KYB API

A KYB API is an application programming interface that verifies a business against authoritative company data: its registry record, its legal status, its directors, and its ultimate beneficial owners. The Know Your Customer Limited KYB API does this live from the official company registries in 147 jurisdictions, returns the original registry documents, builds a recursive beneficial-ownership org-chart, and runs AML and sanctions screening on the company and the people behind it, all through one REST API with a free developer sandbox.

What is a KYB API?

A KYB API is a programmatic interface for Know Your Business checks: confirming that a company exists, is legally registered, is in good standing, and identifying who owns and controls it. KYB (Know Your Business) is the corporate counterpart to KYC (Know Your Customer): KYC verifies a person, KYB verifies a business and the people behind it.

A KYB API typically lets you search for a company, create a verification case, read structured entity data (name, registration number, status, addresses, officers), resolve beneficial ownership, retrieve supporting documents, and screen the parties against sanctions and watchlists. It removes manual registry lookups and document handling from your onboarding flow and turns business verification into a few API calls.

What does the Know Your Customer KYB API do?

The Know Your Customer KYB API covers the full Know Your Business and ongoing-monitoring lifecycle through a single resource, the case:

Verify a company against its official registry, live at verification time, and read structured entity data: name, registration number, status, registered addresses, and officers.
Retrieve the original registry documents: registry extracts, certificates of incorporation, annual returns, and more, fetched fresh from the source.
Resolve beneficial ownership (UBO) as a recursive, multi-level org-chart, from corporate parents down to the ultimate individual owners.
Screen the entity and its associated individuals against sanctions, PEP, and adverse-media lists, built into the company case rather than bolted on.
Run identity verification (KYC) on the company’s UBOs and directors in the same flow, an included complementary add-in.
Produce an audit-ready PDF report of the verified case.
Monitor the customer continuously after onboarding, with alerts and scheduled review dates.

You build the integration once and reach 147 jurisdictions from one contract.

What makes this KYB API different?

Capability	Know Your Customer	Typical screening-led KYB API
Data source	Live from official registries at verification time	Often cached or aggregated from third-party datasets
Jurisdiction coverage	147 jurisdictions, with deep APAC and global breadth	Frequently US-only or region-limited
Beneficial ownership	Recursive, multi-level org-chart	Often a flat UBO list
Source documents	Original registry documents returned	Usually data only, no source document
AML and sanctions	Built into the company case	Often a separate product or vendor
Developer sandbox	Free, high-fidelity, over 980 sample companies and individuals	Commonly sales-gated or stubbed

The differentiators are factual and specific. Coverage is live from source, not inferred. Ownership is recursive, not flat. The original documents are returned, not just parsed fields.

Which jurisdictions does the KYB API cover?

The API connects to the official company registries in 147 jurisdictions and covers 100% of legally registered entities in each connected jurisdiction. Coverage spans deep APAC markets (Hong Kong, Singapore, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines) and global breadth across Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, and offshore financial centres such as the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands. You identify a jurisdiction with an ISO 3166-2 country code, for example GB, SG, or HK. See the coverage hub for per-country detail.

How do I verify a company with the KYB API?

You verify a company in four steps:

Search for the company by name or registration number: POST /v2/Companies/search.
Create a case from the chosen result: POST /v2/Companies. The response returns a caseCommonId and the case begins building asynchronously.
Poll until ready: GET /v2/Companies/{caseCommonId} until status is 3 (Ready) and the structure is populated.
Read the result: the verified entity data, the controlling entities and individuals, and the recursive ownership org-chart.

Authentication uses the OAuth2 client-credentials grant: you exchange a client_id and client_secret for a short-lived bearer token. The full walkthrough is in the Guide and the 10-minute version is in the Quickstart.

Does the KYB API include AML and sanctions screening?

Yes. AML screening (sanctions, PEP, and adverse media) runs as part of the company case, covering the entity and its associated individuals. You can review a hit, exclude a false positive with a recorded reason, and recompute screening. This is the intersection where a KYB-first API earns its place: screening is part of the verified company case, not a separate integration. Definitions are in the glossary.

Is there a free KYB sandbox?

Yes. The sandbox at https://api.knowyourcustomer.dev is a free, high-fidelity, contract-faithful replica of the standard KYC platform, not a stub. It is pre-loaded with over 980 sample companies and individuals, with configured per-jurisdiction latency profiles that approximate production timing (simulated, not live measurements) and no live registry charges. The contract, response shapes, and status progression match production, so what you build against the sandbox runs in production by changing the base URL and credentials. Access is granted through a sign-and-provision flow on the access page.

How does ongoing KYB monitoring work?

After onboarding, live monitoring keeps screening each case and raises alerts when new sanctions, PEP, or adverse-media matches appear. You list alerts, inspect one, and action it with an audited outcome. You also set a review date on a case to schedule periodic re-review. This is perpetual KYB: verification that does not stop at onboarding. See perpetual KYB.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between KYB and KYC? KYB verifies a business and its ownership; KYC verifies an individual’s identity. This API is KYB-first and includes KYC on the company’s owners and directors as a complementary add-in.

Is the data live or cached? Live. The company case is built against the official registry at verification time, not from a cached dataset.

How many jurisdictions are covered? 147, with 100% of legally registered entities in each connected jurisdiction.

Can I get the original registry document? Yes. The API returns the fresh underlying registry documents, not just parsed fields.

Do I need to talk to sales to test it? No. The sandbox is free and self-serve via the sign-and-provision access flow.