This is a guest contribution by John O’Neill. If you would like to submit a contribution please contact Bill Beatty for submission details. Thank you.

If you work in financial services then you’re already aware that knowing your customer (KYC) is not just an essential process, it is also a legal requirement. It’s part of the essential tasks banks perform to tackle anti-money laundering (AML) and other financial crimes.

Back in June 2017, the European Commission’s Fourth AML Directive set out new rules to help combat money laundering. This was supplemented in January 2020 with the Fifth AML Directive, which aimed to increase transparency about who really owns companies and other financial entities.

Similarly, in May 2018, the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) required banks to verify the identity of customers who own, control and profit from companies when they open accounts.