As part of our identity verification process which Private Box is required to complete as part of our compliance with New Zealand's Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009. Staff may ask customers to provide certified documents.
This is usually required if:
- It is not possible to meet the customer, by video call or in person
- Photo ID is not from the list of accepted photo IDs
- Further identity verification is required
Certified documents are a copy of your original documents witnessed by a trusted referee.
The process
- Private Box staff will request that you provide certified documents
- Collate documents
- A trusted referee to certify the documents. A translation will also be required if the documents are not in English (See Procedure below)
- Provide certified documents to Private Box
- Private Box contacts the trusted referee
- Certified documents accepted or declined
Who is a trusted referee?
Below will describe who a trusted referee is in New Zealand and overseas. There are exclusions to who cannot be a trusted referee.
In New Zealand
In New Zealand a trusted referee must be at least 16 years of age and one of the following:
- Commonwealth representative (as defined in the Oaths and Declarations Act 1957)
- Member of the police
- Justice of the peace
- Registered medical doctor
- Kaumātua (as verified through a reputable source)
- Registered teacher
- Minister of religion
- Lawyer (as defined in the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006)
- Notary public
- New Zealand Honorary consul
- Member of Parliament
- Chartered accountant (within the meaning of section 19 of the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants Act 1996)
- A person who has the legal authority to take statutory declarations or the equivalent in New Zealand
Referees overseas
When certification occurs overseas, copies of international identification provided by a customer resident overseas must be certified by a person authorised by law in that country to take statutory declarations or equivalent in the customer’s country. There is a list of international notaries that we recognise.
We will need to contact your notary to confirm this happened - so please use someone who is contactable and speaks English. It will also be a great help if you can please provide the contact details of your notary.
Exclusions
In addition, the trusted referee must not be:
- related to the customer; for example, a trusted referee cannot be their parent, child, brother, sister, aunt, uncle or cousin
- the spouse or partner of the customer
- a person who lives at the same address as the customer
- a person involved in the transaction or business requiring the certification.
Procedure
And finally what the procedure the trusted referee must perform in order to have the documents accepted.
- The trusted referee must sight the original documentary identification, and make a statement to the effect that the documents provided are a true copy and represent the identity of the named individual (eg. they need to link the documents to the presenter).
- Certification must include the name, signature, and the date of certification. The trusted referee must specify their capacity to act as a trusted referee (eg. doctor, public notary etc).
- Certification must have been carried out in the three months preceding the presentation of the copied documents.
- If the document is not in English then a certified translation of the document will also be required.
Submitting documents to Private box
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