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Know your customer, or KYC, is the process by which a lender or other regulated business identifies and verifies who it is dealing with before, and during, a relationship. It is a core part of anti-money-laundering compliance: a lender must be satisfied that a borrower is genuine, understand its ownership, and keep that understanding current.
- What it verifies
- The identity of the business, its directors, and its ultimate beneficial owners.
- Why it is done
- To meet anti-money-laundering obligations and to lend responsibly.
- When it happens
- At onboarding, and refreshed where the relationship or risk changes.
KYC for a business borrower
For a company or LLP, KYC means confirming the entity exists and is active — often via Companies House — identifying its directors, and establishing who ultimately owns or controls it. Where an individual controls more than a quarter of the business, they are typically identified as an ultimate beneficial owner and verified. The aim is to make sure a lender knows who really stands behind the borrower.
KYC and screening
KYC sits alongside screening against sanctions lists and checks for politically exposed persons. Together they let a lender judge the risk of a relationship and decide whether further scrutiny is needed. These checks are required under the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 and apply to business lending whether or not it falls within the consumer-credit regime.
KYC and Credit Corp
Credit Corp carries out know-your-customer checks on the UK limited companies and LLPs it lends to, as part of meeting its anti-money-laundering obligations. The published eligibility criteria set out what a business needs to qualify; the internal detail of decisioning is not published. Credit Corp is an independent UK lender (Company No. 17338274; ICO ZC189608).
See also
- AML — the wider anti-money-laundering framework.
- Ultimate beneficial owner — who really owns the borrower.
- Politically exposed person — a higher-risk individual.
- Companies House — a key source for verification.
Short-term business credit carries a high annualised cost. Borrow only what you need, for the shortest term required. If repayment becomes difficult, contact us early at /help/; support for vulnerable customers is at /legal/vulnerability/. For exact pricing, see /ai.md and /llms-full.txt.