KYC and KYB - What are the Requirements?

DOCUMENTS REQUIRED

INFORMATION REQUIRED

Company’s registry extract (entity’s registration/creation document)

It’s the local registry for companies. This document is the current company’s “identity card” in which the situation of the business is mentioned (active/closed situation).

This document must not be older than 3 months.

It must contain: 

• legal name
• full registered address
• registration number
• date of incorporation
• description of activity/object of the company
• legal representative's information: full name, date & place of birth, residential address (at least the country of residence), nationality

If applicable:

• brand/trading names
• VAT number
• list of UBOs (applicable in some countries only, otherwise it will be a separate document)

Articles of association

It’s the constitution document of the company showing the rules by which the company goes by.

This document is not limited on time, which means that the latest version of the document is requested. As it is something written at the creation of the company, it will probably have important changes, improvements on company's rules of functioning through the years, and usually it is registered after internal decisions and materialised by the up to date version of it

Some examples of changes: legal name, address, object, type of shares, board of management/shareholders roles and responsibilities, etc.

This document must mention information on: 

• the company itself such as the legal name, legal form, registration address, activity 
• and its internal operating rules such as, but no exhaustive, the process for appointing legal representatives and shareholders, and when applicable their percentage of share capital or voting rights

Legal representative proof of authority

It’s the document showing the authority of an individual to represent the company.

Usually, the legal representative is listed in the company's registry extract. If it is not the case, a power of attorney/delegation of powers has to be obtained.

Power of attorney/Delegation of powers: 

• the person giving the authority/powers must be entitled to do so, meaning that this individual should be listed in company's registry as legal representative himself 

Ultimate Beneficial Owners

It’s the document showing the ownership of the company up to the Ultimate Beneficial Owners (UBO)

An article dedicated to the identification of UBOs is available here.

For European countries, a UBO registry is in place and the latest extract is to be obtained.

For non-European countries, an extract of the equivalent UBO registry is to be obtained if it exists. For any country where there is no equivalent to the UBO registry, several options are available:

• any document showing the share capital details up to the UBOs, such as an organisation chart including all companies of the shareholder (document to be dated not older than 1 year and signed by the legal representative of the company to whom the name should be stamped/stated)
• or the latest available Articles of association. For this purpose, the document will only be accepted if not older than one year. If older than one year, the Articles of association ae still a required document but it will not be used to verify ownership of the company
• Or the latest annual accounts, applicable for some countries (latest fiscal year available and not older)

Additional information will be required for multilayered shareholding structures. When a company is owned by one or several other companies, the organizational chart with the names and registration numbers of the companies as well as the percentage of ownership will be mandatory to fully understand the structure and identify the companies involved. This chart must be dated and signed by the legal representative. This is valid for all countries with or without UBO registry available.

For companies ultimately owned by a listed company, it will be required to show the full shareholding structure and add the proof of listing to the related stock market for the listed entity:

• Local UBO registry could be used to establish the link with the parent listed company as a subsidiary of a listed company remains a private limited company or similar
• UBO verification might be waived if there is no other shareholder owning or controlling more than 25% of shares

The following information must be stated regarding the UBOs: 

• full name
• date & place of birth (at least the country)
• country of residence 
• nationality

This document is necessary to understand the capital breakdown of companies, in particular to identify the UBOs in countries where there is no UBO declaration, but also to check that no natural or legal person in the shareholder chain presents an AML/FT risk, or to verify that the information declared to the UBO registry are correct.

This document is mandatory:

• in the case of multi-level shareholding so when a company is owned by one or several other companies
• when the documents provided do not cover 100% of the shareholding breakdown, or when we note that there are indirect shareholdings (meaning that other companies are involved in the shareholding chain),

When a shareholding structure is required, the document must mention:

• the names and registration numbers of the companies as well as their percentage of ownership
• the first and last name of the individuals, as well as their percentage of ownership
• and it must be dated and signed by the legal representative

This is valid for all countries with or without UBO registry available.

