Westpac customer identification and verification
Why may we ask you to re-identify or provide further information?
From time to time we’ll reach out to you to confirm your personal and/or business details as part of our regulatory and compliance requirements, and in accordance with our product terms and conditions. This may involve verifying your identity to ensure that we have the most up to date details.
You may receive a letter, email, SMS, or online message centre notification from us asking you to confirm your details are correct and up to date.
Who may contact you to request additional information?
Request for customer identification and verification will come from our Know Your Customer, Foreign Tax and Customer Verification teams.
Telephone calls will display the number 02 9155 0000.
If you have any concerns, simply hang up and call us on the number provided below.
What information will you ask me to provide?
You may be required to provide further information about your:
- Identity;
- Foreign tax residency information;
- Source of funds, source of wealth, purpose of business relationship; and
- Beneficial owner information (if non-individual entity) as well as further industry information relevant to your entity type.
How will I need to provide the information that is requested?
You can re-identify or provide requested information by:
- Attending your local branch;
- Completing the forms sent to you in the mail; or
- Using the Electronic Verification invitation you may have received in your Online Banking Message Centre.
NOTE: Electronic Verification is only available for eligible individual customers who have a current email on file.
How often do I have to provide this?
You’ll need to update your personal details with us whenever they change.
We’ll also need to confirm your personal information from time to time as part of our ongoing regulatory obligations to ensure your details are complete, current and accurate.
What happens if I don’t confirm my details?
If you don’t update your personal details or respond to a request from us to update your details, we may need to restrict access to your banking until you do.
This could also impact accounts you hold jointly or accounts you are a signatory to.
We’ll endeavour to let you know about this at least 14 days before any restrictions would apply. Please ensure we have up to date contact details so we can notify you if we require further information.
If you need further information, contact us
If you are ever in doubt about the legitimacy of the request OR you need to contact the Westpac team directly about re-identifying, or a request you have received to provide additional information, please call us on 1300 720 314 / +61 2 9155 7570 (if calling from overseas) and select the option for the team you received a message from:
- Know Your Customer Team
- Customer Verification Team
- Foreign Tax Team
The teams operate from 9am to 5pm EST Monday to Friday.