Success stories

Retail banking

We flagged up a passport presented to a bank, after our records showed the holder had changed his name several times within a short period of time. Our fraud unit worked with the bank to confirm that the user was impersonating others and using a form of previous address fraud.

This individual had already defrauded the bank of £2500 and was attempting to put another account into overdraft. Following a PVS check, three accounts were blocked. Without PVS, this activity would not have been identified as fraudulent.

Business banking

A customer applied for a business bank account, with a lending facility of £500,000. The applicant passed all of the credit checks. The account was set to be approved subject to identity checks. The application and identification documents were submitted to the bank's central lending department for approval.

They used our PVS service to have the passport verified. PVS flagged the passport as counterfeit, and the application was declined. Although no arrest was made, it prevented a potential loss of £500,000.

Sub Prime Lending

Sub prime lenders, in particular those that deal exclusively with intermediaries, have achieved many notable successes with PVS. Typically, these lenders will use PVS to check the UK passports of those customers that fail their electronic identification verification process. One such PVS customer has reported 16% of passports checked in this way as fraudulent.