Entity and registry details
Compare the legal name, ABN or ACN, entity type, registration status, registered address and other available Australian registry information for the business being onboarded.
Know Your Business verification
KYB Check Australia
Verify an Australian business, review who represents it and coordinate due diligence for relevant owners and controllers in one clear onboarding workflow.
Workflow evidence
ABN and ACN details checked
Workflow evidence
Registry and officeholder information
Workflow evidence
Representative authority workflow
Workflow evidence
Related-person KYC and AML options
Business customer due diligence
Verify the business and understand who is behind it
A KYB check helps organisations confirm that a business customer exists, compare its identifying details and collect information about the people who act for, own or control it. AuthNTick combines available entity evidence with a reviewable workflow, while preserving the distinction between a business check, individual screening and your organisation’s legal compliance decisions.
Directors and officeholders
Record available director, officeholder or equivalent information so your team can understand who is formally connected to the entity.
Authority to act
Capture the representative submitting the application and evidence of their authority to act for the business where the relationship requires it.
Ownership and control information
Collect available ownership, control and beneficial-owner information, including supporting documents when public information does not resolve the relevant natural persons.
Related-person checks
Coordinate appropriate KYC identity verification and PEP or sanctions screening for relevant representatives, owners or controllers as a distinct part of the wider workflow.
Review-ready evidence
Keep the entity inputs, sources, related-person scope, outcomes and unresolved items together so an authorised reviewer can make and document the onboarding decision.
Business verification workflow
How the KYB check works
Set the verification scope
Your customer type, service, countries involved and risk settings determine the entity fields, people and supporting evidence that need to be reviewed.
Collect the business profile
The customer provides its legal name, ABN or ACN, registered details, business activity, representative and purpose of the proposed relationship.
Check available entity records
Appropriate available sources are used to compare core Australian entity details, registration status and officeholder information.
Resolve people in scope
Ownership, control and authority information is reviewed to determine which representatives, controllers, owners or beneficial owners need separate checks.
Complete related-person checks
Selected people complete the agreed KYC identity and AML screening steps, with possible matches and discrepancies sent for assessment.
Review and document the outcome
Results, source evidence and unresolved gaps are assembled for review, with extra documents or manual assessment requested when available information is insufficient.
Where it fits
When to use business verification
Use KYB when your customer is an organisation and the onboarding decision depends on entity, authority, ownership or control evidence.
01
Onboarding Australian companies and other business customers to a B2B platform
02
Confirming entity and representative details before opening a commercial account
03
Supporting customer due diligence for legal, accounting, real estate and other professional services
04
Verifying merchants, vendors, borrowers or commercial counterparties before a relationship begins
05
Applying a consistent evidence and escalation process to higher-risk business relationships
06
Reviewing an existing business customer after a material ownership, control or authority change
Scope and review
Important KYB boundaries
Entity records and workflow evidence support an authorised reviewer; they do not replace your organisation’s compliance program or decisions.
- A KYB check supports business verification and customer due diligence; it does not by itself make an organisation AML/CTF compliant.
- Registry information does not always reveal the complete ownership or control chain. Trusts, foreign entities and complex structures may require extra documents and manual review.
- Beneficial-owner identification depends on the entity, information available and the customer’s risk-based obligations. AuthNTick does not promise fully automated UBO resolution.
- A PEP, sanctions or adverse-information match requires assessment. A possible name match should not be treated as an automatic rejection.
- Customers remain responsible for their AML/CTF program, risk assessment, decisions, ongoing due diligence and any reporting obligations.
Implementation guidance
Build a KYB workflow that can handle complexity
01
Entity and Australian registry verification
The first task is to establish the business customer’s legal identity. A trading name alone may not identify the entity entering the relationship, so the KYB record should connect the customer’s declared details with appropriate available registry information and retain any material difference for review.
- Compare the declared legal name and ABN or ACN with the entity type, status, registered details and available officeholder data relevant to that customer.
- Record the principal business activity and purpose of the relationship separately; registry verification does not establish how the customer intends to use your service.
- Distinguish a confirmed mismatch from a field that was unavailable or outside the source’s coverage so reviewers do not treat missing information as an adverse result.
- Use additional documents when the legal entity, jurisdiction or structure cannot be adequately understood from the available Australian registry information.
02
Officeholders, representatives and authority to act
The person completing an application is not automatically authorised to bind the entity. A useful KYB workflow distinguishes formal officeholders from the representative dealing with your organisation and records why that representative is entitled to act.
- Compare available director or officeholder information with the people declared in the application without assuming every officeholder must receive the same check.
- Record the candidate’s role and authority, using a delegation, resolution, letter of authority or other suitable evidence when their mandate is not otherwise clear.
- Treat former, recently appointed or inconsistent officeholder information as a review item that may require clarification rather than an automatic rejection.
- Apply separate identity verification to the representative when your procedure requires proof that the individual is who they claim to be.
03
Ownership and beneficial-owner information
Understanding ownership and control can require more than retrieving one company record. The KYB workflow can collect declarations, available ownership information and supporting documents, but the evidence needed depends on the entity type, ownership chain and your documented threshold or control test.
- Collect direct and indirect ownership information and identify the natural persons who may ultimately own or control the customer under your applicable process.
