Financial institutions, investment service companies, insurers and creditors generally are required to implement and follow know-your-customer (KYC) policies as part of a larger anti-money laundering (AML) effort. Although most other nonregulated businesses don’t have a KYC mandate, such procedures can help prevent fraud and significant financial losses from criminal activity, among other benefits. In addition, following KYC principles sends a message to customers, vendors and other stakeholders that you take trust and security seriously. Due diligence requirements As part of their KYC processes, regulated businesses have three duties to perform: customer due diligence, enhanced due diligence and continuous monitoring. In practice, this means they verify customers’ names, addresses and dates of birth and check them against lists of known criminals. In addition, they monitor transaction trends and...

For years, banks, financial service and investment companies, and exporters have been required to follow know-your-customer (KYC) processes to thwart criminal activity. Developed to help certain businesses comply with anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism regulations, these programs aren’t mandated for most nonfinancial businesses. But you might want to consider adopting some KYC principles anyway. They can help you prevent fraud — including occupational fraud and identity theft — and even boost your marketing and sales efforts. Enhanced due diligence As part of their KYC processes, financial institutions generally verify customers’ names, addresses, and dates of birth and check them against lists of known criminals. In addition, they monitor transaction trends and high-risk accounts to determine their risk and whether they merit filing suspicious activity reports with the government....