The KYC, KYB & AML Compliance Glossary
Clear, plain-English definitions of the identity, due-diligence, screening, and reporting terms compliance professionals use every day — each linked to deeper guides and the tools that put them into practice.
Adverse Media Screening
Searching news and other sources for negative information about a customer.
Read definition Monitoring & ReportingCapital Call
A notice from a private fund, or its general partner, requiring investors to pay in part of the capital they committed to the fund.
Read definition Due DiligenceCustomer Due Diligence (CDD)
The risk-based checks a firm performs to understand who a customer is and the risk they pose.
Read definition Due DiligenceEnhanced Due Diligence (EDD)
The deeper level of scrutiny applied to higher-risk customers and relationships.
Read definition Regulation & BodiesFATF (Financial Action Task Force)
The global standard-setter for anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing measures.
Read definition Identity & OnboardingKnow Your Business (KYB)
Verifying the identity, legitimacy, and ownership of a corporate customer rather than an individual.
Read definition Identity & OnboardingKnow Your Customer (KYC)
The regulatory process of verifying a customer's identity before and throughout a business relationship.
Read definition Due DiligenceKnow Your Investor (KYI)
The application of KYC and customer due diligence to the investors in a fund or other investment product.
Read definition Identity & OnboardingLiveness Detection
Technology that confirms a real, present person is being verified — not a photo, video, or deepfake.
Read definition Due DiligenceLook-Through Approach
Tracing through intermediate companies, trusts, nominees, omnibus accounts and fund vehicles to the natural persons who ultimately own, control or stand behind a customer.
Read definition Due DiligenceOmnibus Account
A single account that a broker, bank, platform, nominee or distributor holds in its own name with a fund or another intermediary, through which it pools the holdings and transactions of many underlying clients whose identities the account holder keeps on its own books.
Read definition ScreeningPolitically Exposed Person (PEP)
An individual entrusted with a prominent public function, who therefore carries higher corruption risk.
Read definition ScreeningSanctions Screening
Checking customers and counterparties against government and international sanctions lists.
Read definition Due DiligenceSimplified Due Diligence (SDD)
A reduced set of customer due diligence measures that a regulated firm may apply to a customer, product or relationship it has assessed and documented as presenting a lower risk of money laundering or terrorist financing, without removing the duty to identify the customer, monitor the relationship, screen for sanctions or report suspicion.
Read definition Monitoring & ReportingSuspicious Activity Report (SAR)
The formal report a firm files with its financial intelligence unit when it suspects financial crime.
Read definition Monitoring & ReportingTransaction Monitoring
Ongoing surveillance of customer transactions to detect suspicious activity.
Read definition Due DiligenceUltimate Beneficial Owner (UBO)
The real person who ultimately owns or controls a company — the individual behind the corporate structure.
Read definition < Regulation & BodiesVariable Capital Company (VCC)
A Singapore corporate vehicle for investment funds under the Variable Capital Companies Act 2018, usable as a single fund or as an umbrella with legally segregated sub-funds, with its own AML/CFT obligations under MAS Notice VCC-N01.
Read definition /div>Put These Terms Into Practice
One Constellation turns the concepts in this glossary into a working compliance platform — KYC, KYB, sanctions and PEP screening, transaction monitoring, and reporting in one place.
