Individual Identity Verification (KYC)

Overview

Individual KYC (Know Your Customer) is the process of confirming that a person is who they claim to be. Verify Group supports two levels of individual identity verification:

Standard KYC — A focused identity check using national ID or passport number. Suitable for basic onboarding and compliance requirements.
Advanced KYC — A comprehensive multi-step check that also verifies biometrics, contact details, sanctions screening, financial footprint, and digital presence. Suitable for high-risk onboarding, insurance claims, and regulatory compliance.

Both flows produce a verification result — a structured report you can save, share, and refer back to at any time.

Watch the Individual KYC Walkthrough

A step-by-step video demonstration of the Standard and Advanced Individual KYC flows from start to result.

Before you begin

To run an individual KYC check, you need:

The participant’s full legal name (as it appears on their government-issued ID)
Their national ID number, passport number, or alien ID number
Their country of residence (for routing the verification to the correct data provider)

Optionally, for advanced checks:

Phone number (for contact verification)
Date of birth
Email address

Starting a verification

Navigate to Checks in the sidebar

In the left sidebar, click Checks. This opens the Verification hub where you can start new checks or review past ones.

Select Individual Verification

Under Individual, choose either Standard or Advanced depending on the depth of check you need. If you are unsure, start with Standard — you can always escalate to Advanced later.

Standard KYC — Identity check

The Standard flow asks for the minimum information needed to verify someone’s identity against government records.

Step 1 — Enter the participant’s details

On this screen you will see fields for:

Identifier type — select the type of ID you have (National ID, Passport, Alien ID, KRA PIN)
Identifier number — type the exact number from the physical document
Country — select the country that issued the document

Make sure you copy the ID number exactly as it appears on the physical document, including any leading zeros. A single incorrect digit will cause the verification to fail.

Click Run Verification to submit the check. The platform sends the details to the relevant identity data provider and waits for a response, which typically arrives in under 30 seconds.

Step 2 — Review the identity result

When the result comes back, the screen displays a structured report showing:

Field	Description
Name	The full name returned by the identity registry, compared against what you submitted
Date of Birth	The registered date of birth
Gender	As recorded in the government registry
ID Status	Whether the document is active, expired, or flagged
Match Score	A confidence percentage indicating how closely the submitted data matched the registry record

A green badge marked “Verified” means the identity was confirmed. A red badge means the data did not match — check the ID number and resubmit, or escalate to Advanced KYC for a more thorough investigation.

Step 3 — View the full result

The results summary brings all the check components onto a single screen. From here you can:

Download the report as a PDF for your records
Sync the result to the participant’s profile (updates their KYC status automatically)
Escalate to Advanced KYC if the Standard check was inconclusive

Advanced KYC — Multi-step comprehensive check

The Advanced flow adds several additional verification layers on top of the Standard identity check. Each step can be completed independently, and you can return to complete remaining steps later if needed.

Step 1 — Start the Advanced check

The Advanced KYC screen shows a progress tracker at the top, listing all the steps included in this flow. Each step is marked as Pending, In Progress, or Completed. You move through them sequentially, but you can save your progress and return at any time.

Step 2 — Biometrics verification

The biometrics step compares the participant’s live facial image against the photo stored in the government ID registry. This step guards against impersonation — confirming that the person presenting the ID is the same person it was issued to. On this screen:

The participant is prompted to take a selfie or upload a recent photo
The system compares this image against the registered photo using facial recognition
A liveness score is calculated to confirm the image is of a real, present person (not a printed photo or screen recording)

For remote verifications, the participant can complete the biometrics step through a secure link sent to their phone. They are not required to be present at your office.

Step 3 — Contact verification

In this step, you verify that the contact details provided by the participant actually belong to them:

Phone verification — a one-time code is sent to the mobile number; the participant must enter the code to confirm ownership
Email verification — a confirmation link is sent to the email address

If the participant passes both checks, their contact details are marked as verified and stored against their profile.

Step 4 — Sanctions screening

The sanctions step screens the participant against major global watchlists, including:

OFAC SDN List (US Treasury)
UN Security Council Consolidated List
EU Sanctions List
UK HM Treasury Financial Sanctions
Interpol Notices
Regional African watchlists

The result shows a risk score and any specific matches found. A green No Match result means the person does not appear on any screened list. A red Match result requires manual review by your compliance team before proceeding.

Step 5 — Digital footprint

The digital footprint step uses open-source intelligence (OSINT) techniques to build a picture of the participant’s online presence:

Social media profiles — whether the participant has verifiable social media accounts consistent with their claimed identity
Professional listings — company directories, LinkedIn, and professional registries
Email domain reputation — whether the email address is from a reputable provider or a disposable address
Phone number intelligence — carrier, country of registration, and whether the number has been flagged for fraud

This step is particularly useful for detecting synthetic identities — fictitious persons constructed from real data belonging to multiple different people.

Step 6 — Financial verification

The financial step verifies the participant’s declared income, employment status, and creditworthiness against formal data sources. This is relevant for insurance underwriting, loan applications, and high-value transaction screening. The results display:

Credit score and rating band
Employment status as reported by formal payroll and tax records
Outstanding obligations — active loans, debt facilities, or defaults
Adverse information flags — county court judgements, bankruptcies, or regulatory sanctions

Step 7 — Review the Advanced results

Once all steps are complete (or as many as you have chosen to run), the Advanced Results screen summarises every check into a single view:

Section	What it tells you
Overall Risk Rating	Low / Medium / High / Critical — a composite score across all checks
Identity	Whether the national ID matched the registry
Biometrics	Face match score and liveness result
Contact	Whether phone and email were successfully verified
Sanctions	Match status against global watchlists
Digital Footprint	Online presence consistency score
Financial	Credit and employment verification outcome

Use this summary to make an informed decision about whether to proceed with onboarding the participant, require further documentation, or decline.

Reviewing past verifications

KYC History

The History section (found under Checks → History in the sidebar) shows every verification your organisation has ever run, in chronological order. You can filter and search by:

Participant name or ID number
Verification type (Standard, Advanced, Business, Document, etc.)
Status (Pending, Completed, Failed, In Review)
Date range
Assigned user (the team member who ran the check)

Click any row to open the full verification record, including the original report, all check results, and the audit trail of who reviewed it.

Use the Export button in the top-right of the History table to download a CSV of verification records for reporting or audit purposes.

Understanding verification statuses

Status	What it means
Pending	The verification was submitted and is waiting for a response from the data provider
Processing	The provider is actively working on the result
Verified	The identity was confirmed successfully
Failed	The data did not match — the check returned a negative result
Manual Review	The result was inconclusive and needs a human reviewer to make a final decision
Error	A technical problem occurred — resubmit or contact support

Overview

Identity Verification

Claims & Evidence

Communication

Individual Identity Verification (KYC)

Overview

Watch the Individual KYC Walkthrough

Before you begin

Starting a verification