Welcome to our knowledge base

Why do we perform identity verifications?

We are required to perform identity verifications for Newton account sign-ups as part of our obligations to FINTRAC (the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre), Canada's anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CTF) organization.

We use automated verification software to verify your identity. This is the most common type of identity verification and usually takes 2 to 3 minutes to complete. We check the information you provide against at least two databases, and we also check for any red flags that might suggest identity theft, synthetic identity, or other common forms of fraud.

How do we conduct a photo verification?

As part of our measures to confirm your identity, we use a third-party identification service called Persona Inc. (“Persona”). To learn more about Persona’s privacy practices, click here.

If we are still unable to confirm your identity using our automated process, we will be unable to open an account for you. In this case, you are welcome to submit your information again once you have obtained more comprehensive identity documentation.

Record-keeping

As part of our obligations to FINTRAC and for anti-fraud purposes, we are required to keep certain records. Please see our privacy policy for details on what information we collect and store.