KYC Requirements in the U.S.
Deliver secure, seamless customer onboarding while supporting U.S. Know Your Customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) requirements with confidence. Entrust Identity Verification helps organizations verify identities, combat fraud, and satisfy Customer Identification Program (CIP), Customer Due Diligence (CDD), and risk-based compliance requirements.
U.S. KYC regulations require covered financial institutions to verify customer identities and assess risk as part of their broader anti-money laundering (AML) programs. Entrust helps financial institutions and digital businesses support their KYC requirements through document verification, biometric authentication, data validation, and fraud detection solutions that improve both security and customer experience.
Solution Highlights
Navigate U.S. KYC compliance with confidence
Verify customer identities, support CIP and CDD requirements, and strengthen AML compliance through automated identity verification.
Reduce the risk of identity fraud
Detect fraudulent users with AI-powered document verification, biometric authentication, and advanced fraud signals.
Deliver Secure, Frictionless Customer Experiences
Streamline onboarding and customer verification while maintaining trust, compliance, and operational efficiency.
How Can Entrust Help?
Navigate U.S. KYC and AML compliance
Meet evolving customer identification, due diligence, and anti-money laundering requirements through automated identity verification and risk-based workflows.
Build configurable workflows
Verify identities, support risk-based compliance programs, and create seamless onboarding experiences through configurable, automated workflows.
Stay ahead of emerging fraud threats
Protect your business from increasingly sophisticated fraud with document verification, biometric checks, and intelligence signals designed to identify high-risk users.
Deliver frictionless customer experiences
Balance security and convenience with identity verification experiences designed to reduce abandonment and improve conversion.
Simplify IDV at scale with efficiency
Automate identity verification, data validation, and decisioning processes to help reduce manual reviews and support business growth.
Digitize customer onboarding with confidence
Create secure onboarding journeys to acquire customers faster while maintaining compliance across digital channels.
Partnering with Entrust IDV, formerly Onfido, has helped us deliver a premium onboarding experience for new customers while enabling us to meet strict KYC requirements.
Hasan Luongo, VP of Global Marketing, Chipper Cash
What Are KYC Regulations in the US?
U.S. KYC regulations require covered financial institutions to verify customer identities, understand customer risk, and maintain controls that help prevent money laundering, fraud, terrorist financing, and other financial crimes. Financial institutions, fintechs, lenders, and other regulated businesses must implement risk-based identity verification and due diligence processes that support both compliance and customer trust.
Built on the Bank Secrecy Act and strengthened through subsequent AML legislation and FinCEN guidance, modern KYC programs increasingly rely on digital identity verification, biometric authentication, and fraud prevention technologies to support compliance efforts while delivering faster, more efficient customer onboarding experiences.
What is the AML Act?
The Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (AML Act) is the most significant reform to US AML law in decades. It differs from previous legislation by putting an emphasis on identifying and managing risks, versus strictly reporting on suspicious activity.
AML Act has led to a variety of rulemaking by the Financial Crime Enforcement Network (FinCEN) — part of the Treasury Department. FinCEN published its first list of anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) priorities in June 2021, highlighting key threat trends and informational resources. The list of priorities is expected to be updated every three to four years and financial institutions should pay close attention to these priorities as they will feed into future regulatory changes.
Customer Due Diligence and Beneficial Ownership Verification
Effective KYC programs go beyond verifying identity at onboarding. U.S. financial institutions must confirm who their customers are, continuously assess risk, and maintain ongoing assurance and visibility into suspicious activity. A risk-based CDD approach helps organizations meet regulatory expectations while reducing financial crime risks and building trusted customer relationships.
Organizations should be able to:
- Confidently verify customer identities
- Establish risk-based customer profiles
- Identify beneficial owners and control structures
- Monitor customer activity over time
- Detect suspicious behavior and potential fraud
- Support ongoing AML compliance efforts
How Do Organizations Meet U.S. Identity Verification Requirements?
Meeting U.S. KYC requirements requires more than collecting customer information. Organizations must be able to verify identities, assess risk, and detect potential fraud while maintaining a seamless customer experience. Modern identity verification solutions combine document verification, biometric authentication, trusted data sources, and fraud detection technologies to help organizations establish trust in digital interactions.
By taking a risk-based approach, businesses can strengthen compliance efforts, reduce manual review processes, and onboard customers with greater confidence.
How Does Entrust Support U.S. KYC Compliance?
By helping organizations verify identities at onboarding as well as supporting ongoing customer due diligence throughout the customer lifecycle, Entrust combines document verification, biometric authentication, trusted data sources, fraud detection signals, and workflow orchestration to help businesses meet compliance requirements while reducing operational complexity.
With configurable, risk-based workflows, organizations can adapt verification requirements to different customer types, risk levels, and regulatory obligations while maintaining a consistent customer experience.
Identity Verification Solutions for US KYC
Document and Biometric Verification
Have confidence in your customer’s identity by verifying US-issued photo IDs such as a driver’s license. Powered by award-winning AI, our Entrust document verification uses advanced techniques to assess documents for authenticity.
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FAQs
Who regulates KYC compliance in the United States?
There isn’t one single KYC regulator. In the United States, the core requirements come from the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), expanded over time by the USA PATRIOT Act and the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (AMLA). FinCEN, part of the U.S. Treasury, writes the rules. Depending on the type of institution, oversight and enforcement then fall to the federal banking regulators, the SEC, CFTC, or state regulatory authorities.
What customer information must be collected for KYC in the U.S.?
Organizations typically collect and verify a customer's name, date of birth, residential address, and identification number through Customer Identification Program (CIP) requirements. Additional information may be required based on the organization's risk assessment and regulatory obligations.
What is the difference between CIP, CDD, and Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD)?
CIP verifies a customer's identity at account opening. Customer Due Diligence (CDD) builds on that by assessing customer risk, identifying beneficial owners, and monitoring the relationship over time. EDD applies additional scrutiny to higher-risk customers, transactions, or jurisdictions.
Do U.S. KYC regulations allow digital identity verification?
Yes. U.S. regulations are generally technology-neutral and allow organizations to use digital identity verification solutions, biometric verification, document verification, and risk-based controls, provided they meet compliance requirements and appropriately verify customer identities.
Why is biometric identity verification becoming important for U.S. KYC programs?
Biometric verification helps organizations combat identity fraud, synthetic identity attacks, account takeover attempts, and AI-generated impersonation while reducing customer friction during onboarding.
How does the Patriot Act affect KYC?
The PATRIOT Act was enacted on October 2001. Section 326 of the Act amended the Bank Secrecy Act by adding Customer Identification Program (CIP) requirements.
"These programs must enable institutions to form a reasonable belief that they know the true identity of each customer opening an account through identity verification, recordkeeping, and screening against government-provided terrorist lists."
KYC is a compliance framework that institutions use to satisfy regulatory requirements. It commonly incorporates requirements like AML, CDD, and CIP.
The following statutes cover these in more detail:
31 U.S.C. § 5318(l)
31 C.F.R. § 1020.220
31 U.S.C. §§ 5311-5336
Our identity experts are available to talk through your requirements, answer questions, and set up a KYC solutions demo.
Legislative and regulatory requirements can vary by jurisdiction, industry, product, and use case and may change over time. The information provided on this page is for general informational purposes only and reflects our understanding as of the date of publication. It does not constitute, and should not be relied upon as, legal, regulatory, or compliance advice. You should consult your own legal, compliance, or regulatory advisors regarding any questions or requirements that may apply to your business.