ID checks for virtual office clients with Veriff

Coworking spaces that offer a registered office, business address or mail forwarding are trust or company service providers under the money laundering regulations, and must register with HMRC unless another body supervises them. A space taking on 6 new virtual office clients a month must check each one before the address is used. Doing it by asking for passport copies and meeting people takes time, and copies are easy to fake.

Veriff is an online identity verification service. Its Plus plan, which Veriff recommends for regulated industries, combines automated checks with trained verification specialists, includes biometric and liveness checks and a hosted verification page, and lets you export each session to PDF; a PEP and sanctions check is a paid add-on. You send each new virtual office client the link before their address goes live, then file the result with your own customer due diligence record.

A coworking space in Leeds offers virtual office and registered address services and takes on about 6 new virtual office clients a month. It is registered with HMRC for money laundering supervision and adds Veriff to its onboarding.

A compliance record rather than a cash saving: every virtual office client is checked the same way, with evidence on file for HMRC. Veriff Plus is $1.39 a verification with a $99 (about $98£74€88A$142C$139) monthly minimum, so 6 checks a month with the $0.64 PEP and sanctions add-on (about $12 in total) still cost the minimum.

1. 1Check on GOV.UK whether your virtual office or mail services make you a trust or company service provider, and register with HMRC before offering them.
2. 2Write your customer due diligence procedure: what you check for each client, including the company and its owners, not just the person.
3. 3Start Veriff's 15-day free trial on Plus and send the verification link to your next new client before their address goes live.
4. 4Export each completed check to PDF and keep it with your due diligence record for that client.
5. 5Have a named person review every check, decide whether to accept the client and record why.

• An ID check covers one person. You still need to identify the company and who owns or controls it, for example from Companies House, and assess the risk.
• Veriff keeps session data for a limited time unless you pay for extended retention; keep your own PDF records for as long as the regulations require.
• The $99 monthly minimum applies however few checks you run. With very few clients, compare the cost with checking in person.
• A passed check isn't approval. A person decides whether to take the client on, and anything suspicious goes to your nominated officer.