Verifying your customer's identity

Verification of Identity (VOI) is an Australian Registrars’ National Electronic Conveyancing Council (ARNECC) requirement for banks to identify their customers prior to registering a mortgage with the state/territory land titles registries.

Verifying a customer’s identity is also necessary for banks to satisfy their Anti-Money Laundering/Counter Terrorism Financing (AML/CTF) obligations.

As part of your agreement with Macquarie, you’ll need to:

• Verify your customer’s identity digitally using NextGenID in ApplyOnline. If your customer is unable to digitally verify their identity, VOI will need to be completed manually and in-person by completing our Home Loan Identification form. 
  • Note: When using NextGenID, generally only one photo ID document is required but the manual home loan identification form requires a minimum of two certified ID documents.
• Provide any information or documentation regarding the introduction, identification, or verification of a customer within 72 hours from the time of request.
• Retain and be able to retrieve any information or documentation relating to an application for seven years from the date the loan is repaid for auditing purposes.

NextGenID will guide your customer through providing identity documents digitally to meet AML and VOI requirements.

Step 1: Provide one photo ID document that matches your customer's name used on the application, either a current:

• Australian driver’s licence, or
• Australian passport (can be expired for up to two years).

Step 2: Check details that have been captured from the ID document including name, card and document numbers. Any discrepancy of these key details will likely result in the electronic verification not being completed.

• Make up to 3 edits to ensure the details are accurate for the verification step.
• Common misread letters and numbers may include: 
  • '0' instead of an 'O'
  • 'E' instead of a '8' or '6'.

Step 3: Check if the ID has been verified on Government records:

• If verified, your customer will complete the selfie video and NGID will be sent back to ApplyOnline.
• If verification doesn't match, your customer can repeat Step 2 and make additional edits before proceeding to Step 3 again.

Prior to digital submission, there are two ways to manage name discrepancies:

1. Ensure the name on the application for your customer matches the ID document they've provided.
2. If you're aware that your customer has used an ID document with a different name to the application, you'll need to provide a certified copy of their marriage or change of name certificate. See Certifying documents for guidance on how to complete this in line with VOI requirements.

Once your customer’s application has been approved and you’re preparing for settlement, the panel solicitors may require further VOI checks to be completed.

Panel solicitors require the name of the applicant to match on the:

• application
• one form of identification
• land title or contract of sale.

When a mismatch is identified the panel solicitor may:

• Complete a change of name request with the land titles office (for refinances) or with the vendor solicitor (for purchases).
• Request a statutory declaration where there are insufficient ID documents to support the change of name.

A statutory declaration or additional certified documents (e.g. change of name, government-issued certificates for marriage or divorce) will be required in the following scenarios.  

Note: If your customer provides the relevant document in the NextGenID experience, the document won't need to be certified.

A statutory declaration will generally not be required in the following scenarios:

Statutory declaration requests arise from Macquarie Bank’s regulatory obligation to take reasonable steps to confirm a person’s identity. In particular, this is where differing variations of a name are present across identity documents or the application, as shown in the Unacceptable name discrepancies table above.

A statutory declaration may be requested:

• by us, due to name discrepancies between the ID documents, the application name and if provided, the land title or contract of sale
• by our panel solicitors, due to name discrepancies between land titles and identification documents.