Skip to content
Modulr glossary

KYC (Know Your Customer) / KYB (Know Your Business)

Know Your Customer (KYC) is a regulatory process requiring businesses to verify customer identities before providing financial services. KYC helps prevent money laundering, terrorism, fraud, and financial crime. KYC refers to the corresponding information within the business – the deals made, with who, processes followed and potential KYC processes are used to determine the true identity of a customer and the type of activity that is normal and expected, and rely on other considerations such as Knowledge-Based Authentication in order to pass authorisation requirements.

Applications

E-commerce:

Reduces fraud in online card payments by verifying the cardholder's identity

Banking and fintech:

Helps issuers and payment providers comply with Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) requirements.

Advantages

  • Enhanced security: Reduces unauthorised transactions by verifying that the genuine account holder is authorising the payment
  • Fraud prevention: Helps reduce chargebacks related to fraud.

Challenges

  • User Experience: Additional authentication steps can cause friction and increase checkout abandonment
  • Implementation complexity: Requires integration with card schemes and issuer systems.

Sign up to our newsletter for our latest news and insights