Know Your Customer (KYC)

Know Your Customer (KYC)

Know Your Customer (KYC) is the due diligence and bank regulation that financial institutions and other regulated companies must perform to identify their clients and ascertain relevant information pertinent to doing financial business with them. Typically, KYC is a policy implemented to conform to a customer identification program mandated under the Bank Secrecy Act and USA PATRIOT Act. Know your customer policies have becoming increasingly important globally to prevent identity theft fraud, money laundering and terrorist financing. In a simple form these rules may equate to answering twelve questions, but this is the tip of the iceberg and regulators now expect much more. KYC should not be thought of as a format to be filled - it is a process to be undergone from the start of a customer relationship to the end.

One aspect of KYC checking is to verify that the customer is not on any list of known fraudsters, terrorists or money launderers, such as the Office of Foreign Assets Control's Specially Designated Nationals list. This list contains thousands of entries that is updated at least monthly. As well as sanctions lists there are lists of third party vendors that track links between persons regarded as high-risk owing to negative reports in the media about them or in public records.

Beyond name matching, a key aspect of KYC controls is to monitor transactions of a customer against their recorded profile, history on the customers account(s) and with peers.

GDC Integrity provides different levels of KYC compliance from initial identity and age verification for 3 billion individuals spanning 150 countries, to government lists pertaining to fraudsters, terrorits and money launderers. GDC Integrity is one of the only truly global KYC solutions to ensure all your new customers are who they say they are.

Please Contact Us to learn more about how we can assist you with your KYC solution.