In order to offer their customers increased protection against impersonation of the deceased (IOD) fraud, Tracesmart have considerably increased the coverage of mortality data they hold. The consumer data specialists have now incorporated the General Register Office (GRO) death indexes for England and Wales from 1980-1983 into their Tracesmart Corporate suite of services; this being only the beginning of their comprehensive death index digitisation project.

The GRO has collated registers of important civil events, such as births, deaths and marriages, since 1837, but it was not until 1984 that they began to digitise records. All registrations prior to 1984 are held on microfiche. In 2005 the GRO initiated the 'Digitisation of Vital Events' (DOVE) project to digitise the birth, death and marriage indexes, but unfortunately following major delays the project was put on hold, with only birth records up to 1934 and death records up to 1957 having been digitised; it is not known when the project will recommence.

Death index data is a pivotal tool in the fight against IOD fraud. With a lack of historical death data available electronically and having acquired microfiches holding all deaths registered in England and Wales covering 1960 – 1983, Tracesmart embarked on a comprehensive death index digitisation project. Utilising an offshore service provider, the company are ensuring 99.95% accuracy on all records digitised through a strict quality control procedure and, when completed in 2010, the project will yield approximately 14,500,000 death records in a digital format.

Tracesmart have completed the initial stage of this project and the 1980 – 1983 death indexes (some 2,500,000 records) have already been integrated into their mortality database. These additions make it both the most comprehensive and extensive commercially available mortality database in the UK.

Whilst the 1980 – 1983 death indexes will be essential for conducting comprehensive identity checks and data cleansing exercises, they will also play a significant role when financial institutions wish to trace people as part of an asset reunification program. From their considerable experience in tracing dormant account holders, Tracesmart know that many of the missing individuals will transpire to have died prior to 1984. Whereas to identify such events previously involved labour intensive research, it can now be done at the click of a button.

Commenting on how the new death records and their ongoing digitisation project will help their customers Mike Trezise, Managing Director of Tracesmart, noted,

"Following on from the integration of death registration information into our anti-fraud services last year, we are continuing to enhance our mortality database. From a service standpoint this data means we can improve and enhance much of our portfolio, especially our identity verification and mortality screening services. This, in turn, allows our clients to better defend against mortality related fraud, protecting both the company and consumer alike."

Following the acquisition of the adjoining waterfront office accommodation in Cardiff Bay, Tracesmart – one of the UK's leading suppliers of consumer data services – are transferring their tracing, customer service, sales and marketing teams to their new high-tech residence on completion of an extensive refurbishment project. The company has in-effect doubled their workforce over the past 18 months and the office expansion will more than adequately service their growth.

Counting the prominent and prestigious St David's Hotel and Spa as a neighbour, Tracesmart's waterside position is in one of the most sought after areas within Cardiff Bay's newly developed and highly acclaimed business and recreation quarter. In-line with the original design of their headquarters, the ultra-modern theme continues; reflecting the company's values and persona whilst providing a first-rate environment for their workforce.

Tracesmart Corporate, the company's commercial division, has been the key driver in the organisation's development, delivering a wide range of services from identity checks for anti-money laundering purposes, to mortality screening for fraud prevention. Bucking the current economic trend, Tracesmart is experiencing continued growth across all areas. Demand for their data cleansing and tracing services has grown dramatically as the need to trace people continues to increase.

To effectively serve their ever-growing client portfolio, Tracesmart continues to recruit specialist staff and the refurbishment project will afford much needed scope to accommodate their future staffing requirements. Whilst the extended offices have served the company well until now, the reconfiguration and restructuring will allow for space to be utilised much more ergonomically. This frees up a greater working area which can be used to house future employees.

Mike Trezise, Tracesmart's Managing Director commented, "We believe this area of Cardiff is the perfect location for our company. When we were searching for new premises we had no need to look further than next door. The initial move allowed us to expand our team, and this redesign will allow us to expand even further. When completed, the refurbishment will solve our accommodation needs in line with projected future business and staffing requirements."

The full 2009 Electoral Register has now been integrated into the Tracesmart anti-money laundering (AML) identity check service. The inclusion of the full 2009 Electoral Register, one of the many positive datasets the system interrogates, will ensure as many legitimate individuals as possible are cleared by the ID check at the first instance.

Tracesmart’s AML service allows users to perform identity checks that help them to fulfil their AML ‘Know Your Customer’ obligations, and it meets the standards set for electronic verification prescribed by the Joint Money Laundering Steering Group (JMLSG).

The UK Electoral Register has two formats – the edited Electoral Register which is available for any commercial use, but does not contain the entire UK electorate as individuals are able to ‘opt out’; and the full Electoral Register which can only be used by companies for credit referencing and anti-money laundering purposes, but contains the entire UK electorate.

Utilising the full 2009 Electoral Register will enhance the pass rate of legitimate individuals at the initial check stage. Historically, the system utilised edited Electoral Register data as part of the identity check, which whilst highly accurate, could marginally affect the initial check pass rate, due to the opt-out clause; this meant further checks – such as document verification – would have to be conducted. Chris Rothwell, Sales Director at Tracesmart, highlighted how the addition of the full Electoral Register will make for quicker identity checks.

“The integration of the full 2009 Electoral Register into our AML system, means that our service users can now swiftly and efficiently identify more of their clients without requesting additional documentation. However, the ability to verify identity documents such as passports, driving licences, credit or debit cards and utility bills, has been preserved in case further checks are required. The system ensures that identity checks are conducted in a business friendly manner, whilst also meeting anti-money laundering obligations.”

This latest update to the AML service follows on from the recent introduction of a ‘single click’ search interface. Previously, users had to build the identity profile of an individual by searching datasets and verifying details through a multi-tabbed interface. Whilst many Tracesmart clients found this interface conducive to their business needs, customer feedback indentified the need for a ‘single click’ check. Mike Trezise, Managing Director at Tracesmart, believes this customer-centric approach to service development is one of the company’s strongest points,

“We have always believed it to be truly important that there is a constant dialogue between ourselves and our clients, especially concerning the services themselves. After all, it’s our clients that use the systems day in, day out, so it essential that their needs are fulfilled. As such, Tracesmart will continue to listen to its customers, front-line staff and market research, to develop its services accordingly.”

