Identity Verification

Akahu provides access to customer identity information taken directly from a connection (e.g. a bank).
This can be used for identity verification purposes.

Akahu provides two different ways to access customer identity information:

• Oneoff Access (Guide)
• Enduring Access (Guide)

The choice between these options can depend on multiple factors:

• One-off access is simpler to implement, however the user will have to enter their credentials every time you wish to retrieve information this way.
• Enduring access requires the user to create an Akahu account, including verifying their email address.
• Enduring access will allow you to keep identity information up-to-date seamlessly in the background. The user will only need to enter their credentials once, after which an enduring connection is created. You can access this up-to-date information from Akahu whenever you like.
• If you already use other Akahu services based on enduring access, it makes sense to use the enduring access flow. This will prevent the user having to enter their credentials multiple times.

Differences in data

The data provided by both flows is similar but not identical.

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For more detail on the oneoff identity result, see our documentation on the Oneoff Identity Result.
For detail on the results you can get from an enduring flow, see the documentation for the /parties and /accounts/ endpoints.

Customer names

Akahu exposes two different types of customer name:

• Account holder name. This is the legal holder of that account, so in the case of joint accounts it will contain multiple names. This is provided as-is from the connected institution.
• Party name. This is the name that the connected institution associates with the credentials that the user entered. It will always belong to a single person, business, or trust.

Using the one-off flow you can retrieve the account holder name.
Using the enduring flow you can retrieve both the account holder name (from the /accounts endpoint) and the party name (from the /parties endpoint), depending on support from the underlying connected institution (supported by all banks except Rabobank).

Addresses

These are available through both one-off and enduring access.

Account ownership

The account nickname, holder, and NZ bank account number can be accessed through both one-off and enduring access.

Date of birth

This is only available in the enduring flow.

Phone numbers

These are only available in the enduring flow.

Email addresses

These are only available in the enduring flow.

Tax numbers (IRD numbers)

These are only available in the enduring flow.