KYC (Know Your Customer) and KYB (Know Your Business) are anti-money laundering compliance processes used to verify identity and manage risk, but they apply to different subjects. KYC verifies individuals, preventing identity fraud at the customer level. KYB verifies corporate entities and the people behind them, helping organisations identify ownership risks, potential shell company indicators, and compliance concerns that may otherwise go unnoticed.
Both are demanding in their own way. KYC asks teams to confirm and refresh individual identity across the entire customer relationship. KYB asks them to trace ownership through layered, often cross-border structures, ultimately to a real person. Handshakes’ relationship mapping capabilities and regional registry data help organisations navigate the UBO and ownership-tracing challenges that make modern KYB complex.
What Is KYB?
KYB is the verification process applied when one business engages with another business rather than an individual. Its purpose is to verify whether an entity is legitimate, active, and operating as represented, while identifying ownership structures or risk indicators that may warrant further review. That means mapping the ownership structure, including directors, shareholders and the ultimate beneficial owner, so any anonymous parties or links to illegal conduct surface. KYB also functions as a risk assessment tool, checking whether the entity or its key people have been sanctioned, criminally convicted or named in adverse media.
What Is KYC?
KYC is the process of verifying an individual customer’s identity and monitoring their financial behaviour over time. It begins at onboarding and continues across the relationship, an ongoing obligation rather than a one-off check. Many jurisdictions mandate KYC to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, with a particular focus on regulated sectors such as banking, investment platforms, insurance and gambling. It plays a dual role, confirming identity and supporting risk assessment in decisions like lending, where a customer’s background and financial history shape their risk profile.
KYB Verification Process
The KYB process moves through seven stages:
- Collect identifying information: Capture company address, registration or incorporation documents and the identities of key people in the business.
- Verify legitimacy: Confirm the collected information is accurate and authentic, drawing on official corporate registries.
- Identify the UBO: Trace ownership through to the ultimate beneficial owner, the person who controls or benefits from the entity.
- Screen against sanctions and registries: Check the company and its key individuals against government sanctions lists and corporate registries across relevant jurisdictions.
- Screen for PEP status: Identify any politically exposed person connections among directors, owners or related parties.
- Monitor for adverse media: Track news, social and online sources for negative coverage on the entity or its people.
- Monitor transactions on an ongoing basis: Watch for suspicious activity patterns or other red flags after onboarding, not just at the start.
KYC Verification Process
KYC checks typically run through five stages:
- Collect basic information: Capture name, date of birth, address and nationality, along with any former names or aliases used.
- Verify identity using documents: Confirm the customer’s identity against personal documents such as passports, national IDs or proof of address.
- Check against authoritative lists: Screen against government registers, global watchlists and sanctions lists for any direct matches.
- Screen for PEP status: Identify whether the customer is a politically exposed person who requires enhanced due diligence.
- Assess background and financial history: For risk-based KYC, gather information on the customer’s background and financial profile to inform risk-rated onboarding decisions.
Why KYB Is Harder: The Ownership Complexity Problem
KYB is harder than KYC because corporate ownership is rarely linear. Four pressures compound:
- Layered structures: Ownership can run through multiple holding companies, nominee arrangements and trusts deliberately designed to obscure who ultimately controls an entity.
- Cross-border complexity: A Singapore-incorporated entity can have shareholders in Malaysia, beneficial owners in China and operations in Vietnam. Completing the picture requires registry access across every market in the chain.
- Speed of change: Directorships, share transfers and corporate restructuring move quickly. A verification done six months ago may no longer reflect today’s ownership.
- The UBO endpoint: Regulators expect compliance teams to trace ownership to the persons who ultimately benefit, not stop at the first corporate shareholder. Manual KYB workflows often struggle to maintain visibility at this level of complexity.
Handshakes’ relationship mapping capabilities help organisations visualise complex ownership structures across multiple jurisdictions.
How Handshakes Supports Both KYC and KYB
Handshakes works across the full customer onboarding lifecycle, with dedicated solutions for both individual verification and business verification. Our KYC platform supports KYC checks at onboarding and through the relationship, while KYB services bring the same depth to corporate counterparty verification.
For KYB, Handshakes APP is the central workbench, with proprietary mapping technology that traces UBO chains through multi-layered, cross-border structures. Coverage across Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, China, and cross-border corporate relationships gives ASEAN teams the registry depth that fragmented data otherwise denies them. The proprietary RED list adds a further screen that complements standard sanctions and PEP checks, capturing regulatory, enforcement and disciplinary actions across both KYC and KYB workflows. Handshakes is also a Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) designated screening provider for Singapore family offices.
Build a Stronger Compliance Programme with KYB and KYC
KYC verifies who; KYB verifies what. A defensible compliance programme needs both, working in tandem rather than treated as the same problem at different scales.
Effective KYB demands data and mapping infrastructure that goes well beyond a stretched KYC workflow, particularly across multiple jurisdictions where ownership shifts fast and fragmented registries make verification piecemeal. The right combination is registry depth, mapping technology and proprietary screening intelligence applied consistently across both workflows.
Handshakes delivers that combination across individual and business verification, with business intelligence services available for teams that need bespoke support. Explore how Handshakes can strengthen your identity verification and onboarding workflows.
Key Comparison: KYB vs KYC at a Glance
| Dimension | KYC (Know Your Customer) | KYB (Know Your Business) |
| Focus | Individual customers | Corporate entities and the people behind them |
| Key information collected | Name, date of birth, address, nationality, identity documents | Company registration, directors, shareholders, ultimate beneficial owner |
| Goal | Prevent identity fraud, money laundering and terrorist financing at the customer level | Confirm legitimacy of business counterparties and detect shell or front companies |
| Complexity | Single-party verification with ongoing monitoring | Multi-layered ownership tracing across jurisdictions |
| Use case | Onboarding retail or individual clients in banking, investment, insurance and similar regulated sectors | Verifying corporate counterparties, vendors, partners or business clients |
