8. CCH iFirm AML: IDV Checks - Companies House (ECCTA)

What are CCH iFirm AML: IDV checks?

 

The Identity Verification (IDV) checks are designed specifically to comply with the new laws from Companies House namely ECCTA (Economic Crime Corporate Transparency Act).  This allows you to manage the whole journey for your client and to report on it  so you know who has and who hasn't done the verification and that when confirmation statements, accounts and other documents that need to be filed are submitted to Companies House they do not fail due to lack of IDV checks.

 

IDV checks will verify Name, address and DOB, and validate a user against their ID, as well as making sure the ID is genuine.

 

ECCTA Legislation 

The identity Verification (IDV) check applies to all directors and persons of significant control (PSCs) of UK companies and LLP members. From 18th November 2025 all confrimation statements submitted to Compaines House require teh relevant personal codes, which can only be done once the relevant indvidual has been through IDV

 

Identity Verification (IDV) Process 

The Identity Verification (IDV) check starts in CCH Central in the same way as AML Data, AML + Biometric KYC and KYB checks.

Open the client or contact and click the CCH iFirm AML button and then log into iFirm using your email address and password

 

After clicking CCH iFirm AML your browser will open a new tab, asking you to log into CCH iFirm with your Wolters Kluwer account.

Login

After you log in, you will see a success message and a new tab will open with a pop up in CCH iFirm AML 

Select the IDV check and click the Proceed button

Enter the mobile number if it has not been populated from Central and at this point you can optionally enrol the client into Ongoing Monitoring, if you subscribe to it, by ticking the Ongoing Monitoring checkbox.  Click the Send SMS button

The system will then create the verification link in CCH iFirm displaying the client name in the IDV check log. Your client will receive a text message prompting them to download the Credas application.  The identity verification and address mortality checks will display as Pass/Fail/Review once these checks are completed by your client - prior to this the column will be blank.

 

Your client will get a text message from Credas (our third party provider) on their mobile showing your practice name in place of Wolters Kluwer below.  Your client will need to make a note of the Reg Code in the text message (in this example it is XW9M8L) as they will be asked for this as part of verification process and then click on link provided to download the Credas app on their smartphone.   

 

 

Please now follow instructions from Credas 

Once your clients have downloaded the app and input the code that was texted to them, they will be guided through the verification process itself.  This will include entering the six digit Reg and accepting the Credas licence terms.

 

Entering information into Credas

Your clients will then be asked to enter , Name, date of birth, email address, residential address and previous names/addresses (if relevant).  It will also include selecting a form of ID (e.g passport, driving licence etc.) taking a photo of that as well as taking a selfie to prove the person on the document is who they say they are and are alive and present when taking the selfie. At end of process they will get this message

 

 

 

Getting the reports from CCH iFirm AML IDV

Once a check has been completed, the firm will get an email notification and a PDF will be ready to view in CCH iFirm AML, and in the CCH Document Management.

This report will include pages showing whether you have passed the ID verification and address & mortality process.

Please note PDF report includes personal details therefore we have used a UK specimen name below to display the pages of the report.

 

Personal details: These are the details YOU hold in CCH Central/CCH iFirm. NOT the details that the clients have submitted. The client submitted details are further down the page. Email and DOB will always be “Not Specified” as when we create the check we do pre fill these. This is because we want the client to declare their email and DOB to ensure that is correct and up to date before you submit the information to Companies House as an ACSP

Full Name: This is the name you hold on CCH Central/CCH iFirm and was used to create the invite

DOB: will always be “Not Specified” as when we create the invite, we do not send the DOB from CCH iFirm. We have the client declare their DOB during the check. You can see this under the “UK Credit Bureau” heading. This is the DOB that is validated against credit data.

Mobile: The number the check was sent to

Email: This will be not specified as we do not email checks to clients, we only text them. You can see the clients email address that they have submitted as part of the check further down the form.

Reg Code: The code that was texted to the user

Reference: a unique identifier for the check

Liveness: We use two forms of Liveness detection to verify if the individual is live and present when completing the check. These are:

• Passive Liveness - This type of Liveness detection requires no instruction, command or response from the individual - thus giving them no indication as to what security mechanism is being used to try and circumvent the security. The individual will have to take  a passport style picture and our passive Liveness will  determine whether the image taken is genuine or not using deep neural networks. 
• Active Liveness - If we have been unable to verify the individual is live and present using Passive Liveness, we will then ask to complete an action/pose, such as putting their hand on their head or finger to the nose.

 

 

This page will give a photo of the ID that has been used as well as a breakdown of where it has passed or failed as well as an overall pass, fail or review.

Facial Match: This checks whether the face on the Identity Document matches the face from the liveness selfie.

Visual Analysis: This checks if the document is a valid Government-issued Identity Document 

Name Match: This checks whether the name on the Identity Document matches the name entered on the invitation.

DOB Match: This checks whether the DOB on the Identity Document matches the DOB entered on the invitation (Note, this will always be not performed as we do not send the DOB at this point)

Valid Document Type: This checks whether the Identity Document captured is a valid configured option.

