Tracesmart Ltd, specialist tracing agents and providers of web based tracing and identity check services, have announced that they are installing a service backup facility in their Cardiff offices. A failsafe for their online services*, which allow users to trace people and verify identity, the system will ensure that in the highly unlikely event their London based data centre experiences technical problems, site traffic will be handled via Cardiff. In readiness for the installation, Tracesmart have considerably enhanced onsite security measures and installed a new internet connection.

To handle the high volume of traffic the Tracesmart Corporate web services receive, the company has invested in a high-speed and robust dedicated internet connection. Paul Weathersby, Technical Director at Tracesmart comments on the move "To support the new backup facility, it was necessary to install a 10mbps internet connection. The connection uses fibre optic cables, facilitating a fast data transfer rate which ensures that high volumes of traffic can be managed without impeding system quality and usage.” The new connection will also allow Tracesmart to base several off their offline services in their headquarters, as noted by Weathersby, "Through the combination of the backup facility and the high-speed connection, we will also be able to provide our data cleansing and marketing list services directly from our Cardiff HQ, as opposed to our London data centre"

Ahead of the backup data centre going live, Weathersby and his team have increased onsite security measures and made certain all activity within the office is monitored constantly, down to the last keystroke. In addition to these measures, several areas within their Cardiff headquarters are now restricted to top level personnel only.

The government-sponsored organisation set up to investigate dormant accounts, The Commission on Unclaimed Assets, recommended that financial institutions use more pro-active means to locate their missing customers. Consequently, Lloyds TSB is one of the first institutions to assume responsibility, and has adopted the most comprehensive positive measure of any UK bank or building society to yield the highest reunification success rate.

Helen Weir, Group Executive Director, UK Retail Banking at Lloyds TSB recently said; “These accounts have long been forgotten and our aim is to reunite as many customers as possible with their money. As customers change address, open multiple accounts and their circumstances change, it’s surprisingly easy for them to lose track. This is why we have taken action and appointed, specialist search agency, Tracesmart Corporate to help us locate the rightful owners.”

Assets go missing in a number of ways; account holders lose track of accounts due to a change of address and fail to notify the bank or financial institution, other assets are ‘lost’ due to the death of investors who leave little hint of the benefit. In his Pre-Budget Report of 2005, the then chancellor Gordon Brown defined a dormant account as one “where there has been no customer activity for a period of 15 years”.

Amazingly, vast amounts of money are lying unclaimed in financial institutions across the UK as people lose track of their assets. According to The Commission on Unclaimed Assets, one in three adults in Britain believes they have a dormant account of some description. The estimate for all dormant products in National Savings alone is an astonishing £1.8 billion, £933 million of which has been dormant for 15 years or more.

Managing Director, Michael Trezise commented, “Lloyds TSB is to be applauded for pro-actively reuniting lost customers to their unclaimed assets. We are of course delighted to have won the competitive bid for this asset reunification project. It has, no doubt, reinforced our claim to be the UK’s leading tracing agency owing to our highly skilled team of trace researchers and our unique multi-tiered search solutions. Tracesmart’s continued investment in cutting edge technology is now reaping significant rewards and we look forward to working with Lloyds TSB to track down their 120,000 missing or ‘gone away’ customers.”

The Institute of Credit Managment (ICM) are offering excellent benefits to their members in 2008, namely the opportubity to trial industry leading Tracesmart Corporate and their extensive consumer data solutions.

Announced in June's issue of Credit Management magazine, Tracesmart Corporate are offering members of the Institute of Credit Management (ICM) a series of benefits throughout 2008. The benefits will allow members of the ICM the opportunity to trial Tracesmart Corporate services and receive a range of discounts.

The first of the series enables ICM members to test-drive the company's online debtor tracing tool, which is also known as Tracesmart Corporate. Michael Trezise, Managing Director, elaborates on the offer "The ability to trace people quickly and simply is key within the credit industry - especially the collections sector. We know that Tracesmart Corporate is one of the most effective ways to complete this task - it is already the choice of many tracing agents up and down the country - and by offering ICM members the opportunity to trial it for free we hope to demonstrate this to the industry as a whole."

Tracesmart Corporate will be continuing the series by offering ICM members the opportunity to trial a number of other services in their range, "Whilst the provision of our online tracing tool is what we are best known for in the credit industry, it is only one of the many services in our portfolio. We provide both a data cleansing solution, which was developed with credit industry in mind, and an online system for conducting identity checks. Following discussions with the ICM, both parties agreed that these would also be services that could benefit ICM members and will be featured in future benefits." Trezise explained.

Commenting for the ICM, Director General Philip King noted "We are always looking at ways to add value to membership, and negotiating benefits with key companies in the credit industry is an important way of doing this. The series of benefits being offered by Tracesmart Corporate is an important addition to our membership package, and we look forward to working with them in the future."

In addition to discussing how conducting an alumni search can benefit educational institutions, Smith will also be conveying the advantages of data cleansing and data enrichment, "A successful fundraising campaign should employ data cleansing prior to commencement; this process not only ensures that the contact details held are correct but will also highlight gone aways, allowing the institute to identify and, subsequently, trace those who have moved. In addition to data cleansing, it is advisable to profile each and every member by wealth and socio-demographics – this can highlight potentially large donors, allowing the University to conduct highly targeted communications."

Commenting on their own portfolio of services, Mike Trezise, Managing Director at Tracesmart, noted "We have developed a suite of bespoke services specifically for Universities, to assist them in re-locating and profiling their alumni. Already employed by many institutes throughout the UK, our solutions have been used to relocate alumni members for reunions and to support philanthropic fundraising campaigns. The imminent introduction of the state driven, matched funding scheme makes this the ideal time for Universities to reconnect with their gone aways." The matched funding scheme for voluntary giving, referred to by Trezise, starts on 1 August 2008 and runs for three years. £200 million of funding is available to match eligible gifts raised by all English higher education institutions (HEIs) and directly funded further education colleges (FECs). Trezise further commented, "It is imperative that institutions proactively trace people in their alumni database who they have lost contact with, as it will broaden their support base and could considerably assist in developing the University as a whole."

