Address Standardization for KYC & Identity Checks

Know-your-customer checks often require matching a user-submitted address against a proof-of-address document — a utility bill, bank statement, or government record — that was formatted independently.

The problem

The address a user types into a signup form rarely matches the exact formatting on their uploaded document. A verification system that requires an exact string match will generate false rejections; one with no matching logic at all invites fraud.

How address standardisation helps

Running both the user-submitted address and the OCR-extracted address from a utility bill or bank statement through GoodVat produces consistent structured components and canonical expansions. Because token expansions resolve abbreviations ("Rd" → "Road", "Flat" vs "Unit"), the two addresses can be verified automatically via exact canonical string comparison.

Example

POST /v1/address/normalize

curl -X POST "https://api.goodvat.com/v1/address/normalize" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GOODVAT_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "query": "Flat 2, 14 Kensington Park Rd, London W11 2EU" }'

200 OK

{
  "houseNumber": "14",
  "road": "kensington park rd",
  "unit": "flat 2",
  "postcode": "w11 2eu",
  "city": "london",
  "country": "GBR",
  "expansions": [
    "flat 2 14 kensington park road london w11 2eu uk",
    "flat 2 14 kensington park road london w11 2eu united kingdom"
  ]
}

Key response fields

Field	Why it matters here
expansions	Canonical expanded strings used for deterministic string-matching between user input and OCR document text.
houseNumber / road	Core fields for confirming the document and submitted address belong to the same building.
unit	Distinguishes between residents at multi-unit addresses (vital for KYC compliance).
postcode	High-precision disambiguator across national postal databases.
country	Confirms the document matches the expected national jurisdiction.