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KYC API

A KYC API is an application programming interface for running Know Your Customer checks programmatically. The Know Your Customer API, from Know Your Customer Limited, is built for corporate KYC: it verifies a company against live official registry data in 150+ jurisdictions, resolves who owns and controls it, and runs identity verification and AML screening on the people behind the company, all through one REST API with a free developer sandbox. It is a company and corporate KYC API, not a consumer-only identity product: the individual KYC it performs is on the directors and ultimate beneficial owners attached to a company case.

What is a KYC API (Know Your Customer API)?

A KYC API is a programmatic interface for verifying who you are dealing with before and during a business relationship. Classic KYC verifies an individual’s identity; corporate KYC (also called business KYC, and in practice the same work as KYB, Know Your Business) verifies a company, establishes that it is legally registered and in good standing, identifies its directors and ultimate beneficial owners, and confirms the identity of those people.

A KYC API typically lets you search for a company, create a verification case, read structured entity data, resolve beneficial ownership, run identity document verification on the associated individuals, and screen every party against sanctions and watchlists. This is KYC for businesses: the company and the individuals who own and control it, checked together. It removes manual registry lookups, document collection, and screening from your onboarding flow and turns the whole check into a few API calls.

Corporate KYC vs individual KYC (and how KYB fits)

Two things are commonly called KYC, and the distinction matters when you choose an API.

  • Individual KYC verifies a natural person: their identity document, a liveness or selfie check, and screening against sanctions, PEP, and adverse-media lists.
  • Corporate KYC, also called business KYC, verifies a legal entity: its registry record, legal status, officers, and ownership. Corporate KYC and KYB (Know Your Business) are the same work under two names.

The two are not alternatives. Onboarding a company means doing corporate KYC on the entity and individual KYC on the natural persons who control it, the directors and ultimate beneficial owners. This API is corporate KYC first: it builds the company case from the registry, resolves the people behind it, and then runs individual KYC on those people inside the same case. If your need is purely the business-entity view, see the KYB API; if it is the raw entity dataset, see the company data API.

What does the Know Your Customer API do?

The API covers the full corporate KYC 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.
  • Resolve the people behind the company: the controlling entities and individuals, and the recursive beneficial-ownership org-chart, from corporate parents down to the ultimate individual owners. See the UBO API.
  • Run individual KYC on each director and beneficial owner as an individual case: collect their identity document, run identity document verification (IDV), and where enabled run eKYC profile checks.
  • Screen the entity and its associated individuals against sanctions, PEP, and adverse-media lists, built into the case rather than bolted on.
  • Retrieve the original registry documents and route identity documents to the person, board and registry documents to the company.
  • Produce an audit-ready PDF report of the verified case and monitor the customer continuously after onboarding.

You build the integration once and reach 150+ jurisdictions from one contract.

Which jurisdictions does the KYC API cover?

The API connects to the official company registries in 150+ 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 on the registry, the data available, and typical latency.

How do I run KYC on a business via API?

You run corporate KYC in a short sequence:

  1. Search for the company: POST /v2/Companies/search with the ISO 3166-2 code and the company name or number.
  2. Create the company case: POST /v2/Companies. The response returns a caseCommonId and the case begins building asynchronously.
  3. Poll until ready: GET /v2/Companies/{caseCommonId} until statusId is 3 (Ready); the members, ownership org-chart, AML, and documents are populated at that point.
  4. Read the controllers and owners, then run individual KYC on each person: each individual member has its own caseCommonId, so you address that person as an individual case, request or upload their identity document, and read the IDV verdict.
  5. Review AML, then record your decision on the case.

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 KYC API include AML and sanctions screening?

Yes. AML screening (sanctions, PEP, and adverse media) runs as part of the case, covering both the company and its associated individuals. You can review a hit, exclude a false positive with a recorded reason, and the case-level flag recomputes automatically. Screening is part of the verified case, not a separate integration or vendor. Definitions are in the glossary.

Is there a free KYC 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. See the sandbox overview for what is included.

Frequently asked questions

Is this a consumer KYC API or a business KYC API? It is a company and corporate KYC API. It verifies businesses and the people who control them (directors and ultimate beneficial owners). The individual KYC it runs is on those associated people, as part of a company case, not standalone consumer onboarding.

What is the difference between KYC and KYB? KYC verifies identity; KYB (Know Your Business) verifies a company and its ownership. Corporate KYC and KYB describe the same work. This API does corporate KYC and includes individual KYC on the company’s owners and directors.

Does the KYC API do identity document verification? Yes. On an individual case you collect an identity document and receive an identity document verification (IDV) verdict, and where the plan enables it, eKYC profile checks.

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

How many jurisdictions are covered? 150+, with 100% of legally registered entities in each connected jurisdiction. See the coverage hub.

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.