Know Your Business (KYB)

A standard KYB check covers company registration data (legal name, registration number, registered address, date of incorporation), legal status and good standing, identification of all ultimate beneficial owners above the applicable threshold, directors and officers, and sanctions or adverse media screening across all identified individuals and the entity itself. For higher-risk businesses, it may also include financial statements, source of funds documentation, and regulatory licenses.

UBO stands for Ultimate Beneficial Owner — the natural person or persons who ultimately own or control the business being verified. In KYB, every corporate client must be examined through its ownership layers until individual human beings are identified. If ownership is indirect, each intermediate entity in the chain must also be verified. The UBO identification is often the most time-consuming part of KYB and is where the greatest financial crime risk tends to be concentrated.

Timeline varies significantly based on the complexity of the corporate structure and the jurisdiction involved. For a straightforward business registered in a well-documented jurisdiction with publicly accessible company registries, automated KYB can be completed in minutes. Complex multi-layered structures, companies in jurisdictions without public UBO registries, or clients flagged for enhanced due diligence can take days to weeks, especially when manual document review is required.