Access to the full Electoral Register data, via Tracesmart’s AML service, is only available to companies who meet strict data protection pre-requisites.

Tracesmart, renowned suppliers of existence checks, data cleansing services and consumer tracing systems, have announced that they now offer a choice of user interfaces for their online people tracing tool, which is accessible via their Tracesmart Corporate website. A new tracing interface has been developed following extensive market research and client consultation, and it is anticipated that it will notably increase trace productivity.

Previously, Tracesmart provided clients with a multi-tab interface which allowed for a wide variety of people searches. However, now they offer the choice between the multi-tab interface and a more simplistic option which allows the user to conduct a variety of searches from a single gateway. Commenting on the addition of the new interface, Paul Weathersby, Technical Director for Tracesmart, noted,

“Following consultation with our frontline staff we identified a demand for an interface which would allow the user to conduct quick searches from a single page rather than navigating through multiple tabs. As such we developed a new interface which allows the user to utilise the most frequently used search functions of the original interface but from a single access point. The new service has all the power of the original interface but the level of search customisation is reduced allowing for a more streamlined service delivery.”

The new interface means that Tracesmart’s customers can conduct individual or multiple people, address, street or business searches more efficiently. This ensures that whether a Tracesmart client needs to conduct a positive or negative trace, tasks such as debtor tracing or the reunification of unclaimed assets can be carried out quicker, thus saving Tracesmart’s clients time and resources.

The new interface is one of many upgrades and additions Tracesmart are making to their corporate suite of services. Discussing the motivation behind the new interface Mike Trezise, Managing Director for Tracesmart, commented,

“As a company we pride ourselves on being in touch with what our markets and clients need, and as such constantly strive to provide the highest level of service provision possible. The new interface is further proof that we listen to what our customers say and the market intelligence our frontline staff feedback to us. This customer-centric ideology allows us to stay ahead of our competitors and has enabled the company to continue to grow despite the current economic climate.”

Tracesmart, leading providers of anti-fraud, people tracing and data cleansing systems, have further improved their market dominance within the pensions sector following an extensive promotional campaign. In addition to a sustained marketing drive, growth in demand for their services has also been attributed to the launch of their Existence suite of services, which is allowing pension scheme managers and trustees to conduct regular reliable existence checks and reduce the risk of fraud.

Tracesmart’s Existence suite of services has grabbed the attention of both pension funds and third party administrators alike, as the industry explores ways of reducing liability and demonstrating compliance. Tracesmart anticipated the rise in demand, as Mike Trezise, the company’s managing director explained,

“Performing existence checks and confirming scheme members are alive was traditionally a protracted, unreliable task; both costly and inefficient, the old manual methods failed to achieve the results scheme managers required. When automated electronic existence checks were originally introduced, a good proportion of the pensions industry opted to employ them – we were therefore confident that the launch of an even more sophisticated and accurate service would be widely embraced.”

The interest generated by this service offering, coupled with a growing demand for the Tracesmart Corporate data cleansing and pension tracing services, has catapulted the company to the forefront of the market place. This is a position they aim to retain through continued product development, first class customer support and continuous campaigning as Adam Smith, Marketing Manager at Tracesmart commented,

“Our research indicates that we are the market leader for mortality screening and pension tracing services in the industry. We aim to amplify this presence and maintain our prominent market position with increased advertising and brand exposure in print, online, at relevant industry events and via a variety of multi-channel direct marketing campaigns. We are confident that despite the economic climate, we will sustain our unbroken year on year growth.”

In addition to the current service offering, Tracesmart continuously develop bespoke solutions for the pensions industry to further deliver added value and benefit to their customers.

Chris Rothwell (Sales Director), Ben Evans (Pensions Sales Consultant) and I, attended the event along with 12 guests and I am pleased to say that a number of our clients won awards – so congratulations to Hymans Robertson, MNPA, Hewitt Associates and Legal & General. All the awards were presented by the very funny Michael McIntyre who even gave Ben and I a name drop in his routine, after we hijacked him for an impromptu photo shoot in the foyer.

All in all, the evening was a great success - we would like to thank our guests for joining us and once again congratulate our clients who received accolades recognising their hard work.

Mike Trezise
Managing Director for Tracesmart Ltd

Mike meets Michael McIntyre

Tracesmart Ltd, leading suppliers of people tracing services, electronic identity checks and data cleansing systems, have this week established a new London office in 30 St Mary Axe, widely known as ‘The Gherkin’. The Cardiff based company has procured an office in the City due to an exponential growth in the number of clients based in and around London.

The Gherkin is situated where The Baltic Exchange was previously located and at 180 metres tall is the second tallest building in the City of London. In 2005, following a survey of the world's largest firms of architects, The Gherkin was voted the most admired new building in the world; this allure and presence in the City were part of the reason Tracesmart chose it as their secondary base of operations as Mike Trezise, Tracesmart’s Managing Director, explained,

“The Gherkin is one of the best known and most revered buildings in London and as such was the ideal choice for our new office. Its location also played a considerable part in our decision to locate there – we currently have a large number of City-based financial clients and having an office in the heart of London’s financial district will enable us to better interact with them and meet their needs.”

The ever growing number of London and South of England clients who employ the company’s Tracesmart Corporate suite of services, was, as Trezise noted, a key factor in the decision to set up a London base. These clients include financial institutions who call upon Tracesmart to help reunite dormant account holders with their unclaimed assets, high profile pension sector companies that utilise the company’s pension tracing services and life assurance companies wishing to conduct existence checks. Commenting on Tracesmart’s prestigious new office Chris Rothwell, Sales Director for Tracesmart, highlighted the role it will play,

“My team and I currently travel across the length and breadth of the UK to meet clients, yet we’ve noticed that more and more were requesting meetings in London; as such the next logical step was to locate an office in the City. Our new office in The Gherkin is a key part of our business development strategy as it will enable us to reinforce our current client relationships and nurture new ones by offering a geographically preferable meeting spot for those in the South East.

