Verifying that a business exists is one thing. Establishing who ultimately owns it, who controls it and how its risk changes is another. Complex corporate structures, fragmented ownership records and changing business relationships can leave significant gaps in traditional know your business (KYB) checks.

AI and entity resolution offer new ways to connect information, uncover hidden relationships and monitor changes beyond onboarding. But can RegTech give firms a clearer picture of who they are doing business with, or will the complexity of global corporate structures continue to outpace the technology?

How can firms establish who ultimately owns or controls a business when corporate structures span multiple jurisdictions?

For Nir Carciente, partner and head of RegTech at ACA Group, the short answer is that firms cannot rely on a single document, registry or data source.

He remarked, “A business may be incorporated in one country, owned through a holding company in another, financed by investors elsewhere and ultimately controlled through a trust, voting arrangement or board structure that is not immediately visible. Legal ownership and practical control are not always the same thing.”

For Carciente, the starting point is to build an ownership and control picture using multiple sources including corporate registries, incorporation documents, shareholder registers, director and officer information, customer declarations, sanctions and PEP screening, adverse media and credible third-party data. “Each source contributes part of the picture. The role of the compliance team is to test whether those pieces align,” he said.

This, the ACA Head of RegTech details, also means looking beyond percentage ownership.

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