AFD Software

Bank Verification

Bank validation and bank card data validation help ensure payments are successful, minimise transaction failure and fraud whilst meeting strict financial compliance and best practices.

Fast, accurate account number and sort code data entry makes checkouts, payment processing and Direct Debit setup a smooth process.

Features

• Real-time bank validation
• Real-time bank card data validation
• fast, accurate account number and sort code checks

Benefits

• Help ensure accurate bank data
• Speed up accurate bank data entry
• Minimise failed Direct Debits
• Remove deliberate errors

£0.02 a transaction

• Free trial available

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at joel.miller@afd.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 13

Service ID

495564885612426

Contact

Joel Miller
01624811709
joel.miller@afd.co.uk

Service scope

• Software add-on or extension: Yes, but can also be used as a standalone service
• What software services is the service an extension to: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems; Enterprise Relationship Management (ERP) systems; Website forms and Checkouts; Patient Administration Systems (PAS); Student Management Information Systems (MIS); D365; GMS; FMS; In summary, any software that allows addresses to be entered
• Cloud deployment model: Hybrid cloud
• Service constraints: No, our service runs 24/7 365.
• System requirements: No system requirements. Only requirement is a license from AFD

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: 15 minute response target time; ; Helpdesk staffed Monday - Friday 8:30 - 17:30; ; Outside normal working hours emails to support are monitored each night 9-10 PM. At weekends and bank holidays (except Christmas Day) the service is extended further to additional monitoring 10-11 AM and 4-5 PM. Any urgent support requests are handled straight away (within the monitored periods) while others are held to the next working day. This service is primarily designed for AFD customers with 24/7 operations or those needing to conduct out of hours maintenance operations.
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: No
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
• Web chat support: No
• Onsite support: Yes, at extra cost
• Support levels: Two levels of support available:; ; 1. General SLA, Monday-Friday 8:30-17:30 with periodic out of office monitoring.; ; 2. 24/7 SLA, fully monitored support service 24/7.; ; Option 1 ; included with AFD licence cost; ; Option 2 ; £5,000 Ex VAT per annum; ; All customers are appointed an account manager who has access to AFD's support team to escalate issues if required.; ; Cloud support engineers are also available if required.
• Support available to third parties: Yes

Onboarding and offboarding

• Getting started: User documentation; ; Free test access for development purposes; ; Remote demonstration; ; Remote support setup available; ; Onsite training available; ; More information can be found at https://www.afd.co.uk/developers/
• Service documentation: Yes
• Documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
• End-of-contract data extraction: No data to extract. ; ; AFD does not hold customers data.; ; We can if requested delete the customers name and contact details off our CRM system.
• End-of-contract process: At the end of the contract, access to the AFD solutions that have been licensed under the contract are no longer available.

Using the service

• Web browser interface: No
• Application to install: No
• Designed for use on mobile devices: Yes
• Differences between the mobile and desktop service: As our solutions are an API service there is no difference between mobile and desktop.
• Service interface: No
• User support accessibility: None or don’t know
• API: Yes
• What users can and can't do using the API: A serial number and password are required to access the API, these can be obtained via the EVAL section on the website or by contacting the team at AFD.; ; Once you have these credentials you can start making calls against our hosted service via API.; ; AFD’s bank validation API can be flexibly deployed in a host of environments, installed, or hosted.; Plug-ins for popular platforms such as Magento, Shopify, Salesforce, D365 and AFD Robot provide a range of developer-free integrations.; ; Changes can be made through the API to return the required data depending on each requirement. ; ; API can be accesses through HTTPS protocol.
• API documentation: Yes
• API documentation formats:
  • HTML
  • PDF
• API sandbox or test environment: Yes
• Customisation available: Yes
• Description of customisation: Fully bespoke solution that can be adapted by our development team to fit our solutions into users systems and their specific requirements.

Scaling

• Independence of resources: We have a highly available solution with multiple load balance solutions.; ; Load balancing across two different servers in two different availability zones.; ; As needed we can manually increase the amount of nodes to handle user demand, we continually monitor resource availability to determine if and when we need to increase the amount of nodes.; ; To date, using our current infrastructure, we have not had challenges serving over 6,000 customer and their millions of requests each year.