In addition to presenting at the conference, Tracesmart have a prominent role at the event as a whole. As well as being platinum sponsors, supporting a keynote speaker and exhibiting, they are also hosting a drinks reception on Wednesday the 27th August for delegates of the conference.

"My team has poured extensive time and energies into this project to ensure that our users can extract the information they need quickly and simply. A key part of the usability is the internal navigation; intuitive menu layout, a breadcrumb trail and link rich copy combine to make sure that wherever a client is on the site, for example the visitor could be on the page detailing the data cleansing, and if they wish, they will easily be able to navigate to any other given location such as the identity checks page." comments Technical Director, Paul Weathersby. "One of the primary purposes of this new site is to provide a central point for our clients and visitors to glean information relevant to their particular needs. This is why that in addition to all of the technical input our IT specialists have had, our research and marketing teams have spent a considerable amount of time sourcing and collating an assortment of information to provide in-depth industry knowledge, as well as easily digestible facts on our own key products and services."

Continuing on the theme of usability, Tracesmart Corporate have incorporated a colour coding system into the site which highlights their key services, this, in turn, enables users to easily identify which section they are in at any given time. The core services are coloured thusly: TRACE - red, CLEANSE - Blue, DATA - green and ID – purple, with all information relating to specific industries such as asset reunification depicted in silver. They have also taken the time to ensure that site production adhered to all web development best practice standards, in order to guarantee their new site is of the highest quality.

The launch of the new site also provided a chance to firmly cement the recent changes to the Tracesmart Corporate brand, as Adam Smith, Marketing Manager notes; "Whilst usability and functionality have been key drivers behind the development of the new version of Tracesmart Corporate, it has also been an opportunity to re-focus and re-define our Corporate division and brand. The site aesthetics and clear classification of services reflect the fundamentals of Tracesmart Corporate – clear, precise and functional. When potential clients visit the site for the first time they will be able to gain a clear understanding of who we are and what we do, and for returning clients we hope it echoes what they already know."

The new office space will fulfil a variety of functions. As well as offering offices for their expanding Trace and Sales teams, the space will also incorporate a back-up data centre facility. "By being able to have a new back up centre on site, we will be able to provide a higher level of reliability to our customers. This is something we have been striving for, and thanks to the current wave of success the company is riding, we now have the means with which to do it. This expansion will not only effect us directly as a company, but with the space to expand and develop our products and services, our clients will also reap the benefits." Explains Technical Director Paul Weathersby.

The considerable expansion in the tracing agents and sales teams is due to the outstanding growth in business over the past couple of years. After the successful completion of some very high profile asset reunification projects and the imminent arrival of unclaimed assets legislation, the in-house trace team are expanding to cope with the growing demand for their highly specialised skills. This growth is in addition to their rapidly expanding sales and CRM team, which will ensure that Tracesmart Corporate maintains strong client relations as well as managing the large volume of new leads they are currently experiencing.

"Our expansion into the new offices is a testament to all the hard work put in by our staff over the years. I hope that the new offices and influx of new staff will renew our vigour and boost our determination to maintain a leading position in the industries we supply." Comments Michael Trezise, Managing Director.

The addition of this data to their unrivalled consumer universe, takes the total number of unique records in their database to a staggering 73.3 million - this newly acquired shareholder information is just one of many data acquisition projects.

Users of Tracesmart Corporate products and services will derive many benefits from these valuable records. The volume and accuracy of this new data will facilitate higher positive result rates when conducting activities such as debtor tracing. Tracesmart Corporates’ data cleansing service will also be considerably enhanced – the shareholder information includes 4.7m middle names, which will allow for many more records to be appended during the cleansing process.

"As a company we continuously find ways to increase the size and diversity of our already extensive dataset collection. We constantly strive to improve the accuracy of our market leading Trace, Cleanse and ID solutions in order to retain our position at the vanguard of our industry. I believe that the addition of this fresh data demonstrates our commitment to this.” comments Michael John Trezise, Managing Director.

We will be attending the following events:

If you too will be in attendance at any of these events, be sure to stop by the stand for a live demonstration or for a chat with our sales team. They will be able to answer any questions you have regarding our products and services and show you all the latest developments.

So that you can keep abreast of where we will be exhibiting for the rest of the year we have set up an events calendar to keep you informed of all dates, locations and the products we will be exhibiting. We look forward to seeing you at a range of industry events soon.

There is no doubt that mylostaccount.org.uk will reunite many consumers with monies they have lost contact with, but there is a considerable volume of persons who will have difficulties accessing the site. Mike Trezise, Managing Director at Tracesmart Corporate, elaborates “It is a logical step that has been taken by the organisations involved; having a variety of different web based services ourselves, we understand how powerful the internet is at connecting with the public. However there are many people who will not or cannot access the site. Firstly there are those who are unaware they have monies sitting in an account and will therefore not even consider looking, then there are capability issues which arise; a fair proportion of people do not or cannot use the internet for many reasons. As part of their Treating Customers Fairly obligations, financial institutions should also be taking pro-active steps to trace such customers.”

