UBO & KYC
KYC vs KYB: what a family office needs
The difference between Know Your Customer and Know Your Business, and why family offices need both.
The FLIORE Compliance Desk
Family-office compliance research
5 min read
Updated 2026-07-01
Key takeaways
- KYC verifies individuals; KYB verifies businesses and their controllers.
- A family office onboarding an entity does KYB, then KYC on each UBO.
- The two are inseparable in practice.
Two sides of one duty
KYC — Know Your Customer — verifies the identity of a natural person. KYB — Know Your Business — verifies a legal entity: that it exists, is active, and who controls it. For a family office, onboarding a corporate mandate means doing KYB on the entity, then KYC on every UBO it surfaces.
Why family offices need both
Family wealth rarely sits in one person's name. It runs through holding companies, trusts and foundations. Each of those is a KYB subject; each UBO behind them is a KYC subject. A platform that handles only one leaves half the duty unmet.
FAQ
Is KYB just KYC for companies?
In spirit — but it adds entity verification, registry checks and ownership mapping that individual KYC does not.
Sources
- FATF Recommendations — Customer due diligence standards.
- EU AMLR — CDD obligations for obliged entities.
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