What an ACSP is, and how to check one is real

An ACSP – an Authorised Corporate Service Provider – is an agent registered with Companies House and supervised for anti-money laundering by HMRC or a professional body. It is allowed to check a person's identity to the Companies House standard and to tell Companies House the check has been done, after which Companies House issues that person's personal code. To check an ACSP is real, look it up on the Companies House public register of ACSPs. A genuine ACSP has a Companies House ACSP number, a named anti-money laundering supervisor and a real address. If any of those is missing, or you are being hurried, stop.

Why ACSPs exist

The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 requires every director of a UK company, every LLP member and every individual person with significant control (PSC) to verify their identity with Companies House. The free route is GOV.UK One Login. It cannot always be used from abroad, because its app route needs a chipped passport, an NFC phone and a face match that passes, and its fall-backs need a UK footprint.

The ACSP route is the other way. Companies House registers agents that already answer to an anti-money laundering supervisor, and allows them to verify people to the Companies House standard. The agent does the check, keeps the record and tells Companies House. Companies House issues the code.

The register of ACSPs at Companies House

Companies House keeps a public register of ACSPs, and anyone can search it. You can reach it from the Companies House pages on GOV.UK.

Use it before you send a document to anyone. Look for the business name you were given, and compare it with the name on the website, the email and the invoice. A trading name that is not on the register, or a name that is close to a registered one but not the same, is a reason to stop and ask.

What "supervised for anti-money laundering" means

Certain businesses in the UK, including trust or company service providers, must be supervised under the anti-money laundering rules. The supervisor is either HMRC or one of the professional bodies. Being supervised means the business is registered with that supervisor, has been accepted by it, and answers to it for how it checks customers and keeps records.

A business cannot register as an ACSP without that supervision in place. So a genuine ACSP can always tell you who its supervisor is. Vaulex Group Ltd is supervised by HMRC as a Trust or Company Service Provider, registration XLML00000218127, and its founder holds the ICA Anti-Money Laundering certificate at Merit.

The ID number to look for

There are three numbers a genuine ACSP can show you.

1. Its ACSP number from Companies House. This is the one to check on the register of ACSPs. Vaulex Group Ltd's is AP021384.
2. Its anti-money laundering supervision registration. For an HMRC-supervised business this is an HMRC registration; Vaulex's is XLML00000218127.
3. Its ICO registration. A business that holds your passport is handling personal data and should be registered with the Information Commissioner's Office. Vaulex's is ZC087196.

Ask for all three. Check the first on the Companies House register. A business that cannot produce them is not one to send your passport to.

Red flags

• No ACSP number, or a number that does not appear on the Companies House register of ACSPs.
• No named supervisor. "We are fully compliant" is not a supervisor's name.
• No address, or an address you cannot find on the register or anywhere else.
• Pressure. "Pay now or be struck off tonight" is not how Companies House works. The deadlines are real, but they are set by Companies House and they are on the public register, not in a sales message.
• A request for your GOV.UK One Login sign-in details. An ACSP does not use your One Login. Nobody doing a genuine ACSP check needs it.
• A promise of a personal code before any document has been seen. The check comes first. Companies House issues the code afterwards.

This is information, not legal advice. We are not solicitors or accountants.

What an ACSP may do

• Verify a person's identity to the Companies House standard, by checking their identity documents.
• Tell Companies House that the person has been verified, after which Companies House issues the personal code.
• Keep records of the check for seven years, which it must do.
• Act as the company's agent at Companies House for filings the company asks it to make – for example, when a company moves its registered office to Vaulex House, the AD01 and CH01 filings are done by Vaulex.

What an ACSP may not do

• Issue your personal code. Only Companies House does that, and it sends the code to you by email.
• Verify you without seeing your documents. The check has to be done to the Companies House standard, every time.
• Move your deadline. A director's deadline is the company's confirmation statement date. A PSC can request an extension, but only through the Companies House PSC verification service and only while the window is open.
• Verify your company. There is no such thing. Companies House verifies people.
• Finish the job for you. After the code arrives, you still provide it to Companies House for each role you hold.
• Give you legal or tax advice on the strength of being an ACSP. Registration as an ACSP is not a legal or accountancy qualification.

Why the person, not the company, is verified

The law puts the duty on people: directors, LLP members and individual PSCs. A company does not have an identity to verify. Its directors and PSCs do.

That is why one verification covers every company you are involved with. The personal code belongs to you, not to any company, and you provide the same code for each role you hold. A director of three companies verifies once and provides the code three times.

It is also why a company's position depends on its people. The confirmation statement cannot be filed until every director has verified, so one unverified director holds up the whole company. The register now records, for each appointment, whether the verification statement has been supplied and the date Companies House wants it by. Our free tool at guides.vaulex.co.uk/am-i-affected reads that from the live register for any company.

If you want a checked agent

Vaulex Group Ltd is on the Companies House register of ACSPs as AP021384, supervised by HMRC as a Trust or Company Service Provider and registered with the ICO. We verify British passport holders anywhere in the world for £149.99 per person, three working days as standard or 24 hours on working days on the fast-track. The details, and the numbers above to check for yourself, are at vaulex.co.uk/identity-verification.