These issues are only the tip of the iceberg, many dormant accounts will be owned by deceased persons. Previous reunification exercises carried out by Tracesmart Corporate have seen mortality rates average at around 20%-25% of the people they have been commissioned to locate, the mylostaccount.org.uk scheme will obviously not work for these individuals. “When the owner of a dormant account is deceased, the account becomes the legal property of their estate, but if the executors are unaware that the account exists how will they make a claim? Pro-active data cleansing and tracing exercises identify the deceased via mortality screening, locate the executor and facilitate the reunification of monies with the appropriate party – emphasising how important it is that financial institutions utilise numerous avenues to reunite customers with accounts and savings.” concluded Trezise.

Paul Weathersby, Technical Director at Tracesmart Corporate, emphasises the importance of accurate DOB information, “while some companies maybe happy to provide their customers with model age data, we prefer to offer accurate dates of birth, as they are a key identifier when attempting to trace people.”

“The importance of DOB information when attempting to trace an individual should not be underestimated; accurate DOB records undoubtedly enhance positive trace rates. For example, locating a specific David Jones in Cardiff will much easier with a precise DOB than without.” he continued. The use of precise DOB data also helps to avoid mis-tracing*, the results of which can cause much distress for the incorrectly traced party and untold damage to the corporate identity of the company whom traced the individual.

This latest DOB records update is just one of many data acquisition projects Tracesmart Corporate is currently undertaking. In addition to the 1.7m DOB records being added to the Tracesmart Register,  a further 6.7m Shareholder records have recently been sourced and are being processed, readying them for merge into the main database. “The combination of our ever expanding Tracesmart Register with our other comprehensive datasets has significantly increased the use of our services in key sectors. For example we have made major strides in the debt sale and purchase market with many established companies choosing our services over our competitors,” comments Mike Trezise, Managing Director.

*Mis-tracing – An increasingly worrying problem whereby companies set out to trace one individual, but incorrectly trace another individual who has the same name. Dependent on the primary reason for tracing the person, this will have negative effects for both the company who conducted the trace and the incorrectly traced individual themselves.

Starting as we mean to go on, January will see an additional 1.7 million, Data Protection Act Compliant, Opt-In Date of Birth records added to our extensive collection of datasets.  Dates of Birth are a huge asset when tracing people as they act as a unique identifier for a person. It can mean the difference between trawling through hundreds of David Jones’s in Cardiff or finding the right one instantly. On addition of these records, our powerful online system will automatically append dates of birth, along with middle names and addresses, to our Electoral Register dataset, allowing you to locate the person you’re looking for quickly and efficiently.  

The addition of these records into our dataset collection also improves Smartlink, our Address Link tool. The benefit to being able to identify someone by both name and date of birth provides our system with enough information to find both their previous and current addresses. This is information can prove vital when debtor tracing or pension tracing. The addition of 1.7 million Date of Birth records throughout January will enhance all aspects of our system, but will be especially beneficial to our Data Cleansing and Data Enrichment services. This is just one of many improvements we will be making throughout 2008 to improve our system and quality of service.

For more information on what’s to come, keep an eye on the News page on our site.

We would like to wish all our subscribers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year!

Firms have until the 15th December 2007 to incorporate a Politically Exposed Persons (PEP) screening facility into their AML procedures; any breach of these new regulations could place companies at serious risk. “Firms need to ensure that they have appropriate risk-based procedures in place to determine whether a customer is a PEP. Whilst the larger firms in the financial services sector have been pro-active in recent months integrating or subscribing to sanction lists and PEP databases, it is highly likely that smaller firms won’t have and will continue to solely request traditional ID paper documentation as their Know Your Customer policy. This error in judgment will mean they won’t have the ability to screen for sanctions or the politically exposed,” warns Managing Director Mike John Trezise.  

As a company, Tracesmart Corporate have been supplying PEP screening facilities since the inception of our Smart ID Plus solution in 2006. Technical Director, Paul Weathersby, explains “We already call on a multitude of sanction databases but have enhanced our database by incorporating an additional 200,000 politically exposed people from over 200 countries in readiness for the deadline.   Using our identity checks system, our clients are able to instantly identify those who could present a greater risk to their business.”

Our multi-source PEP database contains a comprehensive list of very clearly defined individuals including heads of state, cabinet members, members of parliament, highest members of the judiciary, national bank governors and members, political and religious leaders, military officials, senior executives of state of owned companies, ambassadors, former PEP’s and those closely associated to PEP’s such as family members. If customers you are trying to verify appear in any of these categories you will be made aware instantly, allowing you to protect your company from any potential risk.

For more information visit our anti-money laundering page, or contact Tracesmart Corporate today.

Once obtained, our IT team will merge it with our existing data, amending any name or address changes and deleting any duplicate files. Our aim is to have the new Electoral Register loaded and fully searchable in March 2008, well ahead of our nearest competitor.

The inclusion of the 2008 Electoral Register into our collection of datasets, will provide our clients who are attempting to trace people with access to the most accurate and up to date information available. In addition the register will also provide users with millions more records with which they can locate gone-aways and successfully fulfil their ‘know your customer’ requirements.   

While the latest Electoral Register will be a huge asset to Tracesmart Corporate, since the introduction of the opt-out option in 2003 the percentage of voter’s information commercially available has steadily depleted. Data tests estimate that this year the percentage of those choosing to withhold their information from the edited Electoral Register is 42%. To combat this growing trend we are continually increasing the number of records held within our own Tracesmart Register. Complied from information gleaned from a variety of data protection compliant sources our proprietary dataset currently holds information on over 58% of the adult population, including over 35.5 million names and addresses and 32 million dates of birth, ensuring that our systems can locate 9 out of 10 UK adults.

The integration of the 2008 Electoral Register is just one of the many data acquisition projects we have lined up to expand our collection of datasets and cement our position as market leaders. More information on the launch of the 2008 Electoral Register and other Tracesmart Corporate advances will follow shortly.

