Fighting Economic Crime Through Digital Verification

Data-driven solutions to verify UK businesses and prevent financial crime

Our Blueprint

Read our Blueprint on fighting economic crime through the introduction of Digital Company ID. This has the potential to revolutionise business in the UK by improving efficiency, security and trust, while saving billions of pounds every year in lost revenue and alleviating the burden of fraud on businesses. Our Blueprint summarises the opportunities identified by the coalition and the proof of concept developed for the implementation of Digital Company ID.

Download a copy of our Blueprint

Digital Company ID has the potential to revolutionise business in the UK by improving efficiency, security and trust, while saving billions of pounds every year in lost revenue and alleviating the burden of fraud on businesses.

The coalition’s work has demonstrated how, by adopting Digital Company ID, there would be positive outcomes and tangible benefits, such as cost and time savings, for banks and businesses alike. It will also instill confidence and trust in the ecosystem, and act as a catalyst to unlock different use cases across sectors, including Smart Data.

1. Fraud is Prevented Through Unified Data Sharing

Digital Company ID enables seamless, trusted and secure data sharing across firms and sectors. By closing exploitable gaps, disrupting fraud networks, and swiftly identifying and addressing fraudulent activities, it has the potential to directly reduce fraud for both large institutions and SMEs, alongside the indirect impacts of enabling financial institutions to redeploy compliance savings into strengthening anti-fraud efforts.

2. Greater Access to Data Fosters New Products and Economic Growth

Real time data held securely in the Digital Company ID creates trust and transparency. Further, increased verified data access leads to new products and services being offered both by and for SMEs, resulting in economic growth.

3. Reduces Red Tape and Costs for both SMEs and Financial Institutions

Digital Company ID reduces regulatory and administrative burdens on businesses, especially SMEs, cutting compliance costs for financial institutions by £1.7 billion annually and generating significant improvements in productivity for businesses. Our POC found the Digital Company ID could deliver the following benefits:

Over a 50% drop in the current costs associated with business verification and bank KYB procedures for financial institutions.
Over 60% reduction in the time required for verifying and onboarding businesses during bank account openings.
33% improvement in drop-off rates, attributed to the more efficient bank onboarding process.

4. A Robust Governance Framework Empowers the Private Sector to Scale a Digital Company ID

Establishing governance structures and standards is essential for ensuring interoperability and accountability across sectors. A robust framework empowers the private sector to scale Digital Company ID services nationwide to ensure they meet both commercial and compliance requirements.

Our Key Recommendations

Our coalition identified seven key recommendations that would enable Digital Company ID to scale and fight fraud. These recommendations build on our key findings and focus on secure data sharing, governance, regulatory alignment, scaling and interoperability. This is a call to action for policymakers, industry leaders, and regulators to collaborate and drive forward Digital Company ID, reinforcing the UK’s position as a leader in digital innovation and financial security.

What is Digital Company ID?

Digital Company ID is a unique digital representation of a business entity for the purpose of digital verification. It enables the integration of verified and trusted information about a company, like their registration documents, company credentials, business activities and financial records, and proves that the company is “real”.

Depending on the use case, Digital Company ID can also contain other information about the business, like their suppliers, trading partners, and credit profiles. To enable efficient and seamless use, Digital Company ID is linked to validation of the people authorised to represent the company.

Digital Company ID consists of three key components:

Introducing Digital Company ID: A simple and secure way to verify business identity

Repeatedly having to share paper or pdf copies of documents to prove the identity of a business is insecure and inefficient.

This video explains how a business can use Digital Company ID to automate the sourcing, verification and sharing of company information and confirm the identity of key individuals associated with the business.

Digital Company ID can protect a business in a variety of use cases and help it maintain strong relationships with banks, suppliers, and government agencies.

Learn more about Digital Company ID