What know your customer standards require
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Know your customer standards require regulated businesses, particularly banks, to verify the identity of the people and entities they deal with before opening an account or processing a significant transaction. The goal is to prevent anonymous or falsely identified individuals from using the financial system to move corrupt or otherwise illicit funds.
Verification typically involves confirming identity documents, understanding the source of funds involved, and assessing the level of risk a particular customer or transaction genuinely presents. Higher risk customers, such as politically exposed persons holding significant public office, usually require enhanced checks well beyond the standard process applied to an ordinary retail customer.
These standards work best when applied consistently rather than selectively, since a gap in verification for even one category of customer can become the exact route a determined bad actor uses to move funds through an otherwise well protected financial system. Consistency, more than intensity, is often what makes the standard genuinely effective.