The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act is introducing compulsory identity verification for directors, LLP members and PSCs.

The BrightChecks identity verification service is available within Inform Direct, allowing authorised corporate service providers (ACSPs) a simple tool to complete the checks.

The ultimate responsibility to ensure that a check is completed correctly is down to the authorised corporate service provider (ACSP). When investigating the correct tool to use, a key question will be whether the checks will meet the required Companies House standard. 

Companies House guidance on the checks is visible here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/how-to-meet-companies-house-identity-verification-standard

Note: The above Companies House guidance previously (erroneously) suggested that only checks done using Near Field Communication (NFC) technology to read data chips (e.g. passport chips) technology were compliant. This was removed from the guidance in April 2025.

BrightChecks (available via Inform Direct):

BrightChecks uses Credas, a leading provider of identity verification technology, trusted by thousands of businesses for their market-leading technical capability and customer-focused user journeys.

We selected Credas because we believe that you will likely decide that they are compliant when you look at the Companies House guidance. Their checks are:

• Aligned with 'Option 1' of the Companies House identity verification standard.
• Performing biometric checks of the listed identity documents
• Checking the 'Cryptographic' features of the identity document to ensure it is real (and therefore issued by the person/organisation that it is said to be issued by)
  • 'Cryptographic' here as per the Companies House guidance definition "Cryptographic features of identity documentation are security features that correctly identify the person or organisation that issued the documentation."
• Comparing the identity document image (or biometric data if they used NFC to read the passports chip) to a 'live' image of the person to determine if the document belongs to the person that claims it belongs to them
• Offering an address check, if you determine you require one 
• Providing a PDF download of the check result for your records

Once you have done a check, you can review the information Credas provides showing evidence of the verification steps, which you can compare to steps 3 and 4 outlined by Companies House. 

Another reason we selected Credas was because they were working with Companies House (separately to us) to be able to provide identity checks to meet the requirements in the ECCT Act and subsequent regulations.