UK KYC regulatory compliance

To ensure that virtual phone numbers are used compliantly, the UK regulators have increased their KYC requirements in 2024 to ensure that adequate information about the business or individual using the phone numbers is obtained to help reduce the volume of voice and message traffic that violates the network's acceptable usage policy.

Also referred to as 'Know Your Customer', KYC guidelines originate from the banking and financial sectors and have since been widely applied to UK business sectors to obtain personal and business information to help reduce risk, including fraud and misuse of services.

KYC guidelines vary per sector, but for virtual phone numbers, you'll now need to provide information about you and your usage type as well as supporting documentation to be able to use virtual phone number services.

In an effort to reduce spam, fraud and smishing (a combination of SMS and phishing), UK networks and virtual number providers are now required to verify the individuals or businesses that are using the phone numbers (also referred to as the end-users) and where they are located geographically.

Yes, this is a UK-wide KYC change and whilst some businesses may not immediately roll out these changes, the UK regulators are expecting compliance from all providers over the coming months.

When you start your subscription, we temporarily add your chosen phone number(s) to an approved 'holding bundle' so that you can still make use of calling and messaging features, out of the box.

We'll then reach out to you to request the relevant KYC information, but if you don't provide this within 14 days, call and message features will be disabled until you do to ensure we comply with the new regulations.

No, it's free to register your information with the network to have your KYC information vetted and approved.

The current review and approval timeframe is between 1-3 business days, but this may be subject to change based on the volume of applications the network receives.

If you provide us with your KYC information within the initial 14 day period, your Chalkboard numbers will still be usable, so it's business as usual.

If the information provided is rejected by the network, you'll be given specific information on why and details on how to fix the issues.

Depending on the rejection reason, you may need to resubmit information again before we can process further submissions.

After 27th May 2024, existing users will be unable to purchase new numbers in the app until they provide KYC information and after 30th September 2024, calling and messaging features will be restricted.

New businesses signing up on/after 27th May 2024 will be given a 14-day window to supply this information before calling and messaging features are restricted.

The requirements are currently to register as either an individual or business, so as long as your usage of the phone numbers is in line with the network's acceptable use policy, you'll be able to register.

If you're unsure which application type you need to register under you can reach out to our support team who will assist you further at [email protected].

Without the relevant information, including ID and proof of address documentation, you'll be unable to submit your KYC information and all traffic will be blocked from your phone numbers after 30th September 2024.

For individuals, you'll need to provide:

• Full name - proof of government-issued ID/passport required as supporting documentation
  
  
• Address - proof of address in line with government-approved documentation is required as supporting documentation and must be a valid UK address and cannot be a PO box or virtual office address
  
  
• Date of birth
  
  
• Phone number - this must be a valid phone number i.e the number you used to register for Chalkboard (virtual numbers cannot be accepted)
  
  
• Email address
  

For businesses (registered businesses/sole traders), you'll need to provide:

• Business name - this should be the full, registered business name
  
  
• Business registration number - this should match the registration number on Companies House
  
  
• Website URL - if you don't have a website, you can provide social media URLs for your business
  
  
• Business address - this should be your principal place of business, must be a valid UK address and cannot be a PO box or virtual office address
  
  
• Full name - this should be an authorised representative or senior manager within the business
  
  
• Business phone number - this must be a valid phone number, virtual numbers cannot be accepted
  
  
• Business email address

If you're registering as an individual, or a business that isn't registered on Companies House, you'll need to supply us with supporting documentation.

When sending us this information, it is important to factor in the below requirements:

• The documentation should be clear and legible with all corners of the documentation in view
  
  
• Documentation should not be obscured in any way, other than anonymising personal information such as financial data or personal information not requested as part of this process
  
  
• Address documentation should be dated within the past 3 months, with all photographic IDs being valid/in-date
  
  
• Only documentation on the government's list of approved documentation can be accepted, failure to supply acceptable documentation will result in your application being rejected and you'll need to restart the process
  
  
• Scanned copies and photographs should be in colour
  
  
• Identity documentation should match the name provided on the application and your workspace - applications that don't match will result in your application being rejected and you'll need to restart the process

If you're supplying KYC information as a business, there's no further need to register for future number purchases once you've supplied us with the information.

If you're registering as an individual, you may be required to supply further information such as updated photo ID or proof of address - this may vary between number types and a member of the team will reach out to you if anything is needed at the point of purchasing the additional number.

If you have the supporting documentation to hand, it takes less than 5 minutes to process your submission to us and once the information is received, we screen it before passing it securely to our network provider to review and approve.

Once processed, we remove all your personal/business information from our systems and no data is held locally on any device.

You can see how we process and manage our user information in our privacy policy.

Once a subscription has ended, workspace owners can tap on the subscription ended splash screen, tap on Delete account and follow the steps shown on the screen.

Once this is done, we process this request and remove all information related to your workspace and business from our systems, including any personal or business KYC information supplied.

If you're ready to get started, you can follow the link here.