KYC Analyst
91% skill overlap
Your role
Corporate Onboarding Analyst (KYC)
Full profileYour role
- L3 salary
- Not published yet
- Upcoming dated changes
- 10 changes ahead
What the role does
A Corporate Onboarding Analyst performs know your customer (KYC) due diligence on companies, funds, trusts and other entities before a financial firm starts doing business with them. The role collects and verifies constitutional documents, maps ownership and control structures to identify ultimate beneficial owners, screens entities and related persons for sanctions, politically exposed persons and adverse media, assesses money laundering risk and prepares the file for approval. It works closely with relationship managers and corporate clients.
Read a day in the life
A day in the life
The analyst starts with a new onboarding request for a holding company that wants a corporate account and trade finance lines. The relationship manager has sent the certificate of incorporation, articles and a group structure chart. The analyst checks each document against the company registry, then maps the ownership through three layers of companies in two countries to find the individuals who own or control more than 25 percent. One intermediate company is held through a trust, so the analyst requests the trust deed and details of settlor and beneficiaries. Late morning goes to screening the entities, directors and owners, and reviewing a press article about one director. After lunch the analyst writes the risk assessment: country exposure, industry, products and the nature of expected transactions, and recommends enhanced due diligence. Mid-afternoon brings a call with the client's finance team to explain which documents are still needed. The day ends with submitting a completed file for a fund client to the approver.
Levels
- L1 Starting out
- L2 Independent
- L3 Senior or specialist
- L4 Leads a team or an area
- L5 Leads the function
Full level descriptions and job titles
The EFO level names are the common scale; job titles differ between employers.
| Level | What the work looks like | Typical years | Typical job titles |
|---|---|---|---|
| L1 Starting out | Completes onboarding files for simpler corporate clients with procedures, collects and checks documents, runs screening and learns ownership analysis and AML rules under quality review. | 0-2 | Banks: Analyst, Junior Analyst, Associate (asset servicing), Trainee, GraduateAsset servicers: Junior, Specialist (entry), Officer |
| L2 Independent | Handles complex entities end to end, including multi-layer ownership, trusts and funds, writes risk assessments for approval and is the main KYC contact for relationship managers. | 2-5 | Banks: Analyst / Senior Analyst, AssociateAsset servicers: Specialist, Senior Specialist, Senior Officer |
| L3 Senior or specialist | Senior analyst or quality reviewer. Reviews high-risk and complex structures, interprets policy for difficult cases, coaches analysts and represents onboarding in projects. | 5-9 | Banks: Senior Associate, AVP, Assistant ManagerAsset servicers: Senior Specialist, Expert, Team Lead (small team) |
| L4 Leads a team or an area | Leads a corporate onboarding team or hub, owns service levels, quality and onboarding times, and is the escalation point for difficult clients, business disputes and audits. | 8-14 | Banks: VP, Manager, Senior ManagerAsset servicers: Team Lead, Manager, Head of Section |
| L5 Leads the function | Head of client onboarding or due diligence for a business line, legal entity or region. Accountable for the onboarding model and standards and reports on risk and client experience. | 12+ | Banks: Director, Executive Director, Managing Director, Head of functionAsset servicers: Head of Department, Director |
Skills
Where the skill weights come from
Each role lists its skills with a tier and a weight. The weights of one role add up to 100 percent.
Source: the EFO role catalogue, built from the ESCO classification and reviewed by the editors.
The percentage is the skill's share of the role; the bars are drawn relative to the anchor skill, which is shown full.
Critical
- Know your customer due diligenceWeight 13.9%Relevant to you
- Anti-money laundering regulationWeight 9.3%Relevant to you
- Sanctions regimes and screeningWeight 9.3%Relevant to you
- Corporate governanceWeight 9.3%Relevant to you
Important and supporting skills 18
Important
- Attention to detailWeight 4.7%Relevant to you
- Investigative reasoning on anomaliesWeight 4.7%Relevant to you
- Professional written communicationWeight 4.7%Relevant to you
- Ticketing platforms (ServiceNow)Weight 4.7%Relevant to you
- Ethical judgment in grey areasWeight 4.7%Relevant to you
- Working to tight deadlinesWeight 4.7%Relevant to you
- Transaction monitoring and reportingWeight 4.7%Relevant to you
- Client service mindsetWeight 4.7%Relevant to you
- Data cleaning and validationWeight 4.7%Relevant to you
Supporting
- Conduct and investor protection rules (MiFID II, FINRA, SEBI)Weight 2.3%Relevant to you
- Querying data with SQLWeight 2.3%Relevant to you
- Integrity and discretionWeight 2.3%Relevant to you
- Risk judgment and escalation instinctWeight 2.3%Relevant to you
- Process mapping and redesignWeight 2.3%Relevant to you
- Organisation and prioritisationWeight 2.3%Relevant to you
Useful
- Visualisation tools (Power BI, Tableau)Weight 0.8%Relevant to you
- Data protection and privacy law (GDPR, CCPA, DPDP)Weight 0.8%Relevant to you
- Stakeholder managementWeight 0.8%Relevant to you
Processes
The work the role takes part in.
What each process covers
- AML transaction monitoringMain
- Client onboarding and KYCMain
- Sanctions screeningMain
Where the role concentrates
How AI is changing the role
Tools now extract data from corporate documents, pull registry and ownership data, build ownership charts and pre-screen entities, so document collection and data entry take less time.
Read the full assessment
Tools now extract data from corporate documents, pull registry and ownership data, build ownership charts and pre-screen entities, so document collection and data entry take less time. The European Banking Authority reports AI use in EU banks for anti-money laundering work with governance expectations. Value grows in understanding complex structures, trusts and funds, assessing who really controls an entity, explaining requirements to clients and checking automated results. Beneficial ownership registers and the new EU AML rulebook, supervised by the Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA), raise the bar for documented decisions.
Dated changes for this role
- EU Digital Identity Wallets: banks must accept themRelevant to you
- Swift defers SR2026 and the end of unstructured addressesRelevant to you
- Instant payments: banks outside the euro area must receive instant euro transfersRelevant to you
- UK cryptoasset regime: application window and start dateRelevant to you
- Instant payments: payment and e-money institutions join the obligationRelevant to you
Salary snapshot
Salary figures are not published yet
The L3 salary range for this role, with its sources, will appear here when the salaries section opens.
Certifications
- CAMS
- ICA Diploma in Compliance
- CIPP/E
Concepts to know
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Your role
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Sources
KYC (Know Your Customer)Know Your Customer is the process a firm uses to establish and verify who its customer is, who owns and controls it, what the relationship is for and how risky it is, before onboarding and throughout the relationship. In EU law it is carried out through customer due diligence measures.
AMLA (Anti-Money Laundering Authority)The Authority for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism, set up by Regulation (EU) 2024/1620 and based in Frankfurt, coordinates national AML supervisors and FIUs and drafts technical standards. From 2028 it will directly supervise a group of high-risk cross-border financial entities.