Ondato, a London-headquartered technology company that streamlines Know Your Customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) processes, has launched an expanded Know Your Business (KYB) solution to give local and international organisations operating in Poland automated tools for fully compliant business customer onboarding.
The extended coverage provides complete data about Polish entities, including the latest sanctions lists. It enables online banks, Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs), credit institutions, cryptocurrency marketplaces, gambling services companies, legal and audit advisors, and more to verify the legal status and compliance of customers in Poland, in accordance with the new Polish sanctions regime and the European Union's 5th AML Directive (5AMLD).
Unlike KYC, which addresses consumer onboarding, KYB processes analyse business customers' data and information to prevent sanctions breaking, fraud, money laundering, and terrorist financing. They make it harder for sanctions-listed entities and criminals to disguise illegitimately obtained funds as income by showing companies' relationships with any other businesses or institutions. KYB procedures include ultimate beneficial ownership (UBO) as a transparency mechanism, revealing who is directly benefiting from the business’ profits.
KYB is essential to comply with the EU’s 5AMLD, introduced in 2020, and brings greater transparency to the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing. In addition, Poland’s parliament passed its first sanctions regime in 2022, including many entities related to the ongoing war in Ukraine and covering payment operators, notaries, auction houses, and antique dealers, among others. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration in Poland added that the list will be expanded in the future. The penalty for non-compliance is a fine of over €4 million.
Liudas Kanapienis, CEO and co-founder of Ondato, says: “Ondato has moved to ensure local and international companies have the latest data about compliance-risk entities in Poland. We have enabled the safe automation of customer onboarding processes, removing the burden of manual KYB verification. Ondato’s automated KYB verification puts our customers in the fast-lane, where they can overtake long and difficult onboarding processes, ensure accurate and reliable verification, and focus on their core business activities."
The Ondato KYB solution offers global AML insights, incorporating reports, financial statements, and credit scores from 195 different countries. It identifies all risks associated with business relationships, including due diligence, UBO establishment, PEP screening, sanctions screening, and adverse media screening, among other features. It aims to identify all risks associated with a company's business relationships and to establish UBO to assess the level of risk. Organisations can perform enhanced due diligence before proceeding with business relationships or implementing ongoing monitoring if UBO poses a greater level of risk.