Mike John Trezise, Managing Director at Tracesmart, noted the significance of these new awards “The collections industry, along with the debt sale and purchase market, has seen considerable growth over the last few years and I feel it is only fitting that we recognise the achievements of those who operate in these fields. I am also very proud that the majority of companies nominated are associated with Tracesmart Corporate. Whilst we wouldn’t claim to be the reason for their success, I feel it is a testament to our range of services that the majority of the best in the business utilise our consumer data cleansing and debtor tracing solutions.”

As you would expect the 18 nominees, (which are spread over four categories) are the cream of the industry:

The DCA Awards ceremony and Gala Dinner is sandwiched between the Collections 07/Debt Sale and Purchase conference that takes place on the 28th and 29th of November in the same venue, at which the Tracesmart Corporate team will be exhibiting. If you are attending and would like to see our solutions first hand, please come and have a chat with Chris or Antony.

web: http://www.tracesmartcorporate.co.uk
tel: 02920 474 150
fax: 02920 489 603

Our diverse product base allows us to attend a wide variety of events. This is no more apparent than in November when we will be attending exhibitions catering for industries such as credit services, pensions and debt collection.

If you are attending any of the following, be sure to come and have a chat with us.

Although November’s schedule is hectic, all the hard work will be worth it as we have the opportunity to showcase our entire product range to a wide variety of industries. So if you are out and about this November stop by the stand, if you’re not and want to know what you’re missing, why not give us a call on 02920 474150 or drop us an email via sales@tracesmart.co.uk.

Having been with the company since its inception 3 and a half years ago, Paul has been key in providing the creative IT backbone that has enabled the company to go from strength to strength. Commenting on his career at Tracesmart so far, Paul noted: “I've had a vast amount of input into providing the products that we currently offer; together with my team we turn new product ideas into reality.”

In his previous role as Senior IT Manager at Tracesmart, Paul directed production and development of the flagship tracing system which is employed by the company’s many clients nationwide. When asked about his aims for the future he said, “I intend to ensure that our services remain reliable and robust whilst maintaining the dynamic and fast moving development of new products and services. We have always been a highly client focused company, supplying bespoke solutions as opposed to ‘out of the box’; this is a value that has been key to our success and one that I intend to preserve.”

On announcing the promotion of Paul to Technical Director, Tracesmart Managing Director Michael John commented “I would like to take this opportunity to thank Paul for his significant contribution to the company since day one and wish him every success in his new role.”

The event itself is a break from the normal exhibition type conference, with the emphasis placed on networking and providing delegates with a wealth of practical knowledge. Offering six credit related streams, each hosting speeches from the most senior credit professionals from around the UK and the world, Tracesmart Corporate were keen to be involved.

 “The credit industry has flourished over the last couple of years and a good portion of this success can be attributed to the incisive knowledge credit professionals possess, knowledge which should be continually expanded.” comments Mike John, Managing Director of Tracesmart Limited. "The format of CCR-Interactive will actively promote such learning. This will be facilitated not only by the array of notable speakers, but, due to the roundtable format, through discussion with peers.”

The splitting of event into six specific streams allows delegates to identify which group of speakers will target their area of expertise, the intention being that they will take away information that can be directly applied in their work place.

However, it’s not all work and no play as the event is followed by an indoor golf event and gala dinner which will incorporate a charity auction for the British Paralympic Society.

“A gala dinner is always a great way of unwinding after a conference, and being able to support such a worthy charity at the same time is a bonus.” concluded John.

Launched on August 2nd 2004, the Tracesmart core mission was to provide both corporate clients and private customers with a powerful people tracing solution. Over the last three years we have expanded exponentially; due to this growth we have relocated twice, but are now firmly settled in Cardiff Bay.   

Like many businesses Tracesmart has grown in numerous ways. Whilst we continue to provide our business clients with the very best in people tracing tools, our corporate service portfolio has expanded to include, data cleansing, identity verification and mailing lists.

In addition to our corporate solutions, we have continuously developed our consumer sites. Tracesmart.co.uk has been constantly upgraded and last April saw the launch of our sister site eroll.co.uk. Designed with family historians and genealogists in mind, eroll.co.uk provides users with the perfect tools with which to trace living relatives in the UK.

What’s next for Tracesmart?

Not ones to rest on our laurels, we are actively developing and improving our services to maintain our position as market leader. We will continually update our datasets, ensuring that all of our services hold the freshest information available.

Over the next few months we will be announcing some very exciting developments, so watch this space – we think you will be pleasantly surprised.

The new insolvency search can be accessed by all corporate clients through both our Tracesmart® and Smart ID Plus™ websites; this new addition will play a vital role in both people tracing and identity verification exercises.  Adam Smith, Marketing Manager at Tracesmart Ltd elaborates:

Quarter on quarter and year on year, individual insolvencies have risen at an alarmingly rate; the insolvency service reported a 60% rise in insolvency arrangements in 2006 when compared to the previous year, with over 100,000 persons declared bankrupt or subject to an IVA.  Knowing that a prospect or existing customer is insolvent has wide ranging implications for our clients and we are providing access to this information at the touch of a button.”

When a trace is performed the system automatically conducts both a bankruptcy search and IVA check on results (which are flagged with any matches), letting you know instantly if the person is subject to insolvency proceedings. An independent insolvency search can also be carried out, on both our tracing and ID software, if you wish to screen someone specifically for personal liquidation.

Our insolvency database is updated on a daily basis which ensures that all information supplied is both current and relevant. For further information on this, or any of our other services, please contact us via our corporate contact form or call our team on 0870 420 4886.

Available to all corporate users, Smartfilter™ has dramatically enhanced the functionality of the UK’s most powerful people tracing tool - Tracesmart®.

