Glossary
KYB glossary — 20 terms every compliance team needs
A curated glossary of the acronyms and terms that appear in outbound KYB questionnaires, regulatory filings, and counterparty onboarding forms. Written for submitter-side operators.
- AMLR (EU Anti-Money Laundering Regulation)
- The EU's consolidated AML rulebook, replacing the directive-based regime in phased effect starting 2025. Imposes uniform customer due diligence, UBO transparency, and record-keeping rules across member states. Companies operating in the EU face AMLR-aligned KYB requests from EU-regulated counterparties.
- Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)
- The foundational US anti-money-laundering statute. Requires US financial institutions to maintain records, file SARs, and collect customer identification. Companies banking in the US face BSA-driven KYB questionnaires from every US sponsor or correspondent bank.
- Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) / FinCEN
- FinCEN's Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting program under the Corporate Transparency Act, with material scope changes in 2024–2025. Requires covered entities to report UBOs to FinCEN. Banks often request evidence of BOI filings as part of KYB. See the UBO tracking guide.
- Certificate of Good Standing
- A jurisdiction-issued document confirming an entity is duly registered, current on fees, and authorized to do business. Typically requested by banks and counterparties at onboarding and refresh. Most jurisdictions issue dated certificates that banks want within 30–90 days of issue.
- Certified true copy
- A copy of a document attested by a notary, solicitor, or corporate secretary to be a true reproduction of the original. Banks often require certified or apostilled copies of incorporation documents and UBO identity evidence, not plain scans.
- CDD (Customer Due Diligence)
- The process of verifying a customer's identity and assessing their risk. The counterparty's CDD program shapes the KYB questions they ask. Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) applies to higher-risk customers.
- CIP (Customer Identification Program)
- Under the USA PATRIOT Act, banks must implement a CIP to verify the identity of each customer opening an account. Bank CIP policies drive the specific document set a bank's KYB team asks for — incorporation docs, UBO IDs, EIN letters, operating agreements.
- Disclosure packet
- The bundle of documents and completed questionnaires submitted to a specific counterparty at a specific point in time. Archway creates an immutable snapshot of each disclosure packet with the exact evidence state at submission.
- EDD (Enhanced Due Diligence)
- A deeper level of due diligence applied to higher-risk customers: complex ownership structures, high-risk jurisdictions, PEPs, or large transaction volumes. EDD means more documents, more questions, and often in-person or virtual KYC interviews.
- Entity resolution
- The process of determining whether two references point to the same legal entity or person. Critical when the same UBO appears across many subsidiaries, or when a counterparty's records and yours disagree on entity identity. Archway maintains canonical entity identity to prevent drift.
- KYB (Know Your Business)
- The business equivalent of KYC. The process of verifying a corporate counterparty's identity, ownership, and legitimacy. From the receiving side it is verification. From the submitting side — where Archway operates — it is preparation, packaging, and disclosure.
- KYC (Know Your Customer)
- The regulatory requirement for financial institutions to verify the identity of their customers. For individuals this usually means ID documents and biometric checks; for businesses, it becomes KYB.
- LEI (Legal Entity Identifier)
- A 20-character global identifier for legal entities participating in financial transactions. LEI Level 2 data includes the entity's direct parent and ultimate parent for accounting consolidation purposes. Many banks and clearing houses require an LEI for corporate clients.
- OFAC sanctions screening
- Screening entities and individuals against the US Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions lists. Every KYB submission to a US-regulated counterparty implies that you and your UBOs are not OFAC-sanctioned. Counterparties run their own screening on the data you provide.
- PEP (Politically Exposed Person)
- A person holding or having held a prominent public function. PEP status triggers enhanced due diligence. KYB questionnaires commonly ask whether any UBO, director, or signatory is a PEP or has close personal or business ties to one.
- PSC (Persons with Significant Control, UK)
- The UK's beneficial ownership regime administered by Companies House. A PSC is anyone with over 25% of shares, over 25% of voting rights, power to appoint the majority of directors, or significant influence. The UK PSC register is public. Banks onboarding UK entities request PSC evidence routinely.
- SAR (Suspicious Activity Report)
- A report filed by a financial institution to FinCEN (US) or similar regulators (UK SAR, Singapore STR) when a transaction appears linked to money laundering, fraud, or other illicit activity. Companies do not file SARs on themselves, but good compliance hygiene reduces the likelihood of being the subject of one.
- Section 314(b) (US Bank Secrecy Act)
- A provision that allows financial institutions to share information with each other to identify and report on suspected money laundering. Relevant when your counterparty banks decide to share KYB information among themselves.
- Submitter-side KYB
- The outbound half of the KYB transaction: the company being onboarded managing its own identity evidence, disclosure packets, and refresh cadence. Archway is the platform for submitter-side KYB. Most existing KYB tools focus on the verifier side. See the Archway product.
- UBO (Ultimate Beneficial Owner)
- The natural person who ultimately owns or controls a legal entity. Threshold definitions vary by jurisdiction — FinCEN, EU AMLR, UK PSC, and Singapore all use 25% as the default trigger, with control-based triggers on top. UBO tracking across a multi-entity group is one of Archway's core workflows. See the UBO tracking guide.
Put the glossary to work
Archway turns these concepts into structured fields, canonical records, and auditable disclosure packets.