Cardiff will remain the headquarters for Tracesmart and we will continue to hold many meetings there. Our current offices are always well received by clients; as well as giving them the opportunity to see the company in action, many people have commented on how pleasant a business environment our offices are with the spectacular views of Cardiff Bay.”

Tracesmart’s new London office is located at:

Floor 28
30 St Mary Axe
London
EC3A 8BF

Tel: 020 7469 4204
Fax: 020 7469 4001

Cardiff based suppliers of data cleansing and people tracing, Tracesmart, have launched a new online service to combat money laundering.

Tracesmart are renowned for their tracing expertise as they currently help reunite unclaimed assets with their rightful owners and offer a variety of pension tracing services. However the company also offers a host of other provisions via its Tracesmart Corporate division, not least of which is their electronic identity verification facility, ID.  Identity checks are an essential part of current anti-money laundering (AML) legislation and as such, ID is currently used by a vast range of businesses as part of their AML measures.

Previously, Tracesmart customers using ID, needed to select multiple tabs and verification criteria to conduct an identity check as part of AML procedures. This is no longer the case, as Paul Weathersby, Technical Director for Tracesmart explained, “It was noticed by our technical team that to conduct a thorough AML search using ID meant that multiple search tabs had to be utilised and what Tracesmart’s customers really needed was the means by which multiple tabs could quickly be searched simultaneously. As such, we have developed AML – allowing users to swiftly and confidently verify client identity. We have also created an improved interface to make this an easy and straight forward task.”

Money laundering is considered to have a massive negative financial impact upon the UK economy and the addition of Tracesmart’s new AML service is another means of combating the problem, fighting those who use the money to fund criminal activities.

Speaking about the new service, Mike Trezise, Managing Director for Tracesmart, added, “Our new AML service is further proof of our commitment as a company to product development, improved customer service and most importantly, confirmation of our responsibilities as a data company that we continue to fight any form of identity related crime. We strive to improve our services so that we can protect our customers, and in turn, their customers, from the negative impact of identity fraud.”

Tracesmart, Cardiff based supplier of consumer intelligence solutions, have appointed a new IT Manager to help run their IT operations. This month, Craig Strong assumed responsibility for the day to day running of Tracesmart’s IT department to both support their Technical Director, Paul Weathersby, and drive new service rollout.

Renowned for providing companies with the tools to trace people, Tracesmart are constantly developing new service offerings as well as enhancing and upgrading their current range, which includes online and specialist people tracing services (used for activities such as reuniting unclaimed assets and debtor tracing), consumer data cleansing, and online identity checks. As part of Tracesmart’s IT team, Strong has worked tirelessly to help drive the company’s service provision forward – this perseverance has enabled the company to efficiently develop and bring to market new services in response to developments in their core markets.

Prior to joining Tracesmart, Strong worked for a variety of companies – from SME to blue chip – since his graduation in 2005. Currently a member of the British Computer Society (BCS), Strong has enjoyed a range of honours including earning the “Fujitsu networking Award” whilst at university, and more recently, when working for Hargreaves Lansdown, his team earned the company the honour of “Best Online IFA” from the Online Finance Awards. With this wealth of experience and success under his belt, Strong is well positioned to manage Tracesmart’s IT team.

Commenting on Strong’s recent promotion Paul Weathersby, Tracesmart’s Technical Director stated, “Over the past 6 months Craig has shown a flare for managing the IT team, been at the forefront of the teams development and has stood out as a natural leader – as such he was the obvious choice for the role of IT Manager.

The addition of an IT Manager in the department's structure ensures it will keep running smoothly and that we can continue our high levels of customer service, whilst also working on rolling out new services and features for current services.  I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Craig and wish him all the best for the future.”

Leading suppliers of debtor tracing and data cleansing services, Tracesmart welcome the award winning J2 Solutions to their continually expanding list of tracing agency clients. J2 Solutions will be utilising the company's online people tracing system with a view to improving their already high levels of trace success.

Operating in a variety of industries, J2 Solutions are based in Northwest England and currently employ over 30 highly trained and dedicated telephone tracing agents. The company was established in 2004 by their Managing Director, Gary Jones, who joined the debt collection industry as a doorstep collector at the age of 18, before progressing to generalised investigations and then specialising in telephone tracing.

Jones was recently appointed to join the board of the Credit Services Association (CSA), the official voice of the UK debt collection industry, following a substantial level of involvement with the organisation and in particular his role as the driving force behind the CSA Tracing Code of Conduct. Commenting on the code of conduct and why his company has opted to use Tracesmart, Jones noted,

"The debt collection industry has endured more than its fair share of negative press over recent years in regards to ethical debtor tracing. I fully support the CSA's Tracing Code of Conduct and implore tracers to only conduct debtor tracing exercises using fully legitimate and ethical means. As part of our commitment to ethical tracing, J2 Solutions only utilise appropriate sources of information – one of the reasons we have opted to sign up with Tracesmart. We also hope that in using their system we can continue to improve our trace success rates and further cement our place in the top flight of tracing."

J2 Solutions join Tracesmart's diverse client base, which include the likes of renowned financial institutions who use the company to reunite individuals with unclaimed assets, and solicitors who use their online systems to conduct identity checks as part of compliance measures. Tracing agencies are, however, some of the company's key clients and Tracesmart helps these organisations to efficiently and ethically trace people; commenting on these core clients Chris Rothwell, Sales Director for Tracesmart noted,

"Tracesmart has a proven track record with tracing agencies and our services are utilised by a wealth of companies from sole traders right the way through to blue chip. A comprehensive working knowledge of tracers' needs and continual development of our services, ensure our clients have an effective, reliable and ethical tool to use when conducting positive and negative traces. We fully support the work of Gary Jones and the CSA's Tracing Code of Conduct, and are now proud to welcome J2 Solutions as a client."

