ADDRESS VERIFICATION POLICY 2.0

 

 

INTRODUCTION
This document serves as a foundational guide for ensuring the accuracy and authenticity of addresses collected and maintained within our systems. Accurate address information is crucial for effective communication, compliance with regulatory requirements, and delivering products or services to the right customers. This policy outlines the guidelines for verifying and validating the house address and employment of potential customers. By adhering to these guidelines, we aim to enhance operational efficiency and customer satisfaction while upholding the accuracy of data presented by customers.

PURPOSE AND SCOPE
The purpose of this policy document is to clearly state the optimized and acceptable processes and policies for making address verification requests, acceptable timelines, and penalty measures for non-adherence. This document was revised based on some gaps identified in the previous policy.

This document covers gaps in the current AVR policy and how the new policy seeks to bridge such gaps.

CURRENT POLICIES
The purpose of these policies is to maintain oversight over stakeholders and ensure a smooth and efficient address verification process, minimizing any potential issues or disruptions. They are to be strictly adhered to. The following policies are current measures for address verification:
1.    A clear and current utility bill (NEPA Bill, water bill, waste Bill, rent receipts, and any other document showing the client’s full address) should be provided for ALL TRANSACTIONS; Address verification request should be requested for transactions with discrepancies in information (determined by the underwriter) provided by the customer. These discrepancies include but are not limited to
I.    Inability to provide utility bill/ utility bill does not provide or include the required information.
II.    Inability to provide proof of residency in the address.
III.    Inability to provide proof of employability.
 
IV.    Other discrepancies are based on the discretion of the Underwriter/Internal Auditor.

However, transactions below N300,000 regardless of the discrepancies noticed would not have an address verification carried out (aside otherwise approved by the Vendor Manager).
2.    An office visitation is only required when the customer does not possess a work ID or an official email address.
3.    Address verification will only be carried out for repeat customers if the previous visitation report is older than 6 months or the customer’s address has been changed.
4.    The turn-around time for address verification is 24 hours for locations within Lagos and 48 hours outside these states (some verifications might take longer due to unforeseen circumstances).
5.    Only the Vendor Manager and Lead, Underwriting Support are authorized to place calls or send emails to vendors. Every issue experienced with the vendor or the report should be escalated to either of these parties. In certain cases, the HCRM or Lead Underwriter can send an email if the issue reported is not being treated satisfactorily.
6.    When a report comes in as failed, the Vendor Manager must be informed before a re-verification request is sent.
7.    Credit Control and Internal Audit shall not process any transactions that require visitation without sighting an original visitation report.
8.    This policy does not exclude Internal Audit from random/scheduled visits to selected clients’ addresses.

COMPLIANCE MEASURES

Process	Policies	Compliance Measures
Sending of Request to the Vendor	The Underwriting Support Officer is expected to send the verification request to the vendor within an hour of receiving the request from the Underwriter.	TAT will be monitored and staff who exceed the stated timeframe will be penalized.
	The Underwriting Support Officer is expected to only send verification requests based on	The cost of any verification request sent outside of the stipulated policies

	the  policy  guidelines  and  underwriting’s conditions.	will be borne by the Underwriting Support Officer.
Collection, Verification of the required information, and notification to the customer.	Underwriting Support Officers and Account Officers are expected to clarify the correct addresses and other information from the customers/account officer before sending the request. See appendix for details. Account  Officers  should  ensure  that customers are duly informed of visitations by vendors.	The Underwriting Support Officers/ Account officer will bear the cost of any incorrect report/re-verification due to the wrong information provided.
Follow up in cases where the vendor exceeds TAT	Issues like this should be escalated to the Lead, Underwriting Support who in turn informs the Vendor Manager if all efforts to resolve the issue prove abortive.
Making re-verification requests	The Underwriting Support Officer must seek approval from the vendor manager before proceeding to make another request.	The cost of any request sent more than once regardless of the issue without prior knowledge of the Vendor Manager would be borne by the Underwriting  Support  Officer  who made the request

 

GAP ANALYSIS