I bet you’ve done your research on Mews – who we are, what we do, what we offer. You might even stalk us on social media, know our founder, our leadership team. And that’s totally fine – no judgement. Moving to Mews Hospitality Cloud is a big decision and you need to know what you’re getting yourself into. 

It's also important for us to do something similar. Before we can fully onboard you as a customer, we need to do some research on you. It’s only fair, after all. This is where “Know your Customer” or KYC comes into play.  

In this article we’ll cover: 

Table of contents

What is KYC and why do we need it?

In short, KYC is a process of us checking that you are who you say you are. It might sound a bit too much, but our legal team like to know that we’re not dealing with a super-villain.  

It's a standard process used by any financial institution and other financial services companies to assess and monitor customer risk and identity. It’s also a legal requirement to comply with Anti-Money Laundering (AML) laws.  

So why is KYC so important? For a start, these procedures help prevent identity theft, money laundering, financial fraud, terrorism financing, and other financial crimes. Those seem like pretty good reasons to us. Non-compliance can incur heavy penalties and we do not want that to happen.

What do you need to pass the KYC process?

There’s nothing complicated about what you need to provide us for your KYC check. It’s a classic set of documents that you’ll be used to providing for any major process. These are: 

  • Legal entity verification document 
  • Identity document 
  • Personal address verification 
  • Proof of bank account 

Everything listed here is what we need according to the requirements of Stripe and Adyen payment providers. Once we have these documents, we’ll handle the rest. 

 

What if the documents are rejected?

This happens fairly frequently, so if it does there’s no reason to panic. Our team will send you a notification explaining why we rejected a specific document and what needs to be done in order to fix it. Simple. 

 

Are documents safe with Mews, Adyen and Stripe?

Of course – you didn’t have to ask. Mews, Adyen and Stripe respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data. We have strict data privacy processes in place, and you can view all of the policies here: 

  

How long do we store KYC information?

As per the very snappily named 40(1)(a) AMLD5 Directive, we’re obligated to retain collected documents and information during our business relationships with our clients and for a period of five years after the end of the business relationship. 

But as we already said, this information is completely safe and no one else will ever see it. 

 

Still want to know more about the Mews KYC process? No problem. There’s more detail on our KYC help page.
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Author

Karina Rybalko

Risk Analyst at Mews