KYB stands for Know Your Business and means reviewing a company with which one enters a business relationship. Where KYC asks about the identity of a natural person, KYB asks about the company — and ultimately about the people behind it. For family offices, trustees and asset managers KYB is the norm, because their counterparties are often companies, foundations or trusts.
What is reviewed
First, the company’s existence and identity: name, legal form, seat and registration number, evidenced by a current commercial register extract or equivalent. Second, representation: governing bodies and authorised signatories, and whether the person acting is actually authorised. Third, business activity: what the company does, in which countries, for what purpose. Fourth, the ownership and control structure down to the natural persons, i.e. the controlling person or beneficial owner.
The chain to the human being
The fourth question is the demanding one. If one company belongs to another company that in turn belongs to a foundation, the first register extract achieves little. KYB is complete only when every level is documented and every controlling natural person identified. Each of those persons then goes through KYC, including sanctions screening and PEP checks.
The transparency register as a source
Since 1 October 2026, financial intermediaries and advisers can consult the Swiss transparency register within their anti-money laundering duties. For Swiss companies it is a valuable reference. But it remains one source among several: one’s own determination remains mandatory, and discrepancies between the register and one’s own findings must be resolved, not ignored.
Typical gaps
Register extracts obtained at onboarding and never renewed. Signing authorities not updated after a board change. Foreign intermediate companies with an incorporation document on file but no current evidence of their owners. And a description of the business activity in a single sentence that would fit any company.
KYB as an ongoing task
Companies change more often than people: capital increases, share sales, relocations, name changes. KYB is therefore not an entry check but part of the periodic review, with triggers that start an extraordinary review as soon as something changes in control.