The following report was prepared and published by our sister platform SPEEDA—November 2024.

Since the 2008 financial crisis, financial institutions have faced increasing regulatory pressures. These include anti money laundering (AML) regulations, now a mandatory legal requirement worldwide for such institutions. AML regulations have become more complex and stringent over time. They have also expanded to cover other sectors susceptible to financial crime, including gambling, insurance, and real estate.

AML regulations require that regulated entities mandatorily implement a ‘know-your-customer” (KYC) process to maintain compliance. This process is known as “know-your-business”, or KYB, in the context of corporate customers; for simplicity, this report uses the term KYC to indicate both. Given strict compliance requirements, KYC tends to be a labour-intensive, time-consuming manual operation.