Know your customer (KYC) is the due diligence and bank regulation that financial institutions and other regulated companies must perform in order to identify their clients and ascertain pertinent information with respect to their financial business dealings.

Know your customer policies have becoming increasingly important globally in preventing identity theft fraud, money laundering and terrorist financing. KYC should not be thought of as a form to be filled out - it is a process to be undergone from the start of a customer relationship to the end.

Beyond name matching, a key aspect of KYC controls is to monitor customer transactions against their recorded profile, history of the customer’s account(s) and peer interaction.