This new feature allows users to enhance their tracing exercises by filtering results down using a range of parameters. Paul Weathersby, IT Manager at Tracesmart Ltd highlights the benefits;

“Smartfilter™ will optimise user tracing activities by allowing them to filter out unwanted results. Our clients now have an additional set of parameters which they can utilise; these include a DOB search function which will return only records which match the precise DOB they provide or filter out conflicting DOB’s to provide only exact matches and potential matches where DOB is unknown.”

Users can also filter results by age range, recency and residency; this added functionality will ensure all traces are optimised and potentially save a great deal of time.

The first instalment of the Rolling Register 2007 is now online and fully searchable!

The Rolling Register is a monthly Electoral Roll update, it allows people whose personal circumstances have changed during the electoral year (moving home etc…) or forgot to register in time, the opportunity to join the Electoral Roll and retain their right to vote.

As with last year, this fresh electoral data will be uploaded to the Tracesmart® database on a monthly basis. This in turn will ensure that you have access to the most up-to-date information available when carrying out a people search.

If you happen to be someone whose circumstances have changed or if you forgot to join the Electoral Roll, please visit www.aboutmyvote.co.uk and follow the instructions.

The addition of this new dataset means that our entire range of people search services now include the last 5 five years Electoral Roll, amounting to approximately 160m records. This will continually be updated throughout the year via the Rolling Register, ensuring that search results contain the freshest information available. Adam Smith, Marketing Manager at Tracesmart comments;

“We are fully committed to providing our customers with access to the most up-to-date and accurate people search results possible. To achieve this we constantly refresh our database and invest in new data, the integration of the 2007 Electoral Roll well ahead of our competitors shows our dedication.”

Whether you are looking for an old friend or lost family member the addition of the 2007 Electoral Roll will significantly improve the likelihood of obtaining a present address.

In line with the current format, all records that appear on the 2007 Electoral Roll will appear with an “E7” icon.

Tracesmart® is again on target for the third year in succession to be the first company to have the new Electoral Roll integrated into their online people search facilities.

Mike John, Business Development Director reports “Our vast knowledge of processing name & address data files has allowed our IT team to develop a sophisticated address matching system. This software will accurately and quickly match the 2007 Electoral Roll dataset to PAF cleansed addresses and merge the data into our extensive database in a very short period of time.

The 2007 Electoral Roll will extend the power of the Tracesmart self-key tracing and KYC verification solutions to 5 years of residency coverage. When combined with our proprietary Tracesmart Register™ there really is no other tracing or ID solution that allows you to instantly trace and verify the vast majority of the UK adult population at the touch of a button”, he continued.

Whilst the new edited Electoral Roll is still regarded as the definitive consumer file available for all commercial purposes, we are keen to point out this is only one of a multitude of major updates carried out over the course of a year.

"The 2007 Electoral Roll data is just a small proportion of the record enhancements Tracesmart® performs on a continual basis. We add new records and update our main database every single day." states IT Systems Manager, Paul Weathersby.

2007 Electoral Roll data is anticipated to be fully searchable on 1st March – St David’s Day. Further updates will follow shortly.

Regular site visitors will know that we provide access to a multitude of datasets to assist in people tracing. These include the 2003 - 2006 edited Electoral Rolls and 2006 Rolling Register which are supplemented with birth, death, marriage indexes and our own unique Tracesmart Register™. The combination of these data sources provide you with one of the most comprehensive and powerful online people search tools in the UK.

Take advantage of our special January sale but hurry this offer is for a limited period only!

* Private users only. Terms & Conditions apply.

Mike John, Business Development Director at Tracesmart Ltd states "Whilst traditionally this involved time consuming and costly manual validation techniques, the digital age has allowed for a much more economic and efficient procedure to evolve, namely electronic identity verification."

"We have just launched our own very sophisticated E-ID verification tool – Smart ID Plus™ - which promises to be one of the most powerful and efficient identity and residency validation tools available." he continued.

The new service compares customer information against a multitude of independent datasets, which include current and historical Electoral Rolls, the UK’s most comprehensive mortality file and their unique Tracesmart Register™, containing over 30m precise dates of birth. The system then generates a detailed auditable report, including a Smartscore™, an intuitive combined identity and residency scorecard, which allows for a risk based approach to any financial transaction.

Understanding that different companies have different needs, Tracesmart has developed HTML, XML and batch processing accessibility, providing a three-tiered, flexible identity verification system.

If you require further information or have any general queries relating to the new service, please contact their Sales Team on 0870 420 4886. For a limited period, they are offering a free 7 day trial of their system.

Contact Information:

Tracesmart Ltd
2 Sovereign Quay
Havannah Street
Cardiff
CF10 5SF

Tel: 0870 420 4886
Fax: 0870 420 4887
Web: www.smartidplus.co.uk
E-mail : info@smartidplus.co.uk

According to the Office of National Statistics, most people relocate within a 5 mile radius and the vast majority of homeowners complete the sale and purchase of their former and new homes on the same day.

Using very sophisticated matching techniques based on identity, record recency, locality and property transfer data information, Tracesmart® has successfully linked millions of people by address and this new service is now at the immediate disposal of Smartpass subscribers.

Mike John, Business Development Director states “It is envisaged that this unique address chaining solution will be available via our Smartcleanse™ batch data cleansing service shortly and it is expected to significantly enhance match rates for both asset reunification and historical debt collection markets.”

New address links will be created on a monthly basis and Smartpass customers will be able to access this enhancement at no additional expense to their existing package.

Please contact our Corporate Sales Team on 0870 420 4886 for further information or request a Free Trial online.

Whilst it is possible to calculate the cost in monetary terms, ‘Faking the dead’ also carries immeasurable ramifications with thousands of families having to suffer the anguish of having a loved one’s identity stolen. A recent article in The Daily Mail highlighted the story of a deceased 86 year old grandmother who had her identity stolen and used to run up a debt of £8,102 in her name – the figures show this is not an isolated incident and all areas of the credit industry must take a pro-active approach to preventing this form of crime.

