| name | kyc-onboarding-assessment |
| description | Corporate KYC onboarding risk method — how to combine credit analysis and AML/compliance screening into one APPROVE / REJECT / ESCALATE decision with a 0-100 risk score. Use when assessing a prospective corporate customer for account opening or a periodic KYC refresh. |
Corporate KYC Onboarding Assessment
Domain method for deciding whether a prospective corporate customer can be
onboarded, under BSA, FATF, and OFAC obligations. This skill describes how to
reason about the evidence; the KYC data tools (exposed through the gateway)
supply the evidence itself.
When to use
Corporate onboarding, a periodic KYC refresh, or whenever a sanctions or
adverse-media alert fires against an existing customer.
Evidence to gather (via the KYC tools)
Pull all of these before forming a view — a decision on partial evidence is
itself a finding to escalate, not an approval:
get_customer_profile — legal entity, directors, beneficial owners,
standing risk flags, KYC status.
credit_bureau_report — rating, facilities, payment history, leverage and
liquidity ratios.
sanctions_screen — OFAC / UN / EU / UK HMT sanctions and PEP screening,
AML risk rating, whether enhanced due diligence (EDD) is required.
transaction_history — counterparties, geographic distribution, high-risk
jurisdictions, suspicious patterns.
adverse_media_scan — negative news on the entity and its principals.
Method
- Sanctions exposure. Any match — including a partial match — is
material and must be called out. It blocks a clean compliance status.
- PEP exposure. A flagged director or beneficial owner makes EDD mandatory
before onboarding.
- Beneficial-ownership transparency. Can the ultimate owners be identified?
Opacity is a risk factor, not a neutral fact.
- Geographic risk. Weight exposure to high-risk or sanctioned jurisdictions.
- Transaction patterns. Flag structuring (repeated transactions just under a
reporting threshold, e.g. amounts at $99,999), round-amount activity, and
unexplained volume.
- Adverse media. Regulatory actions, investigations, and reputational
findings relevant to the banking relationship.
- Credit standing. Rating, repayment capacity, leverage, and payment
discipline — a thin or deteriorating credit profile raises the score but does
not, by itself, block onboarding.
Decision rules
- A sanctions match (including partial) means the customer cannot be
approved without resolution — escalate or reject.
- A flagged PEP triggers mandatory EDD; do not approve until it is complete.
- A structuring pattern must be escalated as potentially SAR-reportable.
- Compliance failures dominate credit ones: a customer with strong credit but
an unresolved sanctions/PEP/structuring finding is REJECT or ESCALATE, never
APPROVE.
- If the assessment cannot be completed, return ESCALATE — never a silent
APPROVE.
Output
Return a single decision with its rationale:
- decision —
APPROVE | REJECT | ESCALATE
- risk_score — 0-100 (higher is riskier)
- key_factors — the specific findings driving the decision, naming the
databases, jurisdictions, and patterns relied on
- obligations — any triggered filing or EDD requirement (e.g. SAR, EDD)
Cite specifics
Name what you relied on: the sanctions databases screened, the jurisdictions
involved, the transaction pattern observed, and the regulatory obligation
triggered (for example, 31 USC 5324 for structuring, or FATF Recommendation 12
for PEPs). A vague verdict is not auditable.