Smarter Data Cleansing Decisions for Smarter Data

The Background A leading financial services provider needed to strengthen the accuracy of customer information during digital onboarding. They handle thousands of new applications every month and rely on fast, frictionless sign-up journeys that still meet strict compliance, risk and verification requirements. Their existing process struggled with poor quality address and bank details, leading to increased manual checks, slower approvals and higher abandonment. Incorrect or incomplete address data was also creating downstream issues for customer communications, account documentation and regulatory reporting. The organisation wanted a solution that could improve data quality at the point of entry, reduce friction in the onboarding journey and support their compliance teams with more accurate source information. The Solution The client selected Fetchify to enhance customer onboarding with accurate, validated address and bank data as soon as a user enters it. Fetchify provided: Global address validation UK enhanced datasets where deeper detail is available Bank account validation to check the sort code and account number accuracy Simple integration into their digital onboarding flow Consistent formatting to support KYC, AML, and compliance checks By validating information early, Fetchify helped streamline the entire customer journey. The Result After implementing Fetchify, the organisation achieved: Reduction in applications failing due to incorrect address or bank details Faster onboarding with fewer manual reviews Greater confidence in customer identity information Better outcomes for compliance and risk teams Improved data quality flowing into internal systems A smoother experience for new customers Why Fetchify? The organisation chose Fetchify because it offered: Reliable global address validation Additional UK data where extra detail helps accuracy Fast and predictable performance A simple, low-effort integration A single platform for address and bank checks Helpful and responsive support A cost structure that fits digital volume growth The Outcome Fetchify now supports the business with ongoing customer onboarding, ensuring address and bank details are accurate before progressing to further checks. This has reduced operational workload, improved customer experience, and strengthened compliance processes across the customer lifecycle.

How an online shoe store is using data validation tools to provide a speedy, frictionless checkout, reducing failed deliveries and increasing ROI

Counties are one of those quiet curiosities of UK addressing - the kind of data field that often sparks more debate than you’d expect. Should they be included? Which kind? And do we even need them anymore? As with so many things in data, the answer is: it depends. Three Counties, One Country In the UK, the word “county” doesn’t describe one single thing. It describes at least three - each with its own history, purpose, and quirk: Postal counties were once the backbone of the Royal Mail’s sorting system. They helped machines (and people) get mail to the right place efficiently. But in 1996, Royal Mail officially dropped them, and by 2010, county data was removed from the official address dataset entirely. For the postal system, counties simply no longer exist. Traditional (or historic) counties trace their origins back centuries — the counties of record, land, and local identity. They don’t match today’s administrative borders, but they persist in cultural memory and local pride. To some, these are the real counties of England. Ceremonial counties , meanwhile, are what most modern maps and local authorities recognise today. They loosely align with lieutenancy areas — the basis for everything from local government to BBC weather maps. And just to add another layer, the UK also has metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties used for administration, because nothing in British geography would be complete without a little complexity. So… Do We Still Need Them? For Royal Mail, the answer is simple: no. County names are ignored by modern sorting systems, and they don’t affect delivery. But in the real world of databases, integrations, and overlapping address systems, the answer is less clear-cut. Counties still appear because: Some legacy systems require a county field for validation. Some organisations and couriers still use them for regional routing. And sometimes, humans just like them — they help people orient themselves, especially in places with duplicate town names. It’s a reminder that addresses aren’t just for machines. They’re for people, too — and people often bring context, emotion, and memory into their sense of “place.” The Bigger Picture: One World, Many Formats  Counties are just one example of how geography, history, and technology collide in addressing. Every country — sometimes every region — does it differently. Some use regions, provinces, or prefectures. Some rely on hierarchies of towns and municipalities. Others have no subdivisions at all. For global platforms and data validation providers, that diversity creates a fascinating challenge: how do you standardise something that isn’t standard anywhere? It’s the quiet work of address intelligence — understanding not just where something is, but how people describe it. Why This Matters The goal of address accuracy isn’t to erase local identity or force uniformity; it’s to understand and support variation intelligently. Whether you’re sending a parcel, mapping customer data, or building systems that work across borders, knowing how and why these differences exist is part of getting the data right. So next time you’re faced with that little “County” field — think of it not as a relic, but as a reminder. Behind every address is a history, a structure, and a story. And understanding that story is where true data quality begins.