KYB explained: the documents you need to open a business account, and why they ask

The first thing any business account asks for is a stack of documents. Founders often treat it as a formality and upload whatever is in the shared drive, then spend two weeks answering follow-up emails. The review itself rarely takes long. What takes long is a file the reviewer can't approve as it stands.

This guide explains what a know-your-business (KYB) review actually checks, which documents answer each question, and the small inconsistencies that cause most of the delays.

What KYB is, and why every provider does it

Banks, payment institutions and e-money firms are legally required to know who they are dealing with before they open an account and move money for it. For an individual, that is KYC. For a company, it is KYB, which comes down to four questions:

1. Does the company exist, and is it in good standing?
2. What does it do, and what activity should the account expect?
3. Who ultimately owns it?
4. Who controls it day to day?

Every document in a KYB request answers one of those four. If you know which question a document is for, you can usually tell whether yours will do.

The ownership rule: 25% and one controller

The part that trips people up is beneficial ownership. A reviewer has to see through the company to the individuals behind it.

In the US, the Customer Due Diligence rule (31 CFR 1010.230) requires covered institutions to identify:

• The ownership prong: each individual who, directly or indirectly, owns 25% or more of the company's equity. If no one reaches 25%, nobody is identified under this prong.
• The control prong: one individual with significant responsibility to control, manage or direct the company, such as a CEO, managing director, president or treasurer.

The same person can satisfy both. In total, a company will have between one and five beneficial owners under the rule. The EU and UK use a similar test: in the UK's Money Laundering Regulations and the EU's anti-money-laundering directives, the threshold is ownership or control of more than 25%.

Two things are worth knowing:

• "Indirectly" means through holding companies. If a holding company owns 60% of your company and two people each own half of the holding company, each of them indirectly owns 30%, and both must be identified. Reviewers will ask for the ownership chart all the way up.
• Providers can be stricter than the law. Many apply a 10% threshold as internal policy, especially for companies in higher-risk sectors or countries. That is their call, and arguing with it rarely helps.

The document checklist

What follows is the common core. Every provider adds its own variations, but a file with all of this is rarely sent back.

About the company

About ownership

About each owner and the controller

About the business itself

Expect a short questionnaire: what you sell, to whom, in which countries, your website, expected monthly volumes in and out, the currencies involved, and where your starting funds came from. This is not a trick. A provider is required to monitor accounts for activity that doesn't fit the expected pattern, so it needs to know the pattern.

The ten mistakes behind most delays

1. Names that don't match. "Acme Ltd" on the certificate, "ACME Limited" on the bank statement, "Acme Digital" on the website. Use the registered legal name everywhere and explain trading names.
2. Old proof of address. A bill from last year will be rejected. Use something from the last three months.
3. Addresses that don't match. The registered office, the operating address and the address on the bill should agree, or you should say why they differ (a registered agent address, for example).
4. An ownership chart that stops halfway. Listing "Holdco Ltd, 100%" is not an answer. Show who owns Holdco.
5. Percentages that don't add up. A register showing 40%, 30% and 20% raises the question of the missing 10%.
6. Directors missing from the application. Everyone on the official register of directors should appear in the application, or you should explain why not.
7. Expired or cropped IDs. Check expiry dates before uploading, and photograph the whole document.
8. A website that doesn't describe the business. A holding page or a site describing a different product slows a review down. Reviewers check.
9. A vague business description. "Consulting" or "trading" tells the reviewer nothing. Say what you sell, to whom and where.
10. Volumes that don't fit. A two-month-old company expecting $5 million a month will get questions. Estimate honestly; you can update it later.

What changed with US beneficial ownership reporting

You may have heard that US beneficial ownership reporting was scrapped. That is partly true, and it is a different thing from KYB.

Under the Corporate Transparency Act, companies were required to file beneficial ownership information (BOI) reports with FinCEN. An interim final rule published in March 2025 exempted all companies formed in the US from that reporting. Foreign companies registered to do business in a US state must still report, but only their non-US beneficial owners.

None of this changes what a bank or payment provider must do when you open an account. The Customer Due Diligence rule still applies, so your provider will still ask who owns and controls your company.

How to get through faster

• Collect everything before you start. Most onboarding flows let you save and return, but a review only starts when the file is complete.
• Prepare the ownership chart first. It decides whose IDs you need.
• Write the business description as if for a stranger. Two or three sentences: product, customers, countries.
• Answer follow-up questions completely, once. A partial answer usually triggers another question.

How Rivet handles this

Every company is verified before its Rivet account can send or receive. A complete file gets a verdict in three business days. While it is in review, the dashboard shows the status of each item separately: business details, documents and each owner. If one item is unclear, we ask for that item rather than the whole pack again. Nothing is charged before the business is verified.

Services explains how onboarding works, and the guide to multi-currency accounts covers what to compare once you are approved.