Plum Software has partnered with identity management specialists GB Group to launch an electronic identity checking service to help IFAs avoid breaching FSA regulations.

The launch is in response to growing demand for instant, integrated customer identity verification, says the independent software house for IFAs and mortgage brokers.

As compliance issues in the financial service industry increase, it is becoming more difficult and time consuming for advisers to keep on top of all the paperwork required for the regulations, it says.

By integrating GB Group's URU identification tool with Plum Software, advisers dodge time consuming paperwork and instead can verify clients' identities using an electronic solution.

Consequently, IFAs are able to perform anti money laundering (AML) checks using the same system that holds their clients' details.

URU allows users to cross-check personal client details against a range of population data sources, including the electoral roll, financial data from Callcredit, telephone and address data, plus deceased and gone away files.

Ann Dempster, managing director of Plum Software, says: "Financial advisers will come under greater scrutiny during 2009 as prosecutions against AML increase and the ripple effects of increased fraud from the credit crunch hit the industry."

"Failure to comply with AML obligations carries serious consequences," she adds.

Dempster believes satisfying the requirements of the AML and Treasury regulations is difficult and expensive without an electronic system.

"You can't reasonably expect advisers to spot politically exposed persons, or PEPs, particularly as they relate to associates and family members without an electronic solution."