Reliance: Onboard a limited company
Reliance is for use by regulated firms only. Onboarding via Reliance is only available by API.
To check the different types of entities you can onboard using Reliance, see Entities we onboard.
You complete customer due diligence (CDD) using your own tools and processes, and then send us the information we need. You must also attest that you have verified your customer's identity in line with the standards set by the Joint Money Laundering Steering Group (JMLSG).
Once you've submitted the required information, we validate that the required fields are present, screen the customer against sanctions lists, perform an Immigration Act check, and assess whether the customer falls within our risk appetite based on industry and jurisdiction.
Only users with the compliance role can create and submit Reliance applications.
Process overview
There are four steps to onboarding a limited company using Reliance:
- Choose your workflow
- Capture the customer information
- Submit the application
- Receive a decision
1. Choose your workflow
Find the relevant workflow for your customer type. See Workflows for how to retrieve and cache your workflow URLs.
2. Capture the customer information
Company information
| Information | Claim | Required |
|---|---|---|
| Company name | uk-company-register | ✓ |
| Company registration number | uk-company-register | ✓ |
| Corporation type | uk-company-register | ✓ |
| Date of incorporation | uk-company-register | ✓ |
| Company registered address | uk-company-register | ✓ |
| Country code | uk-company-register | ✓ |
| Company trading address | trading-address | ✓ |
| Industry code (SIC) | sic-codes | ✓ |
| Business size | business-size | ✓ |
| Tax residency/ies | tax-residencies | ✓ |
| Tax identifier number/s | tax-identification-numbers-by-country | ✓ |
| Risk rating | external-risk-rating | ✓ |
| Number of employees | number-of-employees | Optional |
| Balance sheet size | balance-sheet-size | Optional |
| Estimated annual turnover | annual-turnover | Optional |
Number of employees, balance sheet size, and estimated annual turnover are requested but not required fields.
While optional, providing middle names helps reduce false positives in Sanctions and Immigration Act checks.
Director and PSC information
For each director and person with significant control (PSC), you'll need:
| Information | Claim | Required |
|---|---|---|
| Full name (given name) | individual-identity | ✓ |
| Middle name | individual-identity | Optional |
| Full name (surname) | individual-identity | ✓ |
| Date of birth | individual-identity | ✓ |
| Residential address | individual-residence | ✓ |
| US citizen confirmation | us-citizen | ✓ |
| Tax residency/ies | tax-residencies | ✓ |
| Tax identifier number/s | tax-identification-numbers-by-country | ✓ |
| Verification attestation | reliance-verification | ✓ |
Attesting to verification
In addition to submitting the above information about the company, you must also attest that you have verified both the company information and the identities of the directors and PSCs. To do this, use the reliance-verification claim, and enter one or more of the following reliance-verification-methods:
| Verification method | Description |
|---|---|
electronic | The customer was verified using electronic sources (credit reference agency) |
physical | The customer provided documentation in person |
manual-biometric | Government documentation cross-referenced with a selfie and verified by a third party |
manual-document | The customer supplied documentation e.g. a passport copy and address document |
jmlsg | Attest that the verification method used was in line with JMLSG standards |
3. Submit an application
To submit an application, make a request to:
POST https://api.griffin.com/v0/organizations/{organization-id}/onboarding/applications
You will need to provide the claims relevant to the limited company, following the Claims API reference for the subject-profile (the company) and related-profiles (directors and PSCs).
Example application
{
"workflow-url": "/v0/workflows/wf.Ul-1r4gRWfOFxHJsHWghcA",
"subject-profile": {
"display-name": "Money Technology Ltd",
"claims": [
{
"claim-type": "uk-company-register",
"entity-name": "Money Technology Ltd",
"corporation-type": "private-limited-company",
"entity-registration-number": "91824539",
"date-of-incorporation": "2017-06-01",
"building-number": "184",
"city": "London",
"street-name": "Argyle Street",
"postal-code": "EC2V 9AN",
"country-code": "GB"
},
{
"claim-type": "trading-address",
"building-name": "Tower A",
"building-number": "12",
"street-name": "High Street",
"city": "London",
"postal-code": "TE1 2ST",
"country-code": "GB"
},
{
"claim-type": "sic-codes",
"sic-codes": ["01110"]
},
{
"claim-type": "business-size",
"business-size": "small"
},
{
"claim-type": "tax-residencies",
"tax-residencies": ["GB", "US"]
},
{
"claim-type": "tax-identification-numbers-by-country",
"tins-by-country": {
"GB": ["12345-6789"],
"US": ["123-45-6789"]
}
},
{
