Identification safeguards

Just like all financial organisations, we're obliged by law to confirm the identity and address of every applicant. This is to comply with regulations and guidance designed to prevent money laundering and to protect our customers from fraud. This may happen if you're a new customer or have been a customer for some time.

In order for us to meet this requirement we're able to access Credit Reference & Fraud Prevention Agency databases to check that the name and address details you've supplied us are correct. This will show as a search of the database but is not a credit score, so will not affect your credit rating. In the majority of cases this will enable us to open your Birmingham Midshires account without the need for any paper based identification. We'll advise you if we require further proof of identification.