DVS can verify a document. It does not finish customer due diligence

People ask whether electronic verification, and the DVS in particular, is “enough” because they want to stop collecting certified copies. Checked against AUSTRAC's overview of initial customer due diligence on 5 October 2026. This is general information, not legal advice. This page does not reproduce that guidance. What a completed check is for is what an AML check covers. The full list of matters is customer due diligence requirements. Screening is a different step again, in sanctions screening in Australia. The sector map is /tranche-2.

What AUSTRAC says you may use

On the initial customer due diligence overview, AUSTRAC says you can use third-party digital identity services to verify KYC information if the data you receive is reliable and independent. It expects you to consider whether that data is independent and reliable, who maintains it, including whether a government body does, whether the system is secure and kept up to date, and any other factor that matters in your circumstances. If you are concerned about the validity of a document, the same page says you can use another independent source, and it names the Document Verification Service as the example.

That is permission to use electronic verification properly. It is not a finding that any product with “DVS” in the brochure completes the file. A DVS check answers a narrow question: do these document details match the issuer's record. It does not tell you why the customer is buying the property. It does not list the beneficial owners of a company. It does not decide that a person is or is not a politically exposed person. Those are separate matters AUSTRAC says you establish on reasonable grounds before the designated service starts.

Enough for which question

• Document details. DVS, or another reliable independent source, can support a belief that the passport or licence details are real.
• The person in front of the check. Your program says how you connect the document to the customer. A match on a number is not a conversation you skipped.
• An entity. Use KYB. A director's document match is not the company, and it is not every beneficial owner.
• Lists. Politically exposed persons and targeted financial sanctions are their own matter. Do not assume a document check searched them.
• The purpose of the matter. Ask it and record it. No document service knows why this client instructed you.

How a small firm uses it without a paper ritual

Write in the program that identity may be verified with reliable independent electronic data, and name the standard you accept. Send the client a link rather than collecting certified copies “because we always have”. Keep the result, not a private stash of document images you do not need. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner has said the AML/CTF Act does not require you to keep copies of the identity documents themselves. A DVS-style match supports the verification note. It does not require a second paper file “to be safe”.

If the electronic check fails or the document looks wrong, do not talk yourself into proceeding. AUSTRAC says that if you cannot establish a matter on reasonable grounds you must not provide the designated service, and you submit a suspicious matter report if you reasonably suspect the customer is not who they claim to be. FreeAML is the link the firm emails. The client pays. The firm still decides whether the result, together with the other matters, is enough. DVS is a tool inside that decision, not the decision.

Where this page stops

This page is the document-verification question. Whether a government digital identity app is a substitute is a different page, using myID for an AML check.

What the client pays

On FreeAML the firm suite is A$0. The firm emails the client a link. Verification is client-pays. On the public list a personal KYC check is A$20 and a company or trust KYB check is A$40. There is no subscription. Confirm the live amounts on FreeAML pricing. FreeAML does not sell a standalone DVS login. The client pays for the KYC or KYB check the firm sends. The firm does not treat that result as the whole of customer due diligence.

Frequently Asked Questions