Cardiff based Tracesmart, leading suppliers of consumer tracing and data cleansing services, have signed the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) Personal Information Promise. Tracesmart have pledged their support and compliance with the ICO initiative as part of their companywide commitment to the ethical and compliant use of personal data.

The Personal Information Promise was launched on the 28th January 2009 by the ICO to celebrate European Data Protection Day. The aim of the Personal Information Promise is to improve compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and help restore public faith in organisations that hold personal information. Public trust in bodies holding such information has been tarnished in recent years following multiple instances of data breaches and many organisations displaying an apparent lack of diligence when it comes to data security.

Tracesmart are keen to demonstrate their commitment to the proper use of personal data as it is at the heart of all the company’s services. This includes their online consumer site, which members of the public use to trace people; and their Tracesmart Corporate suite of services, which are employed by various public, private and third sector organisations to reunite individuals with unclaimed assets, conduct online identity checks and cleanse consumer data.

Mike Trezise, Managing Director at Tracesmart, was the company’s official signatory and he highlighted how signing the ICO’s Personal Information Promise is very much in line with the company’s data protection culture,

“Our signing of the Personal Information Promise further reinforces our commitment to ethical data usage and corporate social responsibility. As a company Tracesmart goes to great lengths to guarantee that not only is the data we supply accurate, but also stored securely and used responsibly; both internally and by our customers. Ethical data usage is paramount in our business activities and we welcome any opportunity to build both consumer and commercial confidence in companies that handle personal information. ”

Tracesmart has been exclusively appointed by Britannia Building Society to help reunite missing customers with their accounts. As part of Britannia’s comprehensive program of activity to trace customers with unclaimed assets, Tracesmart, the Cardiff based tracing agency, is to trace people who hold accounts which have been dormant for 15 years or more.

Assets go missing in a number of ways; account holders lose track of accounts when they change address and forget to notify their financial institution; other assets are ‘lost’ when customers pass away and their relatives are not aware of accounts; so over time savings are forgotten.

The Government has defined a dormant account, in this instance, as one where there has been no customer activity for a period of 15 years. Astonishingly, 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.

Tim Franklin, Managing Director of Member Business at Britannia, said; "Our programme to reunite customers with their unclaimed accounts has been successful, but there are some members who we've not been able to trace through the records we hold. We enlisted Tracesmart to find those customers using their advanced tracing methods and expertise." 

Mike Trezise, Tracesmart’s Managing Director, commented, “We are of course delighted to be exclusively appointed by Britannia, the UK’s second largest building society, to assist them with their asset reunification program. Our advanced data cleansing systems, skilled tracing agents and unique multi-tiered search solutions have enabled us to work closely with Britannia, reinforcing our claim to be the UK’s leading tracing agency. Tracesmart’s continued investment in key personnel and cutting edge technology is now reaping significant reward.”

Trezise added, “Following the enactment of the Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Act in November 2008, Tracesmart is now well placed to assist more and more financial institutions as they enter into their asset reunification program.”

Cardiff based Tracesmart‚ leading supplier of asset reunification and identity verification services‚ has announced it is now a professional associate member of the British Bankers’ Association (BBA). Tracesmart has joined the BBA to gain a deeper insight into the financial sector and share its expert knowledge with the banking community.

Tracesmart currently supplies a wide range of services to the financial sector which are used for a variety of purposes – from specialist tracing and data cleansing services which drive asset reunification campaigns‚ to electronic identity checks which are used in anti-money laundering and know your customer exercises. Becoming a professional associate member of the BBA will ensure Tracesmart is fully aware of challenges the industry faces and allow the company to share its extensive specialist knowledge. Mike Trezise‚ Managing Director at Tracesmart‚ highlighted the company’s long tradition of working with professional organisations‚

“We are already members of‚ and work with‚ numerous professional bodies to the benefit of both parties - we now hope that in working with the BBA we can continue this practice and expand our knowledge of the banking industry. A better understanding of the sector inevitably allows us to further tailor our service offerings and can only lead to better service provision for our clients.”

In addition to information sharing‚ the company aims to raise the awareness of the Tracesmart brand in the banking community – the BBA has members all over the globe and its member banks together form the biggest international banking centre on the planet. On welcoming Tracesmart as a professional associate member‚ Jason Cole‚ Commercial Director of the BBA‚ noted the diverse array of companies that support the BBA‚

“The BBA is the leading UK banking and financial services trade association and acts on behalf of over 200 members from 60 different countries. We are pleased to welcome Tracesmart as a professional associate member of the BBA. This membership consists of a variety of firms including companies from the legal‚ accounting‚ consultancy and technology sectors. All have one thing in common – a desire to participate and share information amongst their peers from the banking community.”

Cardiff based Tracesmart‚ renowned supplier of debtor tracing services‚ has announced it has become a member of the Debt Buyers and Sellers Group (DBSG). Tracesmart has joined the DBSG as part of its commitment to the debt collection industry and to provide valuable specialist input on some of the core processes used to recover debt‚ namely data cleansing and tracing.

Formed for the benefit of companies who buy and/or sell debt‚ the DBSG is the official voice of the sector‚ administering best practice and offering guidance and support where needed. Created by the Credit Services Association (CSA)‚ the group’s inaugural meeting took place in December 2003 and was officially launched at the CSA’s 2004 Annual Conference. Today the DBSG has in excess of 80 members including some of the biggest companies in the industry who trade billions of pounds worth of debt each year.

