GUÉP
KYC · Know Your Customer

Say yes to more customers — without saying yes to fraud.

Kavuka KYC automates identification, document validation, biometrics, PEP and sanctions screening and risk classification — the full pipeline required by Brazilian financial regulation, in a single platform.

Seconds
per validation
100%
of records screened
National + global
watchlist coverage
AML/CFT
end-to-end compliance

Pipeline in production validating records for financial institutions, fintechs and marketplaces — thousands of checks per day, with full audit trail.

Every day your company approves customers without knowing the real risk it is taking on.

Sanctions and liability

An outdated KYC manual and sample-based screening leave directors personally exposed before regulators.

Onboarding queue

Manual review stalls the sign-up, the customer loses patience and opens an account with the competitor who approves in minutes.

Fraud walks in the front door

Synthetic identity and third-party documents turn into default, chargeback and direct loss — after the record is approved.

Cost Brazil lost roughly R$ 297 billion to fraud in a single year (GASA, 2024), with over 11.5 million identity-fraud attempts. How much of that walked through an unverified sign-up?

How it works

From document to decision, in one pipeline.

  1. 01

    Capture

    Document and selfie in your flow, via SDK/API, or in batch by spreadsheet for existing portfolios.

  2. 02

    Validate

    Document OCR, Face Match, liveness proof and real-time CPF/CNPJ checks against the federal registry.

  3. 03

    Classify

    Screening against restrictive and sanctions lists + a risk score with automatic approval by policy.

  4. 04

    Monitor

    Continuous profile re-evaluation, status-change alerts and a full audit trail of the whole cycle.

Coverage

The engine behind every decision

A single query cross-references dozens of public and private sources and returns a structured result, ready to automate approval.

Registry validation

Federal registry in real time

Facial biometrics

Face Match with liveness proof

PEP and sanctions

OFAC, UN, CEIS, CNEP

Lawsuits

Civil, criminal and labor spheres

Financial restrictions

Protests, debts and credit flags

Adverse media

News and digital reputation

Ultimate beneficial owner

Ownership structure and ties

Decision engine

Configurable policies and score

Segments

Who decides with Kavuka KYC

Regulated

Banks & Fintechs

Account and digital-wallet opening under Brazilian banking regulation, with a risk-based approach.

Regulated

Capital markets & Insurance

Investor onboarding under capital-markets rules and fraud prevention in policy issuance.

Anti-fraud

Marketplaces & E-commerce

Buyer and seller onboarding; a barrier to fake accounts, scams and chargeback.

Regulatory pressure

Crypto & Betting

Mandatory KYC in the relationship, with growing licensing and oversight.

Legal shield

The pipeline your AML/CFT manual requires

Kavuka KYC was designed for the risk-based approach of Brazilian regulation and handled for data-protection law from the very first record. Compliance is not a report at the end — it is how the pipeline operates.

  • Adequate legal bases: legal obligation in regulated sectors; legitimate interest and pre-contractual procedures elsewhere.
  • Evidence retention for at least 10 years, per regulation.
  • Data Processing Agreement available for enterprise clients.
  • Per-record audit trail: every decision with rationale, source and date.
  • Public or legally permitted sources; encryption in transit and at rest.
Already operating this way
Approval that took 2 days dropped to under 1 minute; onboarding conversion rose double digits.
Head of Product · credit fintech
The last audit found a complete trail for 100% of records. Zero findings.
Compliance Director · payment institution
We stopped choosing between growth and protection. Good customers get in fast; the suspect ones go to review automatically.
Risk Director · payments company

Ready to approve more customers with less risk?

In 15 minutes you see the full pipeline running on your scenario, with your volume.

  • For businesses only. No purchase commitment.
  • Data used solely for commercial contact.
  • Enterprise leads answered within 1 business day.

In 15 minutes you see the platform in action and get a proposal for your volume.

What KYC is and how to automate it

KYC (Know Your Customer) is the process of identifying, validating, qualifying and classifying the risk of an individual or company before and during the business relationship. It answers three questions: is this customer who they claim to be? What relationship do they intend to have? What level of risk do they pose — fraud, default, money laundering or reputational damage?

In Brazil, KYC is not just best practice. Law 9,613/1998 made customer identification and record-keeping mandatory. Central Bank Circular 3,978/2020 modernized the regime: it replaced the checklist model with a risk-based approach, requiring a specific KYC manual, cross-checking data against public bases, identifying the ultimate beneficial owner and Politically Exposed Persons (PEP), and retaining information for at least 10 years. In capital markets, CVM Resolution 50/2021 imposes equivalent duties.

Automating KYC means turning that pipeline into a single flow: document and selfie capture, OCR and Face Match validation, liveness, real-time registry checks, PEP and sanctions screening, a risk score and continuous monitoring. The manual defines the policy; the platform executes it, records the evidence and frees analysts to handle only exceptions.

KYC and data-protection law are not opposites: processing relies on adequate legal bases — legal obligation in regulated sectors, legitimate interest and pre-contractual procedures elsewhere — uses public or legally permitted sources and keeps an audit trail. The result is an operation that says yes to more customers, faster, with less risk: accelerated approval for the good ones, an automatic barrier for the bad ones and documented evidence for the regulator.

FAQ
What is KYC and why does my company need it?

KYC (Know Your Customer) is the process of identifying, validating and classifying customer risk before and during the relationship. For financial and regulated institutions it is a legal obligation; for everyone else, it is the central defense against identity fraud and default.

Is KYC mandatory in Brazil?

In regulated sectors — financial, payments, insurance, capital markets, crypto and licensed betting — yes: AML/CFT rules require customer identification, qualification and classification, with a risk-based approach and evidence retention for at least 10 years.

Does KYC slow down customer sign-up?

When manual, yes — and that is the problem. Automated, KYC validates document, biometrics and public sources in seconds, automatically approving low-risk profiles. The typical result is higher onboarding conversion, not friction.

Is KYC just validating a tax ID?

No. Registry validation is just the first layer. The full process involves document and biometrics with liveness, ultimate beneficial owner, PEP and sanctions screening, lawsuits, adverse media and continuous monitoring of the risk profile.

Is Kavuka KYC compliant with data-protection law?

Yes. Processing relies on adequate legal bases (legal obligation in regulated sectors; legitimate interest and pre-contractual procedures elsewhere), uses public or legally permitted sources and keeps an audit trail. DPA available for enterprise clients.

How does KYC integrate with my current onboarding?

Via a documented REST API and capture SDKs for web and mobile, or in batch by spreadsheet for existing portfolios. Typical implementation takes a few days, with dedicated Customer Success.

What is the difference between KYC and Background Check?

KYC is the continuous pipeline for onboarding and maintaining customers (identity + risk + AML/CFT compliance). Background Check is the structured investigation of records, also used for employees, contractors and suppliers. The two complement each other on the Kavuka platform.

Let's talk

Your next high-impact decision starts with the right data.

Talk to a GUÉP specialist and find where applied intelligence creates the most value in your operation.