Identification documents collection

It must be a Government issued identification document with a photo. All identification documents must be written in latin alphabet, if it is not the case a certified translation will be required.

Only the following documents are accepted:

• valid National Identity card
• valid passport
• valid biometric driving licence will be accepted as single form of ID as long as it is the recent version where a MRZ code is present to allow security checks to be performed
• valid resident permits will be accepted only if issued by a European Country

Legal representatives and UBOs are subject to identification document collection.

Additional requirement: in case of power of attorney/delegation of powers, both individuals must provide an ID copy (the person giving the authority and the one receiving it).

Additional documents

Lemonway reserves the right to request any other document or additional information, to allow it to carry out the appropriate verifications in accordance with its legal obligations.

DOCUMENTS REQUIRED

INFORMATION REQUIRED

Company’s registry extract (entity’s registration/creation document)

It’s the local registry for companies. This document is the current company’s “identity card” in which the situation of the business is mentioned (active/closed situation).

This document must not be older than 3 months.

It must contain: 

• legal name
• full registered address
• registration number
• date of incorporation
• description of activity/object of the company
• legal representative's information: full name, date & place of birth, residential address (at least the country of residence), nationality

If applicable:

• brand/trading names
• VAT number
• list of UBOs (applicable in some countries only, otherwise it will be a separate document)

Legal representative proof of authority

It’s the document showing the authority of an individual to represent the company.

Usually, the legal representative is listed in the company's registry extract. If it is not the case, a power of attorney/delegation of powers has to be obtained.

Power of attorney/Delegation of powers: 

• the person giving the authority/powers must be entitled to do so, meaning that this individual should be listed in company's registry as legal representative himself 

Ownership structure & Ultimate Beneficial Owners

Proof of the listing to the related stock market (this could be the page of the stock market showing the company details)

If the company’s shares are not at least 76% public, all shareholders owning or controlling more than 25% of the shares will fall into Ultimate Beneficial Owner verification requirements

Identification documents collection

It must be a Government issued identification document with a photo. All identification documents must be written in latin alphabet, if it is not the case a certified translation will be required.

Only the following documents are accepted:

• valid National Identity card
• valid passport
• valid biometric driving licence will be accepted as single form of ID as long as it is the recent version where a MRZ code is present to allow security checks to be performed
• valid resident permits will be accepted only if issued by a European Country

Only legal representatives are subject to identification document collection.

Additional requirement: in case of power of attorney/delegation of powers, both individuals must provide an ID copy (the person giving the authority and the one receiving it).

Additional documents

Lemonway reserves the right to request any other document or additional information, to allow it to carry out the appropriate verifications in accordance with its legal obligations.

DOCUMENTS REQUIRED

INFORMATION REQUIRED

Entity’s registry extract (entity’s registration/creation document)

This document can be: 

• the proof of creation of the entity: document usually stating the entity details, the creation date and object of the entity
• or the local registry extract when the registration is required as per country regulation: 
• this document is the current entity’s “identity card” in which the situation of the entity is mentioned (active/closed situation)
• if there is a registry extract, the document must not be older than 3 months.

It must contain: 

• entity name
• full registered address
• registration number (if applicable to the country)
• date of creation
• description of activity/object of the entity

If applicable:

• trading names
• VAT number

Articles of association

It’s the constitution document of the entity showing the rules by which the entity goes by.

This document is not limited on time, which means that the latest version of the document is requested. Most of these entity types require at least one annual meeting that might lead to an updated version of the articles of association.

Some examples of changes: entity name, address, object, board of management, roles and responsibilities, etc.

