Business KYB Overview

Requirements and steps to onboard a business customer and its UBOs so they can transfer.

Introduction

KYB (Know Your Business) is a legal identity and compliance verification process required before a business customer can send or receive funds through SpherePay. It is mandated by anti-money laundering (AML) and regulatory requirements and must be completed once per business.

Requirements vary by onboarding model

Which compliance steps your integration must perform depends on your onboarding model. The table below is filterable by model. See the Onboarding Guide for a full comparison and prerequisites.

SpherePay requires the following information to verify a business customer's identity:

Model

Field	Source	Notes
Legal name, trade name & business description	API	`businessInformation.legalName`, `tradeName`, and `description` in the customer creation request
Entity type & NAICS industry code	API	`businessInformation.entityType` and `naicsCode` in the customer creation request
Website & incorporation date	API	`businessInformation.website` and `incorporatedOn` in the customer creation request
Physical & mailing address	API	`addresses` array in the customer creation request — both `physical` and `mailing` address types required
Business identification number	API	`businessInformation.identificationNumber` in the customer creation request — accepted types vary by country, see Business Identification Types by Country
Estimated annual revenue & expected monthly payments	API	`businessInformation.estimatedAnnualRevenueInUsd` and `expectedMonthlyPaymentsInUsd` in the customer creation request
Account purpose & source of funds	API	`businessInformation.accountPurpose` and `primarySourceOfFunds` in the customer creation request
Regulated activities & compliance details	API	`businessInformation.regulatedActivities` and related compliance fields in the customer creation request
Incorporation certificate	Document	Uploaded via the document upload endpoint — see Business Document Guideline for accepted formats
Shareholder registry	Document	Uploaded via the document upload endpoint — see Business Document Guideline for accepted formats
Proof of business address	Document	Uploaded via the document upload endpoint — see Business Document Guideline for accepted formats
UBO name, residential address & date of birth	API	Provided in the business representative registration request
UBO tax identification number	API	`personalInformation.taxIdentificationNumber` in the business representative registration request — accepted types vary by country, see Tax ID Numbers by Country
UBO ownership percentage & role	API	`representationDetails.ownershipPercentage` and `roles` in the business representative registration request
UBO government-issued identity document	Document	Uploaded via the document upload endpoint with `target: "business-representative"` — see Document Guideline for accepted formats

Additional documentation may be required

In certain circumstances, SpherePay may request additional documentation beyond the standard fields listed above. This typically applies to businesses in regulated or high-risk industries, those with complex ownership structures, or those operating in higher-risk jurisdictions. If triggered, SpherePay will contact you directly to clarify what is needed.

KYB Flowchart

The only step that differs between models is TOS & MSA Acceptance, which is required in Sphere-Managed and handled upstream in Platform-Managed. All other steps are shared.

User / Customer Merchant / Integrator SpherePay

Choose an onboarding method

SpherePay supports two integration approaches for business KYB. The API path has separate guides for each onboarding model.

KYB via API — Sphere-Managed

Default model. Sphere handles TOS/MSA and UBO face liveness via hosted links.

KYB via API — Platform-Managed

Opt-in model. Upload liveness report documents for each UBO. No hosted redirects required.

KYB via Link (hosted)

Use this when you want the fastest integration with SpherePay's hosted onboarding experience.

Supporting Guidelines

On the process of onboarding a business customer, SpherePay requires the business's identification number and supporting documents. For accepted business identification types by country, see Business Identification Types by Country. For the complete list of acceptable documents for both the business entity and its UBOs, see Business Document Guideline.

Readiness Checklist

A business customer is ready to transfer when at least one verification profile in the Get Customer response reaches status: "approved". Different verification profiles unlock different transfer capabilities — see the Verification Profile reference for a full breakdown of what each profile requires.