Identity Verification, KYC and AML Compliance in Spain

As a European Union member, Spain has strict regulations around Know Your Customer (KYC), Anti-Money Laundering (AML), 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 KYC and AML Compliance in Spain

The Spanish Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act covers AML and KYC requirements. The act requires that obliged entities implement customer due diligence procedures, including identity verification, to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing.

Sepblac, Spain’s financial intelligence unit, requires that regulated entities identify and verify, through reliable documents, the identities of people establishing business relationships or transactions that are equal to or greater than 1,000 euros, according to the unofficially translated guidance.

Reliable documents include a national identity card. Sepblac also has approved remote procedures for identity verification.

A Snapshot of Identity Verification in Spain

The Spanish government issues a national ID, also called a Documento Nacional de Identidad, to all Spanish citizens. 

Optimal verification in Spain often relies on organizations collecting first and second names as well as national ID numbers.

Identity document verification is acceptable in Spain. Those documents include driver’s licenses, passports, national IDs and residence permits.

The Spanish government also has implemented the Cl@ve digital ID solution, which allows users to authenticate themselves and access government services. Cl@ve aligns with EU eIDAS requirements. 

Business Verification Insights in Spain

In Spain, companies must register with the corporate registry and Spanish tax office.

Spain’s tax authorities issue a nine-digit VAT number to identify registered companies. It includes information such as nationality, province and provincial registration.

Many companies in Spain also must annually provide ultimate beneficial owner (UBO) information to an official register. UBOs are defined as people who directly or indirectly own or control more than 25% of a company’s shares or voting rights or who control the entity through other means.

Optimal business verification in Spain often requires VAT numbers and registered company names. Identity verification can provide a more efficient path for verifying sole proprietorships.

Trulioo in Spain

Organizations face a complex regulatory and verification landscape for people and businesses in Spain. Trulioo can help organizations accelerate the process because it connects to multiple data sources in Spain and has local expertise and state-of-the-art capabilities to optimize verification performance.

When organizations blend that data source coverage with services such as watchlist screening and adverse media checks, they create a holistic onboarding strategy that can lead to industry-leading verification rates.

The challenges multiply when organizations verify businesses in the country. But when they access a vast data source network, market expertise 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 the precision of data science, can give organizations the insight and flexibility they need to overcome any onboarding challenge in Spain.