"claim-type": "external-risk-rating",
"external-risk-rating": "low-risk"
}
]
},
"related-profiles": [
{
"display-name": "JOHNSON, Talia",
"subject-association": {
"director": {},
"psc": {}
},
"claims": [
{
"claim-type": "individual-identity",
"given-name": "Talia",
"surname": "Johnson",
"date-of-birth": "1985-03-15"
},
{
"claim-type": "individual-residence",
"building-number": "19",
"street-name": "Example Street",
"city": "Test Town",
"postal-code": "TE1 2ST",
"country-code": "GB"
},
{
"claim-type": "us-citizen",
"us-citizen?": false
},
{
"claim-type": "tax-residencies",
"tax-residencies": ["GB"]
},
{
"claim-type": "tax-identification-numbers-by-country",
"tins-by-country": {
"GB": ["AB123456C"]
}
},
{
"claim-type": "reliance-verification",
"reliance-verification-methods": ["manual-biometric", "manual-document"],
"reliance-verification-standard": "jmlsg"
}
]
},
{
"display-name": "KLEIN, Monica",
"subject-association": {
"psc": {}
},
"claims": [
{
"claim-type": "individual-identity",
"date-of-birth": "1963-02-02",
"given-name": "Monica",
"surname": "Klein"
},
{
"claim-type": "individual-residence",
"building-number": "19",
"street-name": "Example Street",
"city": "Test Town",
"postal-code": "TE1 2ST",
"country-code": "GB"
},
{
"claim-type": "us-citizen",
"us-citizen?": false
},
{
"claim-type": "tax-residencies",
"tax-residencies": ["IT"]
},
{
"claim-type": "tax-identification-numbers-by-country",
"tins-by-country": {
"IT": ["12345-6789"]
}
},
{
"claim-type": "reliance-verification",
"reliance-verification-methods": ["manual-biometric", "manual-document"],
"reliance-verification-standard": "jmlsg"
}
]
}
]
}
If a director is also a PSC, you should add both roles on the subject-association parameter, as shown in the first related profile above.
A successful response body looks like this:
{
"onboarding-application-url": "/v0/onboarding/applications/oa.b25ib2FyZGluZy1hcHBsaQ",
"onboarding-application-status": "submitted"
}
Monitoring the application
To monitor the application status, either poll the onboarding-application-url or create a webhook and listen for the onboarding-application-created and onboarding-application-updated events.
Once an application has been submitted, it will register the subject and related profiles and the status will update to processing. A legal-person-url and verification-url will be added to the application, as shown below:
{
"onboarding-application-url": "/v0/onboarding/applications/oa.b25ib2FyZGluZy1hcHBsaQ",
"created-at": "2019-08-24T14:15:22Z",
"workflow-url": "/v0/workflows/wf.Ul-1r4gRWfOFxHJsHWghcA",
"onboarding-application-status": "processing",
"legal-person-url": "/v0/legal-persons/lp.IGxlZ2FsLXBlcnNvbi1pZA",
"verification-url": "/v0/verifications/vn.IHZlcmlmaWNhdGlvbi1pZA"
}
4. Receive a decision
When the onboarding-application-status moves to complete, a decision of accepted or declined will be added to the application.
A successful response body for a complete application that has been accepted looks like this:
{
"onboarding-application-url": "/v0/onboarding/applications/oa.b25ib2FyZGluZy1hcHBsaQ",
"created-at": "2019-08-24T14:15:22Z",
"workflow-url": "/v0/workflows/wf.Ul-1r4gRWfOFxHJsHWghcA",
"onboarding-application-status": "complete",
"legal-person-url": "/v0/legal-persons/lp.IGxlZ2FsLXBlcnNvbi1pZA",
"verification-url": "/v0/verifications/vn.IHZlcmlmaWNhdGlvbi1pZA",
"decision": "accepted"
}
If the verification process fails, the application status will update to errored. You can query the verification-url for more detail:
GET https://api.griffin.com/v0/verifications/{verification-id}
Onboarding international directors/PSCs
When onboarding directors/PSCs outside the UK, the claim requirements for addresses are different.
See this example for an imaginary French address:
{
"claim-type": "individual-residence",
"address-line-1": "4 Rue Paul Cabet",
"address-line-2": "Appartement 5",
"city": "Dijon",
"state": "Côte-d'Or",
"postal-code": "21000",
"country-code": "FR"
}
Required fields:
claim-typeaddress-line-1citypostal-codecountry-code
Optional fields:
address-line-2state
Onboarding non-account owners
We require less information when onboarding LTDs who will not be the owner of a bank account, for these LTDs use the Reliance LTD Company workflow, the below tables show the information that is not required when onboarding these LTDs.
For more information on the different associations a customer can have to a bank account please see Owners, controllers, and beneficiaries.
For the company
| Claim | Required for non-account owners |
|---|---|
tax-identification-numbers-by-country | ✗ |
tax-residencies | ✗ |
us-citizen | ✗ |
balance-sheet-size | ✗ |
number-of-employees | ✗ |
business-size | ✗ |
external-risk-rating | ✗ |
For directors and PSCs
| Claim | Required for non-account owners |
|---|---|
tax-identification-numbers-by-country | ✗ |
tax-residencies | ✗ |
us-citizen | ✗ |
external-risk-rating | ✗ |
What's next?
Once you have an accepted decision, you can open a bank account. See Types of bank accounts to get started.