Identity Verification, KYC and AML Compliance in Belgium

As a European Union member, Belgium has strict regulations around Know Your Customer (KYC), Anti-Money Laundering (AML), data privacy, identity verification and digital services.

Sophisticated partners with expertise in the market and state-of-the-art technology can help organizations accelerate customer verification while ensuring compliance and strong match rate performance.

Examples of AML and KYC Compliance in Belgium

The Law of 18 September 2017 covers AML and KYC requirements. The act requires that obliged organizations implement customer due diligence, including identity verification, to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.

Belgium regulations outline a risk-based approach to AML and KYC, but there is no exemption from the identification and identity verification obligations.

The KYC regulations include requirements for collecting information from people and verifying that data against supporting documents or reliable sources that enable it to be confirmed through electronic means.

The regulations allow for remote onboarding and the use of electronic identification. But they flag remote onboarding as an indicator of potential higher risk and a prompt for extra due diligence.

A Snapshot of Identity Verification in Belgium

Identity verification in Belgium can be complex. Name and address searches can be challenging because of language variety. That often creates the need for multiple data sources.

Still, the standard identity verification data attributes are name, address, birthdate and phone number. Passports, driver’s licenses and national identity cards are eligible for identity document verification.

The country also allows digital ID verification with information from the National Register of Belgium. An estimated 80% of Belgians between 16 and 74 have an itsme account. People use digital IDs for verification when logging on to websites and apps, confirming digital transactions and signing documents.

Brief Overview of Business Verification in Belgium

Belgium’s legal business structures include sole proprietors, limited and unlimited liability companies, partnerships, cooperatives and foreign entities. All organizations must register with the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises and value-added tax (VAT) authorities.

The bank then issues a 10-digit company registration number (CRN). The tax authorities issue a 10-digit VAT number preceded by the country code.

Companies also must provide their ultimate beneficial owner (UBO) information to the Federal Public Service Finance.

When organizations verify businesses in Belgium, CRN and VAT numbers, as well as the registered entity name, can deliver optimal results. Identity verification can be an efficient way to verify sole proprietorships.

Streamlined Verification in Belgium

Organizations face a complex regulatory and verification landscape for people and businesses in Belgium. Trulioo can help accelerate the process with a broad mix of global and local data sources and market expertise.

Trulioo applies that expertise at every verification step and continually calibrates data match precision to deliver superior onboarding performance. That commitment to optimization helped one of the world’s largest marketplaces increase its verification match rates by 4% in Belgium.

When organizations blend that data source coverage and expertise with services such as watchlist screening, adverse media checks and electronic identification for people with digital IDs, they create a holistic onboarding strategy that can lead to industry-leading verification rates in Belgium.

The challenges multiply when organizations verify businesses in the country. But when they access a vast data source network and cutting-edge technology, they can accelerate due diligence – from verifying sole proprietorships to unraveling complex UBO structures – on any company operating in the region.

A full suite of in-house verification capabilities, paired with data science and market expertise, can give organizations the insight and flexibility they need to overcome any onboarding challenge in Belgium.