KYC & KYB

KYC and KYB for payment businesses

Every licensed PSP, EMI, exchanger and most acquirers must know who their customers are. KYC (know your customer) verifies individuals; KYB (know your business) verifies companies, their directors and ultimate beneficial owners. This subsection lists KYC verification services and KYB tools that payment companies plug into onboarding.

What a KYC provider typically checks

• Identity documents: passports, ID cards, driving licences, with OCR and forgery detection.
• Liveness and face match against the document photo.
• Proof of address and database checks where available.
• Sanctions, PEP and adverse media screening (often shared with AML tools).
• Age verification for gaming and adult merchants.

KYB specifics

• Lookups in company registries, extraction of directors and shareholders.
• UBO identification and verification of each beneficial owner.
• Document collection: incorporation certificate, articles, licences, proof of business.
• Risk rating of the business by country, industry and ownership structure.

How to choose a KYC vendor

• Document coverage for the countries your users come from; quality varies sharply by region.
• Pass rate vs fraud catch: ask for benchmarks on your traffic, not generic figures.
• Pricing: per check, per approved user or monthly minimum.
• Integration: SDK for web and mobile, hosted flow, API for back office.
• Data storage: where data is kept and how long, relevant for GDPR and local rules.
• Reusable KYC: whether a verified user can be reused across your products.

Related hubs

KYC is one piece of compliance. Combine it with AML & KYT for transaction monitoring, compliance outsourcing for policies and MLRO services, and antifraud for payment-level risk. Filter by GEO and check Offers for pricing, or post a request.