- Follow intermediate entities far enough to understand the relevant chain, requesting corporate charts, registers, trust documents or attestations when appropriate.
- Document control exercised through voting rights, appointments or other means when ownership percentage alone does not explain who controls the entity.
- Do not assume that available registry data provides complete or current beneficial-owner information for every entity or jurisdiction; unresolved cases require review.
04
Related-person KYC and AML screening
KYB verifies the organisation, while KYC verifies individuals. Once your process establishes which representatives, owners or controllers are relevant, those people can move through the appropriate individual verification and screening workflow.
- Use the KYC check to verify an individual’s identity; it is a distinct check even when launched from the same business onboarding case.
- Use the KYC and AML check where PEP and sanctions screening is also in scope for a related person.
- Route potential screening matches for human assessment using identifiers and context; a similar name alone does not establish that the person is listed.
- Keep the entity outcome and each related-person outcome linked so the reviewer can see which people were checked and why.
05
What the KYB evidence should show
A useful outcome is not merely a pass or fail badge. It should give the authorised reviewer enough context to understand the customer, the sources and checks completed, and any information that remains unresolved.
- Retain the customer’s declared entity details and the corresponding registry fields or documents used for comparison.
- Show the officeholders, representative, declared authority and ownership or control information that fell within the agreed scope.
- Record which related people completed KYC or AML screening and distinguish clear results, possible matches, discrepancies and incomplete checks.
- Preserve dates, consent or authority records, supporting evidence, reviewer notes and the final decision according to your recordkeeping policy.
06
Complex entities and manual review
Trusts, partnerships, associations, foreign entities and layered corporate groups often cannot be understood from a standard Australian company record. These cases need a clear escalation path instead of an unsupported automated answer.
- A trust may require a trust deed or extract, trustee details and information about relevant settlors, appointors, beneficiaries or controllers under your procedure.
- A foreign entity may require an official registry extract, constitutional documents, certified translations or evidence from another reliable source.
- A layered group may require an ownership chart and evidence for intermediate entities before the relevant natural persons can be identified.
- Manual review should document what could not be confirmed, what additional evidence was considered and why the customer was accepted, escalated or declined.
07
KYB, KYC and ongoing due diligence are different controls
KYB answers questions about the business; KYC answers questions about an individual. Neither term describes an entire AML/CTF program, and a point-in-time onboarding check does not monitor future changes by itself.
- KYB establishes and documents entity, authority, ownership and control information within the agreed business-verification scope.
- KYC verifies the identity of a representative, owner, controller or other natural person selected by your procedure.
- AML screening can add PEP and sanctions information for relevant people, but potential matches still require assessment and decision-making.
- Periodic or event-driven review may be needed when registry status, ownership, control, risk or the nature of the relationship changes.
Related guidance
Compare checks and source guidance
KYC identity check
verify an individual’s identity when business onboarding requires a related-person check.
KYC and AML checkadd PEP and sanctions screening to an individual identity workflow.
AuthNTick check cataloguecompare KYB, KYC and other available verification and screening services.
Request a business verification quotediscuss your customer types, risk settings and expected KYB volumes with AuthNTick.
AUSTRAC guidance for companies and partnershipsreview entity, representative, authority and beneficial-owner CDD considerations.
AUSTRAC ownership and control guidanceunderstand why layered and complex structures can require additional evidence.
KYB Check questions, answered.
What is a KYB check in Australia?
A Know Your Business, or KYB, check verifies an organisation rather than an individual. Its scope can include the legal entity name, ABN or ACN, registration status, officeholders, representatives and available ownership or control information.
What is the difference between KYC and KYB?
KYC focuses on verifying an individual. KYB focuses on verifying a business and understanding the people who represent, own or control it. A KYB workflow may therefore trigger separate KYC and AML screening for relevant individuals.
What information should a business provide for a KYB check?
The starting information typically includes the legal entity name, ABN or ACN, entity type, registered address, business activity, representative and purpose of the relationship. Ownership, control and authority documents may also be needed depending on the structure and agreed scope.
Does a KYB check identify every beneficial owner automatically?
Not necessarily. Available records may support ownership enquiries, but trusts, foreign entities and layered or complex structures can require declarations, corporate documents and manual review. The required scope also depends on the customer and your risk-based obligations.
Does the KYB check include AML screening?
KYB can form part of a broader customer due-diligence workflow that includes KYC, PEP and sanctions screening for relevant people. The exact checks should be agreed for your use case and clearly distinguished from the entity verification itself.
How are trusts, foreign entities or layered companies handled?
These structures may need manual review and additional evidence, such as trust documents, ownership charts, foreign registry extracts, constitutional records or translations. Requirements depend on the structure, available sources and your risk-based process.
What should a KYB result or evidence pack contain?
The output should show the declared business details, sources or documents reviewed, available entity and officeholder information, authority and ownership information in scope, related-person checks completed, dates, discrepancies and unresolved items for an authorised reviewer.
Is one KYB check enough for AML/CTF compliance?
No single check guarantees compliance. A reporting entity may also need a documented AML/CTF program, customer risk assessment, ongoing customer due diligence, transaction monitoring, recordkeeping and reporting controls appropriate to its obligations.
Know Your Business verification
Create a clearer business onboarding evidence trail.
Tell us about your customer types, entity structures and review process, and our team will help scope the right KYB workflow.