Frequently Asked Questions

Q:

How can I purchase KYC360° and KYC360° Factbook?

A:

KYC360° and KYC360° Factbook are only available on a subscription basis to regulated organisations. If you are part of a regulated organisation and would like to purchase one of our products, all information is available on the purchasing page or you can register for a free trial, contact us directly or have us contact you.

Q:

What is Money Laundering?

A:

Money laundering is any process by which criminals disguise the origin of the proceeds of criminal conduct by making such proceeds appear to have derived from a legitimate source.

Learn more about Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism...

Q:

How is KYC360° different from a profile database?

A:

There are a number of profile databases available that provide structured biographies, covering people and other entities considered to be of heightened risk. These databases are often used to support compliance processes, enabling a name to be searched to determine if it has been identified as a PEP, criminal or otherwise of heightened risk.

However, that is not sufficient to cover the requirements of new AML & CFT legislation to perform subjective and investigative risk assessment; nor does a profile database on its own provide sufficient information to assess all of the relevant risks. Many organisations resort to using profile databases in combination with Google, requiring a high level of skill and leading to consistency and security problems.

KYC360° is often used in conjunction with a profile database in order to fully cover CDD and EDD processes.

In KYC360°:

• You don't rely on anybody else to define what "higher risk" means - KYC360° shows automatically summarised information on everyone, and you assess the risk yourself
• You can always dig down to continue your investigation, rather than leaving the system to interrogate Google
• You can thoroughly and seamlessly investigate all of the risk factors required by new AML/CFT legislation

Q:

How is KYC360° different from an identity verification tool?

A:

CDD can be described as a process with multiple stages. Identifying your client is the first stage, typically involving physical identification (such as passports), followed by cross-checking of that information against electoral, birth and death registries, companies house records, telephone books, etc. There are many tools that support that process, each one typically focusing on a particular country, as each country has different registries and telephone books.

KYC360° steps in after this process. It supports initial risk assessment, enabling you to categorise a relationship as high or low risk. In the case of high risk entities, it then provides the analytical capability to complete further investitation (EDD). Finally, KYC360° supports periodic monitoring, through the provision of fresh information and the ability to analyse results.

Q:

Does KYC360° benefit Relationship Managers?

A:

KYC360° doesn't only provide negative information - it provides positive information too. As such, it can be useful to Relationship Managers both to enable them to better understand their clients, but also to empower them to participate in end to end compliance.

Q:

How is KYC360° used?

A:

KYC360° is used for CDD and EDD purposes for client take-on (onboarding), periodic monitoring, and 3rd party transferees/transferors. In addition, many Relationship Managers use KYC360° to monitor their clients for business development purposes, since KYC360° also contains fresh and positive information.

KYC360° enables organisations to effectively implement the risk based approach to customer due diligence, by providing the key information required to make situation-specific judgements on individuals, companies, associates and countries.

KYC360° is often used to complement other tools, such as identity verification tools and profile databases. In using a combination of tools, organisations have the best available coverage and the choice of whether to conduct simple or more advanced checks on a case by case basis.

Whether used alone or in combination, many of our clients use KYC360° simply to gain access to unique features: to access primary sources of data; to analyse it effectively; and to guarantee anonymity for all searches.

Q:

How is KYC360° Factbook used?

A:

KYC360° Factbook is used to inform subjective judgements on country risk in conducting CDD. It is applicable during client take-on (onboarding), periodic monitoring, and 3rd party transferee/transferor due diligence.

For organisations that centrally develop their own geographic risk assessments, KYC360° Factbook is used both to support the central team in finding the relevant risk factors, and also, where the centrally determined ratings are used within the organisation, to provide additional background information to enable subjective judgements to be made.

Q:

Are my actions recorded by KYC360°?

A:

When you use KYC360, you don't leave a footprint. This is of particular concern to many organisations, so KYC360 can be used as a replacement for Google and other online tools to guarantee the anonymity of investigations.