Perpetual KYB
Perpetual KYB is the practice of continuously monitoring a business customer after onboarding, instead of verifying once and re-reviewing on a fixed annual cycle. The Know Your Customer Limited API delivers perpetual KYB by keeping each verified company case under live screening, raising alerts when new sanctions, PEP, or adverse-media matches appear, and letting you schedule review dates, all on top of live registry data across 147 jurisdictions.
What is perpetual KYB?
Perpetual KYB (also called continuous KYB or ongoing KYB monitoring) is a model in which a business is re-checked continuously rather than at fixed intervals. Traditional KYB verifies a company at onboarding and then re-reviews it periodically, often once a year, which leaves long windows in which a customer’s risk can change unnoticed. Perpetual KYB closes those windows by monitoring the customer between reviews and surfacing material changes as they happen.
The category went mainstream in 2026 as regulators and FIs moved away from point-in-time verification. It aligns with the risk-based, ongoing-monitoring expectations in the FATF recommendations and the EU Anti-Money-Laundering Directives, which call for keeping customer due diligence up to date over the life of the relationship.
How does perpetual KYB work in this API?
Perpetual KYB is built on the same case you create at onboarding. After a customer is onboarded, live monitoring keeps screening the case and raises alerts when new matches appear:
- List alerts: retrieve open alerts for triage.
- Alert detail: fetch one alert to see the matched party and why it was raised.
- Action an alert: resolve it with a recorded outcome (for example confirm or dismiss the match). Actioning closes the alert with an audited decision.
You also set a review date on a case to schedule periodic re-review, which drives your ongoing-due-diligence cadence (for example reviewing a high-risk customer more frequently). Together, continuous screening and scheduled review give you both event-driven and time-driven monitoring.
What is the difference between perpetual KYB and periodic KYB review?
| Attribute | Periodic KYB review | Perpetual KYB |
|---|---|---|
| Cadence | Fixed (often annual) | Continuous, event-driven |
| Risk window | Long gaps between reviews | Changes surfaced as they occur |
| Trigger | Calendar date | New screening match or material change |
| Effort | Bulk re-review of the whole book | Action only the cases that change |
| Regulatory fit | Meets minimum re-review | Aligns with risk-based ongoing monitoring |
Perpetual KYB does not remove scheduled review; it adds continuous monitoring on top, so you act on real changes between reviews and use the review date for the time-driven backstop.
How do I get notified of changes (webhooks)?
You can monitor cases by listing alerts on a schedule, or register a webhook endpoint so events are pushed to your systems as they happen, without polling. When you register an endpoint, the API sends a small JSON notification (the event type plus a reference to the case) on events such as a case becoming ready, an AML or monitoring match, a case decision, or a document upload. Your systems then fetch the detail, decide, and action it with an audited outcome. Build your consumer to be idempotent and to return a 2xx quickly, so a redelivered notification does not create a duplicate case action. In the free sandbox you can try this end to end: register a webhook URL and choose your events in the Workspace console (or via the sandbox webhook endpoint), then watch every delivery attempt, its status code, and the exact payload sent in the console’s delivery log. If you prefer polling, list alerts on a sensible interval with backoff rather than a tight loop. For the complete event list, the payload shape, and the delivery and retry behaviour, see the Webhooks reference.
What changes does perpetual KYB catch?
Continuous monitoring is designed to catch the events that change a customer’s risk after onboarding, including new sanctions designations against the entity or its UBOs and directors, new PEP status, and new adverse-media matches. Because the underlying company case is built from live registry data, perpetual KYB also positions you to re-verify the registry record and ownership on review, so a change of control, a change of status, or a fresh filing can be picked up on the next review cycle rather than going unnoticed.
How do I start using perpetual KYB?
Perpetual KYB uses the same case and credentials as your onboarding verification, so there is no separate integration. Verify a company as normal (search, create, poll, read), set a review date, and consume alerts. You can build and test the full monitoring flow for free in the sandbox at https://api.knowyourcustomer.dev before going to production. See the Guide section on AML and ongoing monitoring for the endpoints.
Frequently asked questions
What is perpetual KYB? Perpetual KYB is continuous monitoring of a business customer after onboarding, replacing point-in-time-only verification with ongoing, event-driven checks.
Is perpetual KYB the same as continuous KYB? Yes. The terms are used interchangeably, along with ongoing KYB monitoring.
Does it use webhooks? Yes. Alerts and case events can be pushed to a webhook endpoint you register, and you can also consume them by polling. You can register an endpoint and inspect every delivery in the sandbox’s Workspace console.
Does perpetual KYB replace periodic review? No. It adds continuous monitoring on top of scheduled review dates, giving you both event-driven and time-driven monitoring.
Can I test monitoring in the sandbox? Yes. The free sandbox replicates the production contract, including the monitoring and alert endpoints, and it can deliver webhooks to an endpoint you register so you can test your event consumer end to end.