Question 1

What is KYB?

Accepted Answer

Know Your Business is the corporate-customer equivalent of KYC: identifying and verifying a legal-entity customer, mapping its ownership and control structure, identifying its ultimate beneficial owners (UBOs), understanding its activity, and assessing its risk. KYB is harder than KYC because cor...

Question 2

What is a Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO)?

Accepted Answer

The natural person(s) who ultimately own or control a legal entity. The conventional 25% threshold (a natural person who directly or indirectly owns ≥ 25% of shares or voting rights, or otherwise exercises control) is used by the EU AMLD framework and many other regimes. Where no person meets the...

Question 3

What beneficial ownership thresholds apply in major jurisdictions?

Accepted Answer

Question 4

What is the FinCEN BOI rule (US)?

Accepted Answer

Under the US Corporate Transparency Act 2021, most US-formed and foreign-registered companies must file beneficial ownership information with FinCEN identifying any individual who (a) owns ≥ 25% or (b) exercises substantial control. After several court challenges in 2024 and a March 2025 interim...

Question 5

What is the UK PSC register?

Accepted Answer

The People with Significant Control register, maintained by Companies House, lists individuals who hold > 25% of shares or voting rights, hold the right to appoint or remove a majority of the board, or otherwise exercise significant influence or control. PSC information is public and machine-read...

Question 6

What is happening with Australia's Tranche 2 reforms?

Accepted Answer

The *Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment Act 2024* extended Australia's AML/CTF regime to "tranche 2" entities — lawyers, accountants, real-estate professionals, and trust and company service providers — who had been excluded since the original 2006 Act. Obligations fo...

Question 7

Why is corporate-structure transparency so hard?

Accepted Answer

Common opacity techniques include layered holding companies across multiple jurisdictions, nominee shareholders and directors, bearer shares (now largely eliminated but still present in some jurisdictions), discretionary trusts, foundations, and the use of corporate service providers in low-discl...

Know Your Business (KYB) & beneficial ownership