Verify a document.
Every statement and every letter the house issues carries a QR code beside its reference. Scan it with a phone, or paste the link from a digital copy, and the house answers whether the document was issued as presented.
Check a document.
Paste the verification link from a digital copy, or the part of it after the question mark. A printed document is checked by scanning its code.
The Desk confirms a reference by telephone at 802-GRH-0000, at every hour of the year, and in writing on request.
The anatomy of a statement.
Four pages for most families. Never a graph.
A statement from the house runs to four pages for most families and rarely more than eight. Page one is the position: every account, its balance, and the change since the last statement, in one column. The middle pages are the ledger itself, each entry in date order with the counterparty, the reference, and a running balance, so that any line can be traced to the one before it. Nothing is graphed and nothing is explained. The document is written to be read without an adviser in the room.
The last page carries three things and nothing else. A reconciliation line, which shows that the movements for the period sum to the change in balance. The signature of the Head of Custody and Statements. And beside the reference, the code.
Why every document carries a fingerprint
When a statement or a letter is rendered, the house computes a fingerprint from the facts the document certifies: its reference, an account token, the period or the as-of date, the figure, the currency, and the holder's initials. Sixteen characters of that digest are bound into the QR code and printed beside the reference. Change a single figure on any page and the digest no longer matches. A statement should not need anyone to vouch for it. It vouches for itself, and the house can say yes or no without being asked to explain anything else.
Letters the house issues, a proof of funds, a balance certificate, a verification of deposit, a pension statement, carry the same code. Theirs binds the kind of document and the date it speaks to, so a letter cannot be re-dated or presented as something it is not.
How counsel or an auditor uses it
An auditor, a trustee, or the other side's counsel receives a copy of a statement from the client and wants to know it is genuine. They scan the code, or paste the link from a digital copy into the form above. The house answers one of two ways: that the document was issued as presented, with the reference, the period and the figure it carries; or that it was not. The answer repeats only what is already printed on the page. It gives the holder's initials and nothing more of their name, and it discloses no balance the document does not itself state.
Where a letter is required, the house writes one. It confirms the reference and the period, is signed by the Head of Custody and Statements, and is posted within two working days.
What the check does not do
It confirms that a document is the one the house issued, not that the figure on it is the position today. For that there is a newer statement, and the Desk will issue one for any period. Nor is it proof of who holds the account. The Desk confirms a reference by telephone, at any hour, for anyone who would rather hear it said.
Read it out to a banker.
A reference is confirmed by telephone, at every hour of the year, and in writing on request.