What is Know Your Customer (KYC)

The process of identifying and confirming the identity of a user of financial services to ensure that all financial transactions can be traced and combat the financing of criminal activities.

This process refers to a project’s or financial institution’s obligations to verify the identity of a customer in line with global anti-money laundering laws.

KYC is a way by which service rendering organizations try to ensure their customers are actually who they claim to be by verifying the biodata they provide when being registered on the database of the organization. This can be achieved by verifying means of identification, utility bills and physical address verification.

The process to identify and continuously verify customers during the business relationship with a (financial or non-financial) institution with a primary goal to comply with a set of regulatory requirements.