Account Verification: What Brokers Ask For and Why

Every regulated broker must establish who its clients are before providing services, and must keep that information current. The requirements come from anti-money-laundering law rather than from broker preference, which is why they are broadly similar everywhere and not negotiable anywhere.

What varies is timing. Some brokers verify fully at signup; others allow limited trading first and complete the checks when money is withdrawn. The second approach is more convenient at the start and produces almost all of the frustration later.

Identity

A passport, national identity card or driving licence, photographed in full with all four corners visible, unexpired, and legible. The most common rejections are mechanical: a corner cut off, glare across the photograph, a document that expires within the next few months, or a photograph of a screen rather than the document.

Many brokers now use automated document capture with a liveness check — a short video or a series of prompted movements — which is faster when it works and unforgiving of poor lighting. Doing it in daylight against a plain background avoids most retries.

Address

A utility bill, bank statement or official correspondence, usually no more than three months old, showing your name and address as they appear on the account application. A mismatch between the spelling on the application and on the document is the usual cause of rejection, and it is worth matching them exactly rather than approximately.

Mobile phone bills are frequently rejected because they are often issued to a billing address rather than a residence. Bank statements are the most reliably accepted, and a downloaded PDF from online banking is normally acceptable where it shows the full header.

Payment method

This is the check most often deferred and the one that causes the longest delays. For a card, brokers typically require a photograph showing the first six and last four digits with the middle digits and the security code covered. For a wallet, a screenshot of the account profile showing the address and your name. For a bank transfer, a statement showing the account details and the holder's name.

The requirement exists because funds must be returned to their source, and the broker must know that source belongs to you. It follows that the funding method must be in your own name — third-party payments are refused everywhere and repeated attempts trigger compliance review.

It also follows that a card cancelled or expired since the deposit creates a genuine problem: the broker cannot refund to it and will require documentary evidence before paying by another route. Keeping the funding card active until the balance is withdrawn avoids this entirely.

Source of funds

On larger deposits, on deposits inconsistent with the profile given at signup, or where automated screening flags something, brokers must establish where the money came from. Payslips, tax returns, a contract of sale, or a bank statement showing the funds arriving from an identifiable source are the usual evidence.

This is not an accusation and it is not optional for the broker. It is, however, a reason to keep the account profile accurate: a client who declared a modest income at signup and then deposits a large sum has created a discrepancy that has to be resolved, whereas a profile that matched from the start would not have triggered anything.

Keeping it current

Verification is not permanent. Documents expire, addresses change, and brokers are required to refresh client information periodically. A passport that expired since signup, or an address document more than a year old, can hold a withdrawal even at an account verified long ago.

The last point matters. Repeated rejections without a stated reason are one of the recognised stalling patterns, and asking for specifics in writing both resolves genuine problems faster and creates the record you would need if the pattern is not genuine.