As well as helping to expand the company’s presence within the debt collection arena‚ joining the DBSG will help Tracesmart to keep its finger on the pulse of one of its core industries. Chris Rothwell‚ Sales Director for Tracesmart explained further‚

“Tracesmart is already an active member of the CSA‚ having a regular presence at their events and in their publications and also providing consultation on key industry topics. Having a pro-active involvement has helped us expand our knowledge of the industry‚ build our customer base and also allowed us to provide valuable guidance on the areas in which we specialise. We now hope that by working closely with the DBSG we can both provide our expertise to enhance best practice in key recovery activities and raise our company profile.”

Tracesmart currently holds memberships and affiliations with many professional organisations and bodies; these allow the company to remain up-to-date with industry trends and also provide forums through which valuable information can be shared. Mike Trezise‚ Managing Director at Tracesmart‚ comments on the importance of aligning with industry professional bodies‚

“We have a hugely diverse customer base and whether the client is a firm of solicitors conducting identity checks for anti-money laundering purposes‚ or a debt collection agency using our systems to trace people‚ we want our services to completely fulfil their particular needs. By affiliating with professional organisations we are able to identify changes in relevant industries as they happen and tailor our services to meet client needs.”

Tracesmart, renowned for supplying companies with data cleansing and debtor tracing solutions, have announced that they have uploaded 2009 edited Electoral register records to their database. The records have also been integrated into their Tracesmart Corporate product suite to provide their customers with access to the most up-to-date electoral information available – making them the first supplier of online people tracing services and identity checks to do so.

The definitive annual snapshot of the UK electorate, the Electoral register has two formats – the full version which is utilised to facilitate voting and credit reference checks; and the edited Electoral register which is commercially available and employed by many companies to trace people, cleanse consumer data and verify individual’s identities in know your customer exercises.

Commenting from their Cardiff Bay headquarters, Paul Weathersby, Technical Director at Tracesmart, notes how the loading of the 2009 electoral records onto their database has been their quickest to date,

"This year the process of adding electoral data to our system has been the swiftest and most efficient in company history. We have significantly improved on our strong track record by loading the data earlier than we ever have – this has been possible through both considerable expansion of our IT team throughout 2008 and an enhancement of our data collection process."

Edited Electoral register records are a key component in both identity checks and tracing exercises as they contain both the name and address of UK citizens – essential pieces of information if you need to identify or locate an individual. The prompt release of 2009 edited Electoral register records demonstrates one of Tracesmart’s key philosophies – that their clients should be able to access the freshest data at the earliest opportunity, as Mike Trezise, Tracesmart’s Managing Director, explains,

"Electoral records play a key role in all of our services – especially in our online tracing resource and our electronic identity verification tool. As such we acquired Electoral register 2009 records at the earliest possible time to ensure that users of our services have access to the most up-to-date information available and obtain the highly accurate results that they require."

To maintain the accuracy of the 2009 Electoral register data they hold, Tracesmart will be refreshing the records on a monthly basis from January with Rolling Register updates – equating to some 150,000 amendments per month.

Making a concerted effort to stamp out Impersonation of the Deceased (IOD) fraud, Tracesmart, leading suppliers of identity verification tools, have this week launched Existence – a new suite of services with the potential to eliminate IOD fraud.

IOD is a form of identity fraud - it is estimated by the Home Office Identity Fraud Steering Committee, that identity fraud costs the UK economy £1.7 billion annually. Whilst IOD fraud has historically been hard to tackle due to the lack of death records being made available, recent changes in legislation have allowed the UK General Register Offices (GRO) to release death registration information (DRI) to commercial bodies with the aim of preventing fraud. It is this move that has enabled Tracesmart to develop their suite of services which will tackle IOD fraud head on.

Combining in-depth mortality screening and residency verification, the service allows users to ascertain whether an individual is alive and if they reside at their given address. Paul Weathersby, Technical Director at Tracesmart, commented on the data which drives these checks.

"The mortality screening element of our Existence services draws upon the GRO’s DRI data and the residency verifier calls upon a variety of consumer datasets including historic Electoral Rolls, leading gone away files and BT OSIS amongst others. The combination of these checks allows us to confidently identify deceased individuals and gone aways."

The Existence suite comprises three services with which clients can conduct existence checks. Existence Search is an online facility which can be used to conduct single ad-hoc checks; Existence Batch is a batch screening service where multiple persons can be verified and the third, and possibly most significant service, is Existence Alert - an early warning system that notifies users of mortalities at the earliest possible opportunity.

Tracesmart has long provided tools for conducting identity checks and has a strong history in the field of fraud prevention. The combination of this experience and access to DRI will enable the Existence services to effectively help put an end to IOD fraud. Mike Trezise, Managing Director at Tracesmart, has already seen a high volume of interest in the product.

"Prior to launch we approached several key clients in the pension and financial sectors to gauge market interest in the product. As we suspected, the demand is most certainly there and we already have prominent pensions administrators and large schemes utilising the system to replace certificate of existence exercises, and many in the financial sector are employing it as part of their know your customer checks. Preventing IOD fraud will save businesses considerable amounts of money and protect consumers from both fiscal and emotional harm."

On Wednesday 29th October, The Financial Services Authority (FSA) fined both Sindicatum Holdings Limited (SHL) and its money laundering reporting officer (MLRO), Michael Wheelhouse, for failing to have adequate systems and controls in place to verify and record client identities.

SHL was fined £49,000 and Mr. Wheelhouse received a fine of £17,500 – this is the first instance of an MLRO being fined by the FSA and sends out a stern warning to all firms and individuals who have anti-money laundering responsibilities.

William Amos, head of retail enforcement at the FSA, commented:

"It is vital to the integrity of the UK’s financial markets that regulated firms are not used by criminals to launder money. Senior management must implement and follow procedures that meet our requirements so that the risks their firms face are properly managed.

"This fine is a warning to firms and individuals about the importance of complying with our rules in this area and we will not hesitate to clamp down on failures, where necessary."

The fines were a result of failings within SHL’s client identity verification procedures. The FSA discovered that the firm failed to have adequate procedures in place to verify client identity, did not adequately verify the identity of a significant number of their clients and also neglected to keep adequate records regarding the verification of its clients. Additionally, Mr Wheelhouse failed to take reasonable steps to put in place adequate procedures for controlling money laundering risk.