This document must mention information on: 

• the entity itself such as the legal name, registration address, object
• and its internal operating rules such as, but no exhaustive, the process for appointing management board members*, function and powers of the management board
• How the entity is funded

*Appointment/removal/changes on board of management members:

• This is usually updated according to the entity needs or as established in Articles of association. This is documented via a board of management meeting where the minutes are registered and certificated to reflect the new list of members such as president, vice-president, treasurer and general secretary
• The lastest board management meeting minutes with the up to date list of members will be required in complement of Articles of association (if one is available)
• Note: if the up to date list of board of management members is not included in the latest Articles of association and there is no board minutes available, this list must be provided dated and signed by the latest legal representative appointed that can be verified through related documentation

Legal representative proof of authority

It’s the document showing the authority of an individual to represent the entity. This document can be:

• the latest Articles of association
• or the up to date board management members list (it might be available in a board management minutes)

The document must specify:

• full name of the individual(s)
• the function of the individual(s). This information will be cross checked with Articles of association to make sure the individual's function allows to bind the entity (this would be the case when the applicant is not the president and the other functions have limited authority of representation stated in Articles of association)

The following information regarding the legal representative will be collected in addition: 

• date & place of birth
• residential address (at least the country of residence should be stated)
• nationality

Ownership structure & Ultimate Beneficial Owners

These types of entities structure and object usually don’t have any beneficial owners and board members will be flagged and treated as such (screening purposes, ID collection/verification, etc).

Very few types of association might have beneficial owners (the ones generating profits for instance.). In these cases, this will be mentioned in Articles of association and easily identified and these individuals will be treated as such alongside with management board members.

Identification documents collection

It must be a Government issued identification document with a photo. All identification documents must be written in latin alphabet, if it is not the case a certified translation will be required.

Only the following documents are accepted:

• valid National Identity card
• valid passport
• valid biometric driving licence will be accepted as single form of ID as long as it is the recent version where a MRZ code is present to allow security checks to be performed
• valid resident permits will be accepted only if issued by a European Country

Only legal representatives are subject to identification document collection.

Additional requirement: other management board members might be object of ID collection and verification on a case by case basis

Additional documents

Lemonway reserves the right to request any other document or additional information, to allow it to carry out the appropriate verifications in accordance with its legal obligations.

DOCUMENTS REQUIRED

INFORMATION REQUIRED

Company’s registry extract (entity’s registration/creation document)

It’s the local registry for sole traders if the country requires a registration. This document describes that the individual has a professional activity as a sole-trader. The name of this document depends on each country.

This document must not be older than 3 months (where applicable).

It must contain: 

• individual’s name
• date & place of birth
• residential address
• nationality
• registration number

If applicable:

• brand/trading names
• VAT number

Identification documents collection

It must be a Government issued identification document with a photo. All identification documents must be written in latin alphabet, if it is not the case a certified translation will be required.

Only the following documents are accepted:

• valid National Identity card
• valid passport
• valid biometric driving licence will be accepted as single form of ID as long as it is the recent version where a MRZ code is present to allow security checks to be performed
• valid resident permits will be accepted only if issued by a European Country

Only the sole-trader itself is subject to identification document collection.

Additional documents

Lemonway reserves the right to request any other document or additional information, to allow it to carry out the appropriate verifications in accordance with its legal obligations.

DOCUMENTS REQUIRED

INFORMATION REQUIRED

It must be a Government issued identification document with a photo. All identification documents must be written in latin alphabet, if it is not the case a certified translation will be required.

Only the following documents are accepted:

• valid National Identity card
• valid passport
• valid biometric driving licence will be accepted as long as it is the recent version where a MRZ code is present to allow security checks to be performed
• valid resident permits will be accepted only if issued by a European Country

Second identification document

It must be a Government issued identification document with a photo. All identification documents must be written in latin alphabet, if it is not the case a certified translation will be required.

Only the following documents are accepted:

• valid National Identity card
• valid passport
• valid driving licence (biometric or not)
• valid resident permits will be accepted only if issued by a European Country
• extract of the family record book

Additional documents

Lemonway reserves the right to request any other document or additional information, to allow it to carry out the appropriate verifications in accordance with its legal obligations.