Compliance Glossary

KYC — Know Your Customer

Verifying an individual customer's identity with government documents, biometrics and data checks before granting access to a regulated product.

KYB — Know Your Business

Verifying a company's legal existence, registration, ownership structure and the people behind it before onboarding it as a customer or partner.

UBO — Ultimate Beneficial Owner

The natural person(s) who ultimately own or control a company, typically above a 25% ownership or control threshold.

PEP — Politically Exposed Person

An individual with a prominent public function who presents a higher risk of bribery or corruption and requires enhanced due diligence.

Sanctions Screening

Checking individuals and businesses against government and international watchlists (OFAC, UN, EU, UK and others) to block prohibited parties.

AML — Anti-Money Laundering

The framework of laws, controls and procedures that detect and prevent the use of financial systems to launder illicit funds.

CDD / EDD

Customer Due Diligence is the baseline identity and risk assessment at onboarding; Enhanced Due Diligence adds deeper checks for higher-risk customers.

Liveness Detection

Biometric checks confirming a real, present person is being verified — not a photo, video or deepfake — during a selfie or video capture.

NFC / MRZ

NFC reads the secure chip in a passport or ID; the MRZ (Machine-Readable Zone) is the coded text line used to validate document data.

CRR — Customer Risk Rating

A risk score assigned to a customer from factors like geography, PEP status and business type, which drives ongoing monitoring frequency.

Adverse Media Screening

Searching news and other sources for negative information (fraud, corruption, crime) linked to a customer or business.

Perpetual KYC

Continuously re-verifying and re-screening customers after onboarding, instead of relying on periodic manual reviews.

FATF / FINTRAC / AMLD6 / BSA

Key AML frameworks: FATF (global standards), FINTRAC (Canada), AMLD6 (European Union) and the BSA (United States).