Commenting on the unprecedented action taken by the FSA, Michael Trezise, Managing Director at Tracesmart noted:

"By fining the MLRO as well as the company the FSA are sending out a very strong message to those obligated to take preventive measures against money laundering. It is vital that firms and individuals have effective and robust measures in place to identify clients and maintain records as to how this was achieved.

In the months preceding the implementation of the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 we had a huge uptake in our services which indicated to us that many firms are taking their know your customer obligations very seriously. Those that don’t are not only leaving the financial system open to abuse but are also putting themselves in a position which could result in a hefty fine – even prison. When you consider how easy and economical it now is to put adequate measures in place to conduct and record identity checks, it would be extremely unwise for anyone to leave themselves open to such a threat."

To review the official FSA press release, or view the final notices issued to Sindicatum and Michael Wheelhouse, please visit the FSA website (http://www.fsa.gov.uk)

Tracesmart, renowned for helping organisations conduct identity checks for know your customer purposes, have announced that they are preparing to relocate their ID service - Smart ID Plus. The service will now be accessible directly from the company’s principal site Tracesmart Corporate. The relocation signals the beginning of a larger project which aims to centralise all of the company’s current and future online service offerings in order to streamline and improve the customer experience.

Utilised in both anti-money laundering and anti-fraud exercises, the service will lose its Smart ID Plus moniker and simply be known as ID, part of the Tracesmart Corporate range which includes the highly regarded data cleansing service. Users of the ID service will simply log in to the Tracesmart Corporate site where they will be greeted by the new central user interface. As well as access to the ID tool the interface will also provide access to other Tracesmart Corporate services and a variety of other functions including usage history and reports, system user guides and the option to purchase credits for their subscribed services.

Management of the technical changeover is being led by Paul Weathersby, Technical Director for Tracesmart, who has been planning the move for some time "Ensuring that our customers have an efficient and enjoyable experience when using our systems is one of our primary concerns. As such we [Tracesmart’s technical team] have been preparing to centralise our online service suite for some time – porting the ID services across to the Tracesmart Corporate site is the first step in this process. The new interface will be live shortly and months of preparation will ensure a smooth transition with no negative impact on the user experience or service functionality."

The centralisation of Tracesmart’s online service suite will result in a single 'shop front' and access point for users once they are logged in. For example, from this hub Tracesmart clients will be able to trace people one minute, then seamlessly switch to conduct identity checks the next. It is anticipated that having the range of services side-by-side will raise interest in the whole of the Tracesmart range.

Commenting on the future improved and centralised online service suite Mike Trezise, Managing Director at Tracesmart, notes the impact it will have for their customers, "The central service portal will allow for improved customer experience and usability – a core motivation behind the majority of our technical enhancements. All of our online services will be available from this single access point, thus ensuring our customers stay up-to-date with our portfolio and remain fully informed about the services available to them."

Tracesmart, renowned for helping organisations conduct identity checks for know your customer purposes, have announced that they are preparing to relocate their ID service - Smart ID Plus. The service will now be accessible directly from the company's principal site Tracesmart Corporate. The relocation signals the beginning of a larger project which aims to centralise all of the company's current and future online service offerings in order to streamline and improve the customer experience.

Utilised in both anti-money laundering and anti-fraud exercises, the service will lose its Smart ID Plus moniker and simply be known as ID, part of the Tracesmart Corporate range which includes the highly regarded data cleansing service. Users of the ID service will simply log in to the Tracesmart Corporate site where they will be greeted by the new central user interface. As well as access to the ID tool the interface will also provide access to other Tracesmart Corporate services and a variety of other functions including usage history and reports, system user guides and the option to purchase credits for their subscribed services.

Management of the technical changeover is being led by Paul Weathersby, Technical Director for Tracesmart, who has been planning the move for some time “Ensuring that our customers have an efficient and enjoyable experience when using our systems is one of our primary concerns. As such we [Tracesmart's technical team] have been preparing to centralise our online service suite for some time – porting the ID services across to the Tracesmart Corporate site is the first step in this process. The new interface will be live shortly and months of preparation will ensure a smooth transition with no negative impact on the user experience or service functionality.”

The centralisation of Tracesmart's online service suite will result in a single 'shop front' and access point for users once they are logged in. For example, from this hub Tracesmart clients will be able to trace people one minute, then seamlessly switch to conduct identity checks the next. It is anticipated that having the range of services side-by-side will raise interest in the whole of the Tracesmart range.

Commenting on the future improved and centralised online service suite Mike Trezise, Managing Director at Tracesmart, notes the impact it will have for their customers, “The central service portal will allow for improved customer experience and usability – a core motivation behind the majority of our technical enhancements. All of our online services will be available from this single access point, thus ensuring our customers stay up-to-date with our portfolio and remain fully informed about the services available to them.”

Tracesmart, renowned for providing online people tracing, anti-money-laundering and know your customer (KYC) services, has recently received major interest from the national press. Having entered the South West England and Wales regional heat of the Bank of Scotland Corporate Entrepreneur Challenge, the story of Tracesmart's Managing Director and founder, Mike Trezise, caught the attention of the Sunday Times.

The Bank of Scotland Corporate Entrepreneur Challenge is comprised of several regional heats and receives entries from all over Great Britain. Each regional winner will receive the prize of a loan up to the value of £5 million interest free and be eligible for entry into the national final in which they could win the coveted title of "Bank of Scotland Corporate Entrepreneur of the Year".

Of the approximate 160 regional entrants, Trezise was highly received – this standing and his company's inimitable suite of services consequently caught the attention of the Sunday Times and resulted in an article highlighting Trezise's success being published. Speaking from the company's Cardiff Bay headquarters, Tracesmart's Communications Manager, Owen Roberts, commented, "Whilst Mike did not rank quite as high as we would have liked, the resulting press coverage has been great – we have received many calls from companies interested in our services. This is an exciting time for Tracesmart as we are currently experiencing rapid growth and coverage in the national press is helping to fuel our momentum further."