Tracesmart® recognise the need for a comprehensive mortality screening tool which can be implemented at the application stage to assist in preventing deceased identity theft and as such have developed the most comprehensive mortality screening service in the UK – Deathscreen DUO™.

By combining two Tracesmart® datasets, Deathscreen DUO™ produces a unique two-tiered mortality screening service. Deathscreen DOB™, which matches subject by name and precise date of birth and Deathscreen LKA™ which matches by name and last known address coalesce to create Deathscreen DUO™.

Originally developed for batch mortality screening, Tracesmart® have now produced an online, single look up version for instant ad-hoc searches. Deathscreen DUO is also integrated into out Smart ID™ and Smartlink Solo™ services.

By utilising our powerful consumer datasets and sophisticated logic, Smartlink Solo™ will trace a subject from their last known address to a later address based on name and date of birth.

At the primary search level a summation of any linked addresses will be provided detailing the recency of the link and the geographical distance (in miles) from the last known address.

With this knowledge an informed decision can be made on the likelihood of the match relating to the subject searched, bearing in mind people very rarely relocate outside of a 25 mile radius.

Proceeding to the secondary search level will provide full details of all linked addresses, which in turn provides a residency history for the subject.

This service also carries out a two-tiered mortality screen (Deathscreen DUO™) and performs a search of our extensive telephone number database providing telephone numbers or XD flags where applicable.

Our extensive collection of consumer datasets which contain the edited Electoral Rolls 2003 – 2006, unique Tracesmart Register™ and a multitude of other data sources, ensure we maintain a high positive ‘address link’ rate.

For more information on this or any of our other services please call our corporate sales team on 0870 420 4886 or email info@tracesmart.co.uk.

We also provide a comprehensive research service if you are searching your family history or verifying a particular event.

There are two types of birth certificates available which are issued by the General Register Office. As the short or abridged copy only gives the child’s full name, sex, date and place of birth it is the long or unabridged birth certificate which is more commonly requested. When applying for a new adult or child passport you will always need to supply a copy of your long birth certificate as a means of identity and British Citizenship. In preparation for a marriage or civil ceremony, you will also be asked for a copy of both pending bride and groom’s respective birth certificates.

Information you can expect to receive on a birth certificate is the date of birth, full name of the child, gender, father’s name and occupation, mother’s name including maiden surname, usual address and registration district.

To order a copy birth certificate or one of our other types of certified documentation, please visit www.ukcertificates.com.

Over the last four weeks there have been a total of 110,586 amendments to the Electoral Roll which are now being fully utilised in our people search tool. The updating of our data with the Rolling Register information is imperative to keep the database as up to date as possible.

We are the only company offering a self-key solution whom continually refresh their Electoral Roll data so if you want to ensure you are accessing the most accurate information, please review our corporate subscription options or call our sales team on 0870 420 4886.

In addition to the Electoral Roll update our property ownership dataset has also been refreshed, with information on all properties within England and Wales sold up to and including February 2006 available. You can gain access to all of the Land Registry information independently through our Land Registry Sales Data service or by performing an advanced address search.

This shows our commitment to not only keeping the Electoral Roll information as up to date as possible but also our range of supplementary databases.

Sales rose sharply by 103% from £0.7m in the preceding year to £1.5m. Pre-tax profits stood at £400k compared to £75k in 2004, an upturn of 361%.

The balance sheet shows a substantial increase in fixed assets to £680k, mainly attributable to the acquisition of its award winning 3,000 square foot office complex in Cardiff Bay, the new focal point of Cardiff. Shareholders funds totalled £255k.

Mike John, Business Development Director, says “This substantial growth has been achieved principally as a result of new business derived in the debt collection and tracing sectors. Our self-key tracing tool is rapidly becoming synonymous in this field and we will continue to add comprehensive datasets on a regular basis, ensuring that we maintain our prominent market position.”

Client Services Director, Jamie Aherne, says “We have also noticed a healthy increase in other core areas, such as consumer data cleansing, mortality screening and ID verification. A number of serious bids for the company have been turned down. Tracesmart is looking an increasingly attractive proposition to a variety of companies within the market but we will remain independent and self-funding for the foreseeable future.”

Sian Carter, Sales Director added, the introduction of our enhanced four-tiered tracing solution has proven very successful since its launch last month, especially in the debt purchase and asset reunification market. The services ranges from our internet based self-key solution through to our in-depth guaranteed tracing service, Smartfind™, which enjoys a success rate in excess of 85% for a fixed charge on a no success, no fee basis.

There are also 86,825 deletions that have been identified and will be flagged as potential “Gone Aways” shortly.

To our knowledge, none of our main competitors updates its product with this fresh name and address dataset, ensuring that Tracesmart remains the freshest tool for people tracing and ID validation purposes.

Our next Rolling Register update is expected to be loaded in early April.

It is envisaged that approximately 50,000 new registered electors will be added to the site each month for the next 8 months.

Tracesmart are the only self key tracing and identify verification solution incorporating this fresh data, ensuring that our clients access the most fresh and up to date consumer data available for tracing, asset reunification and “Know Your Customer” purposes.

Matches will be displayed in consumer records with an R6 icon.

Mike John, Business Development Director at Tracesmart said “We are once again the first tracing tool offering search by name solutions to load the annual Electoral Roll. Our investment in the UK’s leading address management software together with our dedicated IT team has enabled us to launch this fresh dataset well in advance of our 1st March prediction.”

“We expect the industry to roll out their 2006 version between June and September this year. It is clear that companies subscribing to other online data providers and CD rom based products are effectively searching historical data for over 6 months of the year. Our self-key database enables clients to search the most up to date name and address data available for tracing and identity verification purposes.”