NFC result: This checks the e-chip within a passport using NFC technology

Age Validation Result: This checks whether the date of birth of on the Identity Document confirms the holder is at least 16 years of age as that is the minimum age we can verify

Police Record: This checks whether the Identity Document has been recorded on the UK Metropolitan 'Amberhill' Police Database as lost, stolen or compromised

Compromised Alert: This checks whether the Identity Document is publicly available as compromised on national databases of reported compromised documents

Repeated Attempts Alert: This checks whether the Identity Document has been submitted previously but with different information. For example, same face and passport number but different date of birth

 

Supporting Documents

Supporting documents will only have to be submitted when a user doesn’t perform a successful NFC chip read on a valid passport.

 

 

Address and Mortality.

 

There are 2 checks performed here which will verify both Address and Mortality. 

 

UK Credit Bureau covers name, address and DOB 

UK Mortality covers the mortality databases in the UK 

Overall Pass: We have been able to confirm that the individual resides in the address in question using sources from the UK Credit Database and/or UK Electoral Roll. We have also been able to confirm that the individual has not been flagged on the UK Deceased Persons database.

Refer/Review: We have been unable to confirm that the individual resides in the address in question and/or they have been flagged as deceased on the UK Deceased Persons database. For some of our journeys, we will automatically obtain a proof of address document as part of the journey if the individual refers on the check. In these cases, the proof of address document will appear as a 'supporting document' and will need manually reviewing by yourselves. 

 

 

 

Companies House personal details

As a ACSP you will be asked to declare previous names, alternate names and previous addresses if the client hasn’t lived at the address for more than 12 months. Here on the PDF you will see your clients answers to those questions.

 

IDV Check Log in CCH iFirm 

The IDV process once started for a client will be shown in the IDV Check Log in CCH iFirm as either in progress/completed in the status column. The PDF report can be viewed by clicking on the ellipsis button alongside 'completed' in the status column.  If there has been no response from the client the SMS can be resent by clicking the ellipsis button alongside 'in progress' in the status column. 

The Identity Verification and Address & Mortality columns will display as pass/fail/review An example of 'review' might be that the invite was sent to John Smith but the passport states “Jonathan Andrew Smith”, Hence a name mismatch.

Within the IDV check log, there are filters in the columns so for example in the status column you could select only those clients that have failed the check. 

 

 

 

Verifying the individual with Companies House

When the user is happy with the results of the IDV check they must inform Companies House who will then send an email to the client with their personal code. The link below guides you through the process of informing companies house that you have verified someone's identity.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/tell-com...eones-identity 

 

 

AML Tab in CCH Central 

When the IDV check has been completed the following details will display in Central similar to what is displaying in the IDV check log in CCH iFirm

 

• Personal Code - This is the Companies House Identification number that the Director/Managing Director receives by email from Companies House (formerly Companies House ID on Contact > Main tab) once the user has informed Companies House that the IDV check has been successfully completed.  The director will then need to forward the personal code to the accountant who can enter this code into the personal code field in the AML tab of the client record in CCH Central.
• Submitted Date - This is the date the IDV Check was submitted.
• Status - Passed from CCH iFirm:  In-Progress, Complete or error
• Identity Verification - Passed from CCH iFirm:  Pass / Fail / Review 
• Address & Mortality - Passed from CCH iFirm:  Pass / Fail / Review
• Employee - The employee who performed the check
• Document Name - A link to the document from the client's document centre.  (only if DM is installed)

If the identity verification and address & mortality shows as review it is then up to customer to decide whether IDV is a pass or fail and they can select from the IDV Check drop down which will display options of None, Pass, Fail, Review.  

 

Update of IDV Check  field in CCH Central

There are two ways to update the IDV Check Status drop-down:

• The drop-down box is automatically updated if the IDV Check was performed via CCH iFirm.
• The IDV Check drop-down menu can be manually updated by selecting the dropdown.

 

 

 

IDV Check on Association Tab 

A new icon (green tick) has been added to the Association tab which denotes if an IDV Check has passed for the individual (where the association type is either Director or Managing Director).

List View

Card View

 

 

Audit Trail 

The audit trail within CCH Central can be generated by going to File>Maintenance>Audit Trail>View Audit Trail 

 

IDV Fields in CCH Reporting  

The following fields are now available within CCH Reporting under Central > Contacts > AML

• IDV Date
• IDV Status

 

 

Veryfying Clients Overseas? 

If the client has a foreign document and a UK address then we can verify the client as expected, we can verify thousands of documents from various countries. 

If the client has a foreign address and a foreign document, we can only verify the document agasint the user to ensure they are the same person and the document is  valid and untampered with. Due to the lack of reliable foreign data shared with 3rd parties we cannot verify name, address and DOB on foreign addresses. It is recommended here that you obtain a proof of address as well, such as a utility bill or a bank/credit card statement. 

 

As per the Companies House guidance here, You do not need to verify the address electronically for compliance, but it is recommended that the address is verified to lower the risk of accepting a synthetic identity