Analytics

• Service usage metrics: Yes
• Metrics types: We can provide the number of lookups completed.
• Reporting types:
  • Regular reports
  • Reports on request

Resellers

• Supplier type: Reseller providing extra features and support
• Organisation whose services are being resold: BACS

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Staff screening not performed
• Government security clearance: None

Asset protection

• Knowledge of data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Data storage and processing locations: United Kingdom
• User control over data storage and processing locations: Yes
• Datacentre security standards: Managed by a third party
• Penetration testing frequency: At least once a year
• Penetration testing approach: Another external penetration testing organisation
• Protecting data at rest:
  • Physical access control, complying with another standard
  • Encryption of all physical media
• Data sanitisation process: Yes
• Data sanitisation type:
  • Explicit overwriting of storage before reallocation
  • Deleted data can’t be directly accessed
• Equipment disposal approach: In-house destruction process

Data importing and exporting

• Data export approach: Users do not have data to export.; ; We can provide monthly usage figures (number of lookups) that we can send out.
• Data export formats: CSV
• Data import formats: CSV

Data-in-transit protection

• Data protection between buyer and supplier networks: TLS (version 1.2 or above)
• Data protection within supplier network: TLS (version 1.2 or above)

Availability and resilience

• Guaranteed availability: We can provide SLA's on request based on requirement.
• Approach to resilience: We have a highly available service that load balances between at least two servers and can access more as needed. Continually monitor available resource and can manually scale as required.; ; Hosted across two availability zones (two separate data zones) to provide further resilience.; ; A secondary (seperate) data centre is also available as a fail over.
• Outage reporting: Email alerts will confirm email outages.; ; We monitor our traffic and will notify customers in the rare event of an outage.

Identity and authentication

• User authentication needed: Yes
• User authentication: Username or password
• Access restrictions in management interfaces and support channels: Customer only have access via API to lookup or search addresses, there is no customer access to management interfaces and support channels via API.; ; Customer Support can be reached separately via phone or email if required.
• Access restriction testing frequency: At least once a year
• Management access authentication:
  • Dedicated link (for example VPN)
  • Username or password

Audit information for users

• Access to user activity audit information: Users contact the support team to get audit information
• How long user audit data is stored for: At least 12 months
• Access to supplier activity audit information: Users contact the support team to get audit information
• How long supplier audit data is stored for: Less than 1 month
• How long system logs are stored for: At least 12 months

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: No
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• Cyber essentials: No
• Cyber essentials plus: No
• Other security certifications: No

Security governance

• Named board-level person responsible for service security: Yes
• Security governance certified: No
• Security governance approach: Following GDPR guidelines.; ; Ongoing training for staff.; ; Working towards ISO 27001 best practices.
• Information security policies and processes: AFD Corporate Security policy which includes reporting structure and advice for all staff on how to maintain best practice for Information Security.; ; Reporting of any data breaches to Operations Team, then Operations Manager then to General Manager; ; Reporting of any security instances with fast resolution to Operations team, then Operations Manager then General Manager; ; Responding to customer requests by Admin team.; ; Responding to FOI requests by Admin team and General Manager; ; We ensure policies are followed with regular policy review and training within appraisal stucture.

Operational security

• Configuration and change management standard: Supplier-defined controls
• Configuration and change management approach: We track new features and changes using an issue tracking management tool to ensure that they are reported and marked when complete.
• Vulnerability management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Vulnerability management approach: Potential threats are assessed via monitoring and tracking services, allows us to know if something goes down and when.; ; Can deploy patches to the service if required within a day of having a fix. Also have a standard quarterly update procedure. ; ; Information about potential threats from trusted online sources - The Register and ARS Technica.; ; We have access to the Cisco Umbrella Threat Report.
• Protective monitoring type: Supplier-defined controls
• Protective monitoring approach: Potential compromises are identified via extensive logging of our service, we can read the logs to identify compromises.; ; Upon recognizing compromises the customer affected is notified and we work to provide a fix ASAP.; ; SIMP - security incident management process that we follow.; ; Time to respond to Incidents is based on their risk, impact and severity rather than a set time for all.
• Incident management type: Supplier-defined controls
• Incident management approach: Working towards ISO27001.; ; We do have pre-defined processes (SIMP).; ; Incidents are reported via email or phone.; ; Incident reports are provided via email.