Jamie Aherne, Client Services Director, explains “We have noticed a number of new corporate clients who are under contractual agreements with other data providers are subscribing to our Smartpass facility on a monthly basis to ensure they have access to our fresh data” We are confident they will subscribe annually to Tracesmart at renewal date.”

“Tracesmart’s consumer database is unique, combining our own Tracesmart Register with edited Electoral Roll 2003-2006 inclusive. Over 22m records contain a precise date of birth and we are the only tracing tool providing middle names in results.”

An annual Smartpass offering unlimited access to their range of datasets is available at £2400 plus vat per user if you subscribe in advance. Alternatively, a monthly Smartpass is available at £250.00 plus vat per user.

For further information, please call Jamie Aherne on 0870 116 3636.

If you are not on the Electoral Register, you could lose your vote.

If you wish to add yourself to the Electoral Roll, you may complete a Rolling Register form and submit it to your local authority.

Rolling Registration is undertaken monthly, following a specific timetable that is set out in legislation. The table below shows when your name will be added to the Register of Electors.

Between 12 August 2006 & 12 December 2006, Rolling Registration is suspended during Annual Canvass. All applications to join the Register of Electors must be made on the Form A delivered to every household in the Borough in September 2006.

Ireland introduced its escheatment law in 2001 and set a dormancy period of 15 years. Financial institutions were given 2 years to reunify their dormant accounts and successfully located approximately 60% of their customers in time. This was a very successful PR exercise, with many lost customers investing further funds in their brand.

If financial institutions fail to become pro-active in tracing dormant accounts, they will risk losing control of the funds to the government who will reinvest the money into the community, through the Commission of Unclaimed Assets.

Smartlink Solo™ is a new forwarding address self-key tracing tool currently being developed by Tracesmart Ltd, in particular for asset reunification purposes.

This unique search facility will call upon a range of consumer name and address databases containing over 50m records. It will match your customer to a new address directly linked from your last known residence or by a precise date of birth, a unique identifier for people location. Potential mortalities will also be screened automatically.

Access will be made available via our website with search results displayed in seconds. Each search will operate on a no hit, no fee basis.

A similar service is currently available on a batch processing basis. Visit our Smartlink section for further information.

There are over £15 billion of unclaimed assets in the UK and this new single lookup service will provide the financial services industry with a cost-effective instant solution to trace its lost customers and dormant accounts.

For further information, please contact our Corporate Sales Team on 0870 420 4886.

Our Birth records database now covers all entries from 1984-2004 inclusive, totalling 19.8 million entries.

A typical birth record details the following information:

• Surname
• Forename
• Middle Names
• 3^rd Initial
• 4^th Initial
• Mother's Maiden Name
• Registration District
• Month & Year of Registration
• GRO Reference

This information will enable you to order a certified copy of the birth certificate online at UK Certificates. This will provide the precise date of birth, place of birth, parents’ names, residential address and occupation.

Our Death records database now covers all entries from 1984-2004 inclusive, totalling 12.3 million entries.

A typical death entry details the following information:

• Surname
• Forename
• Middle Name
• 3^rd Initial
• 4^th Initial
• Date of Birth
• Age at Death
• Registration District
• Month & Year of Registration
• GRO Reference

This information will enable you to order a certified copy of the death certificate online at UK Certificates. This document will provide the precise address of the deceased, cause of death and the details of the next of kin or informant.

Our Marriage records database now covers all entries from 1984-2004 inclusive, totalling 13.7 million entries.

A typical marriage entry details the following information:

• Surname of both parties
• Forename of both parties
• 2^nd Initial of both parties
• 3^rd Initial of both parties
• 4^th Initial of both parties
• Registration District
• Month & Year of Registration
• GRO Reference

This information will enable you to order a certified copy of the marriage certificate online at UK Certificates. This document will provide the precise date and location of the marriage, usual residential address of parties, their occupation and the name and occupation of their respective fathers.

From the 1st of February we will be commencing a monthly draw which one lucky Tracesmart Registrant must win! Prizes include the latest hi – tech gadgets, weekend breaks and many other luxury gifts.

The first draw will take place on the 28th of February when a Tracesmart Registrant will win a top of the range 30GB iPod from Apple!

To be eligible to enter the draw you must be a Tracesmart Registrant, you can join the Tracesmart Register and find out the other benefits of registering online.

It is envisaged that this fresh dataset will be available to search in approximately 2 weeks, months before any of our competitors offering search by name solutions.

We now hold edited Electoral Rolls from 2003-2006 inclusive, together with our own Tracesmart Register, containing over 22m precise dates of birth and millions of middle names to ease the potential match process.

Other recent enhancements to our flexible Smartsearch™ technology include a unique Name & DOB search, enabling corporate clients to instantly search for a forwarding address at the cost of a single credit. The service is made available for free to our Smartpass subscribers.

Please visit our People Tracing Solutions section for further information.

Our main people search database now contains 60.3m personal profiles, sourced from past and present Electoral Registers and various datasets built into our Tracesmart Register.

Opt-outs for the 2006 Electoral Roll equate to around 32% and Tracesmart is continuing an extensive data source campaign to append consumer name information for millions of opt-out addresses.

We are the only UK people search database providing middle names in our search results. This is significantly improving match quality for both our private and corporate clients.

Our UK People Search search can be performed instantly online and results are displayed in seconds.

It is now time to adopt a more pro-active approach towards cleansing your pension fund database and tracing lost or deferred pensioners.

Tracesmart offers a range of solutions to ensure you follow best practice guidelines, increase scheme efficiency and identify potential overpayments.

All NAPF members qualify for preferential rates.

