Directors will be unable to be appointed until their identity has been verified

• Compulsory identity verification to be introduced to help trace people who are committing fraud or money laundering
• Companies House will be given greater powers to query, investigate and remove false information
• changes will give businesses confidence in who they are doing business with, with greater accuracy of data on the     register, without impacting the speed of service

The UK’s register of company information will be reformed to clamp down on fraud and money laundering, the government has announced.

Under the plans, directors will not be able to be appointed until their identity has been verified by Companies House.

It is believe to benefit potential suppliers and partners when exchanging business along with improving the ability of law enforcement agencies to trace their activity for suspected fraud or money laundering.

It is not expected that these additional checks will affect the timescale it takes to form a new limited company.

‍