Secure development

• Approach to secure software development best practice: Supplier-defined process

Public sector networks

• Connection to public sector networks: No

Social Value

• Fighting climate change:

  Fighting climate change

  In summer 2020 we doubled the capacity of our solar installation at the AFD Group HQ, Mountain View Innovation Centre (MVIC). By additionally investing in three Tesla Powerpacks later in the year (making this the Isle of Man’s biggest battery storage installation), to store the energy we generate, we expect to become completely self-sufficient in clean, green energy for twenty-four hours a day for around six months of the year.Between April and September each year, we anticipate that the solar panels will be running MVIC by day, at the same time as charging our Tesla Powerpacks so that we can still utilise the energy when the sun goes down. From October through to March, on average 33% of the required power should still be carbon emission-free (more in a sunnier winter and spring!).; ; Since the panels went live, AFD has saved over 117 tonnes of CO2, which is the equivalent of 3,492 trees planted. (This is in addition to the more than 4000 physical trees that have already been planted around Mountain View!); ; As well as having the largest solar electricity generator and energy storage system on the Isle of Man, AFD’s staff electric car scheme brings green motoring to over a third of the Isle of Man team. An average petrol or diesel car will produce 411 grams of CO2 per mile, so AFD’s electric fleet is saving 39 tonnes of CO2 per year!; ; In addition to the green energy initiatives, environmental waste is kept to a minimum by utilising technology. Electronic accounting minimises paper use and fast electronic software distribution is used by most of our customers. Where CDs are required they are manufactured to order and our waste-stream is minimised by extensive recycling – including the office tea-bags!
• Covid-19 recovery:

  Covid-19 recovery

  During the pandemic, where people, especially the highly vulnerable, were asked to stay within their homes, delivery services became vital. To maximise the efficiency of these already stretched services and ensure vital supplies reach those in need, having accurate contact data – name, address, sometimes email and phone number too – is essential.; ; For nearly 40 years, AFD Software has been developing and maintaining solutions that allow contact data to be validated at the point of entry and cleansed. Our solutions help ensure that order processing is fast, details are stored in the correct format and most importantly at this time, that goods are delivered accurately. Perhaps there has never been such a critical time for data accuracy.; ; In an interview for a recent edition of Postcode News, Val Hayden, Patient Administration System & Data Quality Manager at The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust, described the importance of AFD’s solutions to the Health Sector: “Staff and patients alike benefit from faster data entry as time can be better spent on making patients feel comfortable and providing the correct level of care as opposed to filling out and doublechecking each part of their address. Storing data in the correct format means that addresses are more easily searchable, retrievable and reportable.”; ; Contact data validation provided by AFD is allowing the NHS to more efficiently process essential patient calls and admissions when staff time is even more precious at this moment than usual; it is allowing retailers to continue to provide goods via online services that can’t be bought in shops; and it is allowing supermarkets to get food to people’s homes. All without wasting valuable time and resource looking for the right address.
• Tackling economic inequality:

  Tackling economic inequality

  Annually since 1998, every member of staff at AFD has been invited to nominate a charity to receive a donation on their behalf from AFD.Staff and director nominated donations to hundreds of charities over the last six years have exceeded £7 million, sending vital funds to support the lives of those who need it most.; ; The AFD business is founded on objectives which recognise its role in society – local, national and international – and takes an active role at all levels. In just one initiative, at the end of each year in November or December, AFD holds its Annual Charity Event which celebrates staff-nominated donations to a range of charities, with each annual event typically celebrating AFD donations in excess of £1M per annum. These donations go to support a wide range of local, UK and international charities, including those involved in medical care and research, disaster relief, youth work and work amongst those with disabilities.
• Equal opportunity:

  Equal opportunity

  AFD Software is committed to encouraging equality, diversity and inclusion among our workforce, and eliminating unlawful discrimination.; ; The aim is for our workforce to be truly representative of all sections of society and our customers, and for each employee to feel respected and able to give their best.; ; The organisation – in providing services is also committed against unlawful discrimination of customers or the public.
• Wellbeing:

  Wellbeing

  Managing the various habitats that both wildlife rely on and the ; community benefit from is an important part of the role. AFD's Head Office is filled with plants that the four onsite beehives pollinate, ; designated “No Mow” areas of grass are left for specific periods to provide bees and other pollinators with more nectar from wildflowers, planting wildflower seeds and adding bird boxes to promote a diverse range of wildlife. [you can usually find current photos on the home page of mvic.im.]; ; Spending time in green spaces and nature improves our mental and ; physical health. Both staff and the local community are encouraged ; to enjoy walks on the paths around the site, taking in the fresh air, ; stunning views, and feeling better for it.

Pricing

• Price: £0.02 a transaction
• Discount for educational organisations: No
• Free trial available: Yes
• Description of free trial: Full access to our range of API based data validation solutions for non commercial use.
• Link to free trial: https://www.afd.co.uk/try-it/

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at joel.miller@afd.co.uk. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.