The economy of New Zealand, a highly developed market economy, is the 53rd largest national economy and 24th highest per capita in the world; when measured by GDP (nominal gross domestic product).
For businesses and institutions seeking to operate in New Zealand and/or with New Zealand identities, it is important to know that unlike many developed nations, New Zealand does not issue a National Identity Card. Similar to Australia, acceptable types of government-issued identification include Drivers Licences, Passports, Firearms Licences, Birth Certificate etc.
Given the lack of a National Identity Card, it is important to have a high standard of matching criteria by verifying individuals across multiple independent and reliable data sources.
A large number of industry sectors accept 2+2 verification as the minimum standard for ensuring that you Know Your Customer (KYC) in New Zealand. While in a growing number of cases, some compliance and risk management teams go above and beyond their regulatory obligations by constructing a minimum verification logic of 3+3 verification or higher.
Data sources and verification
New Zealand offers a variety of independent and reliable data verification sources and these include:
New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA)
Driver’s licence
Name – Match / No Match
Date of Birth – Match / No Match
Driver’s Licence Number – Match / No Match
Motor vehicle registration
Motor Vehicle Registration – Overall Yes / No
Input data elements:
Name
Date of birth
Vehicle plate number
Vehicle specifications returned:
Address returned
Department of Internal Affairs
The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) provides support to verify three core types of identity document;
Passport
Document Verification – Overall Yes / No
Input data elements:
Name
Date of Birth
Passport Number
Passport Expiry
Citizenship
Document Verification – Overall Yes / No
Input data elements:
Name
Date of Birth
Birth Certificate
Document Verification – Overall Yes / No
Input data elements:
Name
Date of Birth
Land Information New Zealand (LINZ)
Property ownership verification – Overall Yes / No
Input data elements:
Name
Address
Credit Bureau (Centrix)
Credit Bureau verification – Overall Yes / No
Input data elements:
Name
Date of birth
Address
New Zealand telephone
Yellow Pages verification – Overall Yes / No
Input data elements:
Name
Address
Home phone number returned:
New Zealand residential
The NZ residential service cross-references information from independent permission-based databases to provide the most concise single record for full name and address.
NZ NAD verification – Overall Yes / No
Input data elements:
Name
Address
One by one verification standard
This is a process by which you verify an identity against one independent and reliable data source, normally government-issued identification.
A single government source will need to be selected, from either DIA or NZTA, depending on which identity document is available for verification. As a minimum, government sources in New Zealand will require the following identity information.
Name
Date of Birth
Document Number (only applicable to NZTA Driver Licence and Motor Vehicle Registration, and DIA Passport)
Two by two verification standard
This is a process by which you verify an identity against two independent and reliable data sources, normally at least one government-issued identification and a second credit bureau or commercial data source.
Data Zoo delivers unique value to customers by including 5 independent and reliable New Zealand data sources packaged into a single price structure called IDU New Zealand – KYC. The Data Zoo vision is for our clients to achieve the minimum 2+2 for every search, and by including LINZ, Companies Office, Centrix, New Zealand Residential and NZTA Driver Licence into a single search, the chances of achieving 2+2 or higher are maximised. For reporting entities in New Zealand, we provide a Safe harbour score and logic to achieve Safe Harbour requirements as per below.
Safe harbour
To come within Safe Harbour, report entities must:
Verify the person’s name from at least two reliable and independent electronic sources; and
Verify the person’s date of birth from at least one reliable and independent electronic source; and
Verify the person’s address from at least one reliable and independent electronic source.
An address is to be included in the electronic verification in one or both of the above two verification requirements.
Where only a single source verification is provided, the PEP and Sanctions (Watchlist) service can be included as a composite search to achieve a Safe Harbour verification.
The Safe Harbour Matching Score (ie. “safeHarbourScore”) is determined by the following logic:
M1 = Match on full name, address and DOB
M2 = Match on full name and DOB
N1 = Match on full name and address
None = No match
When combining the selected data source(s) in a composite query, the Safe Harbour Flag is set to True (ie. “safeHarbour” = True) if any of the following conditions are satisfied:
2 or more data sources return a Safe Harbour Matching Score of M1
or
1 data source returns a Safe Harbour Matching Score of M1 AND 1 data source returns a Safe Harbour Matching Score of M2 or
1 data source returns a Safe Harbour Matching Score of M1 AND 1 data source returns a Safe Harbour Matching Score of N1 or
1 data source returns a Safe Harbour Matching Score of M2 AND 1 data source returns a Safe Harbour Matching Score of N1