Entitled "On the right track" the article, published on the 12 October, depicted Trezise's career up to the formation of Tracesmart in 2004, it also highlighted how the rise in interest surrounding the use of online services designed to trace people has helped the company to flourish. Discussing the current high levels of interest in people tracing Trezise commented, "I know from my own professional experience that tracing is somewhat of a niche business, yet the demand has increased exponentially since I was a tracer – the current economic climate where companies are keen to reunite individuals with unclaimed assets or trace debtors has spurned this growth."

The Sunday Times feature also identified the wide spectrum of industries that Tracesmart currently service, a list which includes banks, universities, solicitors, accountants and estate agents amongst others; demonstrating the wide range of cross-industry applications that their portfolio of tracing, data cleansing and id verification services hold.

Historically no single organisation was responsible for assembling all UK telephone numbers as although BT was the main source of telephone number information, they did not hold other telecommunication companies telephone numbers. As such in 1999 a subdivision of BT, The Directory Solutions Unit (DSU) was formed to act as an independent body with their prime duty being to collate telephone number information from several sources, including BT, Cable Companies and Mobile Phone providers. Today the DSU administer OSIS and provide licensees with a daily file containing between 30,000-100,000 added, deleted or amended UK telephone numbers.

The daily supply of data from OSIS means Tracesmart's Customers will see a further increase in system performance as Paul Weathersby, Technical Director at Tracesmart, explains "Following a comprehensive data security audit, where we thoroughly demonstrated how extremely stalwart and resilient our in-house data protection measures are, we have now been granted direct access to the OSIS data. Previously we relied on a third party supplier for the data but now that we have it in house our customers can conduct faster telephone look ups and the system as a whole runs more efficiently."

Obtaining accurate telephone numbers is an essential part of any form of tracing, whether it be an asset reunification project aiming to reunite unclaimed assets with their rightful owner or an exercise to locate absconded debtors; having instant access to the relevant telephone number allows the tracer to facilitate instant contact. Telephone numbers are supplied via the company's tracing, identity verification and data cleansing services.

Maximising performance is a key part of Tracesmart's commitment to its client base as Mike Trezise, Managing Director of Tracesmart, commented, "I know firsthand how utilising accurate data is paramount for success and as such Tracesmart constantly aims to supply its customers with accurate, instantly accessible data in order to ensure they get the results they need. As a company we are committed to constantly upgrading and improving our service offerings and new data acquisition is a key part of this process – we will always strive to enhance the customer experience through the provision of comprehensive data."

The Home Office estimate that identity fraud currently costs the UK economy over £1.7 billion a year, so to help tackle this ever growing crime recent legislation includes provisions to combat IOD fraud. Under the Police and Justice Act 2006 and the Local Electoral Administration and Registrations Services (Scotland) Act 2006 the Registrars General for England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have been granted the power to release DRI to assist in the ‘prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of offences’. In light of this the DDRI scheme was launched on 16th January 2008 to support the fight against IOD fraud. Administered on behalf of the three Registrars General by the GRO for England & Wales, the DDRI scheme provides successful applicants with an electronic file of deaths registered in the UK on a weekly basis – this will ensure that fraudsters can be quickly identified and dealt with before they can do any fiscal or emotional damage.

Tracesmart will be utilising the DRI in their electronic identity verification and mortality screening services, which are employed by a host of different industries as Michael Trezise, Managing Director of Tracesmart, explains, “The majority of businesses can be affected by impersonation of the deceased fraud and as such we provide a variety of services which allow companies to protect themselves and consumers from this threat. Being the first company to be approved by the GRO demonstrates to our customers that we are, and will remain, in the vanguard of fraud prevention to ensure that they are offered the highest level of protection available.”

Prior to being approved by the GRO, Tracesmart had to fulfil a variety of stringent prerequisites and underwent a full security audit of their site and storage systems. The GRO implemented these measures to ensure that the DRI is only accessed by appropriate persons and organisations for the purposes prescribed by law. The release of DRI is also welcomed by the UK’s fraud prevention service – CIFAS – as their Head of Communications, Kate Beddington-Brown notes, “IOD fraud is unspeakably cruel, adding immeasurably to the grief of bereaved individuals at the worst possible time. The emotional harm and financial strain that it can add to the sadness of bereavement is unimaginable. Having campaigned for years for reform that would put an end to IOD fraud, CIFAS was delighted when the Registrars General responded to the problem by working together to provide a practicable solution. Now that their hard work is finally coming to fruition, we welcome this announcement and are confident that this will help to stamp out IOD fraud once and for all.”

Tracesmart, premier providers of consumer tracing, data cleansing and identity verification tools, have announced that on 1st September 2008, Chris Rothwell was appointed the role of Sales Director. This follows on from a record year of sales for the Cardiff based company, in which Rothwell played a pivotal part.

Having worked for Tracesmart for nearly six years, Rothwell has headed up both the Trace and Sales teams – roles which he has flourished in. Prior to joining Tracesmart, Rothwell worked in a variety of positions including credit card fraud analysis for HBOS card services, the experience of which has served both him and the company well as one of Rothwell’s key roles is the development and sale of Tracesmart’s electronic identity verification tool - Smart ID Plus. Utilised in both know your customer and anti-money laundering exercises, Smart ID Plus has gone from strength to strength with his guidance and knowledge.

Rothwell also has a strong understanding of another of Tracesmart’s primary markets – the debt collection industry. His time as head of the tracing team gave him a huge insight into the industry and when he transferred to the sales department this knowledge helped the company to make huge strides in the collections arena and establish themselves as market leaders.

Commenting on his promotion and future plans Rothwell noted, "I am honoured to take on the role of Sales Director at Tracesmart and my initial goal will be to expand our sales team. During the last fiscal year we have seen an unprecedented rise in demand for our services – especially in the financial sector where banks and building societies are looking to initiate asset reunification campaigns in order to reunite lost customers with their unclaimed assets. In my new position I aim to ensure that the company continues to enjoy the exceptional growth we have experienced over the last year."

