do this to ensure that our customers remain compliant with the Telecommunications Act and Privacy laws.