What is KYC? Know Your Customer

Definition

KYC is a regulatory mandate, not a technology. Banks, brokerages, casinos, and crypto exchanges are required by their jurisdictions to verify who their customers are before accepting their business. The verification depth varies: simplified KYC for low-risk accounts, enhanced due diligence (EDD) for high-net-worth or PEP-flagged customers. Standard KYC checks include: name + address + date of birth via government ID, occupation, source of funds, sanctions/PEP screening.

OSINT and KYC have an important relationship: OSINT enriches but does not replace regulated KYC vendors. A standard KYC vendor (Refinitiv, LSEG, Jumio, Onfido) provides the regulatory-compliant identity verification with the audit trail and certification banks need. Skopio adds complementary OSINT signals — does the customer's email show breach exposure, does their phone match their claimed identity on social, are there registered domains tied to their address. Use Skopio for the OSINT context layer; use a regulated vendor for the binding identity verification.

Real-world examples

• 1

  A bank verifies a new account-opener's government ID and address (regulated KYC, separate from Skopio)

• 2

  After regulated KYC passes, the bank's antifraud team runs Skopio to check whether the customer's email shows fresh-burner signals

• 3

  A crypto exchange uses regulated KYC for the binding ID check and Skopio's wallet-OSINT for sanctions screening

• 4

  A fintech runs both regulated KYC and Skopio's enrichment in parallel to flag inconsistencies

• 5

  A high-risk customer triggers EDD; the analyst uses Skopio's dossier feature to compile OSINT context for review