As a result of his new appointment, Rothwell now finds both business strategy and data purchase fall under his jurisdiction. He is also responsible for ensuring the company’s services continue to meet the high standards clients have come to expect.

Discussing Rothwell’s promotion, Mike Trezise, Managing Director at Tracesmart, highlights the reason for the appointment, "Chris has worked tirelessly to drive the company forward and increase our exposure in a range of different markets; whilst he was Sales Manager the company witnessed record sales and a large increase in annual profit. It is because of this performance that I am more than happy to entrust Chris with the responsibility of Sales Director – I know that he will ensure our forthcoming financial year is even more rewarding than the last."

The company has doubled its staff size in the last year - each of Tracesmart's departments has recruited new staff as the influx of service requisitions has increased and as such the company has had to expand its premises. Demand for the company's range of services has dramatically increased turnover and Tracesmart corporate project growth in the region of 50%.

Explaining the projected increase in turnover, Michael Trezise, Managing Director for Tracesmart, commented, "Thanks to the efforts of all staff and continuous development of our services, we have experienced a great deal of success in the ID verification sector with our Smart ID Plus anti-money laundering service performing strongly in legal and financial markets. We have also secured significant unclaimed assets contracts which have proved fruitful – not only in monetary value but also from a promotional perspective as we have received a high volume of exposure in the national press and online. Whilst we look set to smash last year's growth we are already firmly focusing on the forthcoming financial year, with the intention of setting another record."

Turnover and company size are not the only areas of growth Tracesmart have experienced over the last year – they have increased the number of records they hold through heavy investment in large amounts of fresh data. This new data has prompted the development of new services which have allowed increased penetration into multiple markets. Commenting on these developments Paul Weathersby, Tracesmart's Technical Director, noted, "Myself and my team have worked hard over the last year to improve and build upon our service offering. We have also further developed our internal systems for ease of use and to improve efficiency. Together these changes have allowed us to stay ahead of our competitors by offering superior service delivery to our customers."

Confirmed figures will be announced in early September, following the end of Tracesmart's financial year.

Tracesmart's diverse suite of services benefits clients from a wide spectrum of industries – such as those looking to reunite unclaimed assets or conduct debtor tracing campaigns. With this diversity in mind, Tracesmart are attending exhibitions relevant to the pensions, debt collections, consumer finance, alumni development, banking and legal sectors. This wide selection of events will see Tracesmart's exhibition team travelling the length and breadth of the country over the next five months as locations include London, Glasgow, Birmingham, Northern England and even the Houses of Parliament.

Tracesmart has a select team they rely on as brand ambassadors at the various trade shows, exhibitions and conferences they attend – chief amongst these is Adam Smith, Tracesmart's Marketing Manager. Smith commented, "The exhibitions are a key part of my promotional plans for the company. Historically speaking, they have always been a great business and brand development vehicle for us and have helped secure us many new and often very lucrative contracts – it is because of this success that I have increased our exhibition presence this year and why I am constantly looking for new and exciting exhibition opportunities."

Smith and his fellow exhibitors are diversifying the methods they use to convey the company message at numerous events this year. CCR-i (Credit, Collections & Risk – Interactive) will see them hosting the lunch and conducting a quiz, and their presence at the CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education) Europe Annual Conference will be considerable. As well as being Platinum Sponsors and hosting a post-show drinks reception, Smith will be presenting on how those working in alumni relations can trace people, cleanse their database and profile potentially large donors to aid with philanthropic campaigns.

Another of Tracesmart's key protagonists, Chris Rothwell, Sales Manager, will also be in regular attendance at the events to promote Tracesmart's services. Rothwell commented on how exhibition attendance has a range of benefits, "Exhibitions are not only great for developing new leads, but also meeting with existing clients and developing industry knowledge. Whether we have been promoting our anti-money laundering services or tracing tools, I always return from exhibitions brimming with ideas on how we can refine our services and further assist our customers."

The considerable increase in demand for Tracesmart’s asset reunification services is partly due to the movement of the Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Bill through parliament. The Bill, which is awaiting a second reading in the House of Commons, was devised to put in place an unclaimed assets scheme for the UK; such as scheme would see dormant assets reinvested into projects to benefit the community. Prior to such a scheme being realised, financial institutions are being encouraged to embark on pro-active asset reunification programs, which require the professional services of companies such as Tracesmart. The new tracing case management system will allow their in-depth tracing agents to manage their cases more efficiently and most importantly – trace people and reunite assets quicker. This in turn will ensure that Tracesmart’s clients enjoy the highest standard of results, in the quickest possible time.

This focus on customer service is also reflected in certain aspects of the new system as Paul Weathersby, Technical Director for Tracesmart Ltd, and Tracesmart’s in-house technical team have also integrated invoicing into the system to ensure accuracy in all outgoing invoices and quotes. Commenting on additional functionality, Weathersby noted, “The new tracing case management system allows our staff involved with asset reunification exercises to upload batch data, which could be thousands of cases, as well as any other pertinent files and notes onto the system. The upload process is quick and accessible and it means everything our in-depth tracers require to trace people is at their fingertips.” Apart from helping increase staff productivity the new electronic system is also more secure, and paper free – which means Tracesmart’s resources are not wasted and the tracing case management process is environmentally friendly.

Tracesmart’s team of in-depth tracers are led by Michael Thraves, Tracing Manager, and the new tracing case management system allows him to ensure that he gets the most out of his team, “The system provides me with more detailed statistical data than I previously had access to, this in turn allows me to monitor my staff’s performance incredibly effectively and provides me with more control over productivity levels. The new case management system also helps my team and I to deliver a higher standard of customer service – any enquiries relating to a particular trace can be dealt with exceedingly swiftly.” comments Thraves.

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.