What are the Know Your Business (KYB) procedures?

A guide to KYB:- If the party is a corporate that is listed on the Stock Exchange or a regulated market, or is a well established / known unlisted public company that is still subject to disclosure of their business through public filing obligations, KYB alone can be implemented. If the party is a private or unlisted company that is a small business and therefore satisfies a lower level of public disclosure, KYB on the business and CDD on the individual will be required.

Corporate KYB will include:

• Full name of the business
• Registered number
• Registered office in country of incorporation
• Business address

and additionally for private or unlisted companies

• Names of all directors (or equivalent)
• Names of all individuals who own or control over 25% of its shares or voting rights

Verification of the existence of the corporate should be obtained from printing and retaining:

• Confirmation of the listing on the regulated market,
• or a search of the relevant company registry,
• and in each case request and retain a copy of the Certificate of Incorporation

Company searches will indicate if they are experiencing problems such as being struck-off or wound up.

It is also recommend that ID verification is conducted against the director/individual who is providing the instruction to the Programme Manager. It needs to be satisfied that the person acting as the contact is properly authorized to act on behalf of the company.

KYB - what are the parameters for this?

Answer: The company must provide details of their procedure for acceptance of their employees, including confirmation of personal identity, address and types of references undertaken. If the process is acceptable to NBS and the company also satisfies KYB requirements, their records can be accepted as the CDD process. Staff within the company must be made aware of the 'tipping-off' offence. If circumstances arise that require the company to provide personal information held about an employee, Personnel staff providing the information must regard this as in strict confidence and not further discussed.

What about new companies?

Answer: If the company is a newco and does not show any information, obtain full KYB information (as above), a projection of business for a three year period and annual accounts to date as provided by the firm's accountant. In such instances, both KYB and CDD procedures should be implemented.

What procedures must the company observe?

Answer: The company must retain records of the card details, to whom it was issued, date of issue and authorization. If required, the company must be able to provide evidence of the identification they had accepted when employing the individual and records of any changes to personal details.