What is Identity Verification?
The short answer
Identity verification checks whether identity evidence supports the identity claimed by a person or entity in a particular workflow.
Identity Verification: why it matters
An onboarding or review decision can contain several different questions. Keeping this concept distinct helps the team assign the right evidence and decision owner, rather than rely on a single completed status.
How to assess it in practice
Keep individual identity checks separate from legal-entity registry checks and record which question each result answers. Start by defining the question the team needs to answer. Identify the relevant record or evidence, check its scope and date, and retain the reasoning behind the result. If evidence conflicts, keep that conflict visible for review.
Worked example
Illustrative workflow: a team reviewing a business adds a separate check for identity verification. The reviewer’s task is to keep individual identity checks separate from legal-entity registry checks and record which question each result answers. The outcome is recorded together with the supporting evidence; an unresolved question stays open rather than being converted into a positive result.
A valid individual identity check accompanies an application for an unrelated business. Review representation separately rather than extending the identity result to the company.
Distinctions that matter
Identity Verification belongs to the business identity & verification topic family. Read Know Your Business (KYB) alongside it to understand the adjacent question. Each page has its own intended scope; shared context does not make the concepts equivalent.
Evidence and review output
Review these
- Entity and person identifiers
- Source and document scope
- Authority and unresolved discrepancies
The review should produce
A subject-level decision with each claim marked supported, contradicted or unresolved, plus the owner of any outstanding review.
Across this family
Start with the subject of each claim: legal entity, individual applicant or authorised actor. Keep identity evidence, representation and relationship approval as separate decisions. This prevents one technically successful lookup from being promoted into a broader conclusion it cannot support.
A note from practice
Identity verification assesses the claimed subject against suitable evidence. A genuine document does not automatically establish that its presenter controls it or is authorised to represent a company.
Limits and common mistakes
The practical boundary is important: Keep individual identity checks separate from legal-entity registry checks and record which question each result answers. Do not substitute a related label for this check or assume that missing information is a negative finding. Source-specific and jurisdiction-specific rules require their own review.
Frequently asked questions
Which evidence should I review?
How is Identity Verification different from Authorised Representative?
What should the result of the review contain?
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Related topics
- Business identity & verificationKnow Your Business (KYB)Know Your Business is the process of establishing the identity of a business, understanding who owns or controls it, and assessing whether a relationship presents unacceptable risk. A useful KYB record connects a legal entity to its registration evidence, ownership information and the decision made about it. Finding a company name is only the beginning: the record must belong to the business you intend to onboard.
- Business identity & verificationKnow Your Customer (KYC)Know Your Customer is the process of understanding who a customer is, why they are using a service and what risks the relationship creates. In a business relationship, that understanding can involve both a legal entity and the individuals acting for, owning or controlling it. Identity evidence is an input to the assessment, not a substitute for understanding the relationship.
- Business identity & verificationBusiness VerificationBusiness verification checks that an organisation corresponds to an identifiable legal entity and that its submitted information is supported by appropriate evidence.
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