Identity proofing
Collecting, validating and verifying information about a person to establish that they are who they claim to be.
Identity proofing is the process by which a service collects, validates and verifies information about a person in order to establish that they are who they claim to be, usually at account opening. NIST SP 800-63A sets out how this is done at different identity assurance levels, from remote checks to in-person verification. For regulated firms it overlaps with customer identification and know-your-customer duties, and it is the anchor every later agent mandate traces back to.
Agent Minute explains this term on 22 October 2026.
Related terms
Digital identityThe unique representation of a subject, such as a person or organisation, engaged in an online transaction.Identity assurance levelA NIST measure of how rigorously a person's claimed identity was proofed.Know Your Agent (KYA)Checking which agent is acting, who operates it and whom it acts for, before letting it act.Verifiable credentialA tamper-evident set of claims by an issuer, held by a holder and cryptographically checkable by a verifier.