We want to share our success and are offering all new subscribers the chance to double up** on a range of our subscription packages for free by just adding your details to our Tracesmart Register.

For just £19.95*, you will be able to search our range of datasets as many times as you like for 2 hours.

You will also receive free entry into the Win4now prize draw with a chance to win up to £100,000 worth of prizes!

Simply select your chosen package from our subscription page.

* Excludes VAT

** Pay As You Trace, Smart 5, 1hr Smartpass & 24hr Smartpass only. Available to UK residents only and offer restricted to initial purchase.

• Certain councils are enclosing a covering letter with their electoral registration form stating that if you tick the opt-out box you will not receive direct mail, commonly known as junk mail. This is untrue.
  
  
• Certain councils are making the choice for you by automatically ticking the opt-out box on your behalf.
  
  
• Certain councils are automatically ticking the opt-out box if you chose to opt-out in the preceding year.

If you do not wish to receive unsolicited mail, there is no need to tick the opt-out box on your electoral registration form.

All you need to do is contact the Mail Preference Service, a free service set up 20 years ago by the direct mail industry to enable consumers to have their names and addresses removed from mailing lists and marketing files. It is supported by the Royal Mail and The Information Commissioners Office.

The use of the MPS file is a requirement of the British Code of Advertising, Sales Promotion & Direct Marketing administered by the Advertising Standards Authority. It is also a condition under the code of practice of the Direct Marketing Association, of which we are a member.

The MPS will remove your details from 95% of direct mail lists. It will not stop unaddressed material or correspondence addressed to the occupier.

Mail Preference Service Registration
Register your details on the MPS and stop receiving junk mail.

Electoral Roll Registration
Download an application form to add yourself to the edited or full Electoral Roll.

Tracesmart Register Registration
Add your basic details to our unique consumer database instantly.

This Know Your Customer search instantly calls upon a number of leading consumer databases including the 2003-2005 edited Electoral Rolls, our unique Tracesmart Register and a fresh Directory Enquiry lookup. Results are displayed in less than a second.

The service is utilised by web and high street retailers to prevent credit card misuse as well as an age verification tool for the gambling industry.

Smart ID is a very cost-effective fraud prevention search which offers unlimited access from as little as £5 per day*. We offer both a web and XML gateway solution.

In order to comply with the new Money Laundering Regulations 2003, it is essential that you make efforts to validate the identity of all new and existing customers.

If you wish to experience the service at first hand, please call Antony Smith on 0870 116 9696 or complete our contact form.

* Monthly subscription of £150.00 plus vat, subject to our fair usage policy.

The Direct Marketing industry and other commercial organisations are only allowed to purchase the edited version of the Electoral Roll. Only credit reference agencies are allowed access to the full register but it can only be used to vet credit applications and prevent money laundering.

The vast majority of retail purchases are made by credit or debit card and companies access various name and address validation tools to verify the identity of their customers and to prevent fraud. As a result of the increased level of opt-outs from the edited Electoral Roll, estimated at 31% in 2006, it has become increasingly difficult for companies and e-commerce sites to validate the identity of their customers.

Tracesmart operates its unique consumer database called the Tracesmart Register enabling companies to locate and validate the identity of UK residents that do not appear on the edited version. Over 29m people are currently registered and the figure is growing on a daily basis.

Entering basic details on our Tracesmart Register is completely free of charge and you take advantage of the following special benefits.

Unclaimed Assets
There is £15 billion of unclaimed assets in the UK and adding your details will enable our financial services industry clients to contact you regarding unclaimed assets, shares or policies. Do you have a dormant account you have forgotten about?

Wills
All of the UK’s leading probate genealogists utilise our site on a daily basis to trace missing beneficiaries and heirs. Have you been left monies, assets or property by a deceased relative or friend?

Reunite with Lost Friends & Family
Over 30,000 searches are performed on the site each day. Is an old friend, loved one or family member trying to find out how life has treated you?

Identification Validation
Ordering goods and services online will become easier as corporate clients will be available to validate your identity instantly through our Smart ID tool.

Win up to £100,000 in Prizes
Instantly register with our prize partners ‘Win4Now’ for a chance to win over £100,000 of prizes including holidays, cash and cars.

Become a Tracesmart Registrant

A typical record includes full name, including middle names, and full postal address. Further information such as the identity of the owner, purchase price and transfer date will be added shortly.

We have loaded the majority of Scottish property transfers since 2000 and additional records will be added on a monthly basis.

No other people search database in the UK incorporates this data and middle name matches uniquely identifies individuals, enabling you to identify accurate potential matches within seconds.

Perform a free preview of our Advanced People Search now.

According to CIFAS, impersonation of the dead is the UK’s fastest growing identity theft crime. The latest research suggests the problem has been understated by 3.5 times and revised statistics now indicate that 56,000 families experienced the pain of discovering their loved one had been impersonated after their death, to open accounts such as credit cards and loans.

These deceased fraud cases are estimated to cost the British Economy £300 million a year and depriving the Treasury of £100 million of taxation income. UK Pensions funds are reported to be paying out over £200 million per year to deceased pensioners.

Deathscreen currently contains in excess of 13 million records in England & Wales and is growing by over 40,000 names every month. It is clearly the definitive mortality-screening file available anywhere in the UK, holding three times more records than its leading competitor’s dataset.

Our data cleansing team have successfully merged the dataset into our People Search tool, which now calls upon over 60 million names and addresses.

The file will provide consumer data for a proportion of “opt-out” addresses from the 2004 and 2005 edited Electoral Rolls, as well as extending the number of dates of birth contained within our database to 22.3 million.

We are currently seeking further historical Electoral rolls for online launch in 2006. In the meantime, Electoral Registers from 1996-2002 can be searched verbally via our customer service operators on 0906 40 40 192*