đĄ We are legally required [articles L.561-5 et R.561-5-4 du CMF] to collect information on the company, its legal representatives & its beneficial owners.
Business information provided will help us verify that the company exists, has a legit activity & a consistent usage of our platform.
Information on the legal representatives & beneficial owners will help us identify and verify the identity of the persons that have some control over the company via ownership or legal authority.
Required documents for KYC
Companyâs certificate of registration dated less than 3 months
The document can be found by visiting this link
Proof of Identity (POI) of the individual doing the Spendesk sign-up
If the user is NOT a Legal Representative â We ask for a power of attorney (templates available here) from the legal representative/ president
Document confirming the delegation of power authorising the individual to open and manage the Spendesk payment account
POI of the Legal Representative who delegated power
The companyâs beneficial ownership declaration
A user can find the beneficial ownership declaration document here.
If a company does not have a beneficial ownership register in its country, we ask a letter certifying the beneficial ownerâs identities and their type of control (dated and signed by a legal representative or a third party such as attorney, notary, external accountant)
You can find more explanation about these documents at the end of the article đ
Sign up or initiate account creation
Sign up or initiate account creation
New organisation: use the dedicated Spendesk Financial Services sign-up link that we will provide you đ
If you are already a customer, initiate new entity creation directly in-product
Click on âAdd an accountâ on the menu
Select the type of account
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KYC step by step for Companies
The KYC flow is broken into three sections:
Business Information: Information about company and business registration.
Company structure: Who runs the company (legal representatives & beneficial owners)
Account Verification: A human will verify information and grant access to any new account.
1. Business Information
1. Business Information
The Business Information section looks at trying to understand who the business is and why/how Spendesk will be used.
Below you will find all the information we need to know in the first step of the KYC.
We first need to understand if the user is signing up for a business or an association.
We need to understand the predicted monthly spend of the business (in Euros).
We need to understand what the business will most likely spend the money on.
We need to understand how many employees will use Spendesk (not the number of employees in the company).
We try to find the company in our database
By doing this first, we can automatically fill in all the fields for the user
After the user fills in the details, they will be presented with a list of companies to choose from.
If we canât find the business, we will ask the user for the registration number
We need to understand core business information such as:
Legal name
Trade name
Legal form
Date of registration
Registration number
VAT number
Company website
Business activity information
Non-Prefilled
Prefilled
7. We need to understand where the company is located. This includes:
The registered address
Fiscal residency (we canât pre-fill this, so they will need to do it)
Alternative address
Non-Prefilled
Prefilled
8. We need the companyâs certificate of registration dated less than 3 months.
A company can find the doc by visiting this link.
9. We need to understand how the company is funded.
2. Company Structure
2. Company Structure
The Company Structure section is meant to understand who the individual signing up to Spendesk is and who owns and runs the company. Below you will find all the information we need to capture. Be aware that depending on the information users provide, we ask for different documentation.
Below you will find all the information needed for the Company Structure:
We need proof of identity of the individual doing the Spendesk sign-up.
Please ensure that you upload a copy of passport or government-issued ID card. If you are uploading a passport, you need to provide a full copy top and bottom, and for the government ID, we need the front and back.
We need information on the individual doing the Spendesk sign-up. This includes:
First and Last name
Maiden/Birth Name
Sex â What is indicated on the ID card
Birthdate
Nationality
Birth city and country
â
We ask if the user is a Legal Representative
We ask this to understand if the user needs to have a delegation of power
If the user is NOT a Legal Representative â We ask for a power of attorney given by a legal representative, and we need:
To provide a signed document from the delegation of power â You can download a template at the bottom of this article đïž.
We also need proof of identity of the legal representative who granted the delegation of power.
If the user IS a Legal Representative or has provided the power of attorney information, they will be both taken to the Legal Representative section. This is where we ask the user to provide a full list of the Legal Representatives at the company.
When a user adds a Legal Representative, we need similar information to the Account Owner:
First and Last name
Maiden/Birth Name
Sex â What is indicated on the ID card
Birthdate
Nationality
Birth city and country
Important note â If the customer data is prefilled they will need to review it and add the data we couldnât pre-fill.
Non-prefill
Prefill
French companies đ«đ· â If the content has been pre-filled: If the user IS A Legal Representative and WE WERE ABLE TO PRE-FILL the application, we ask the users to review all legal representatives and manually confirm each legal rep.
If the user edits any of the legal representatives or adds a new legal representative, we ask for proof of this change. â This use case could happen if someone recently joined but the business hasnât updated the government register.
We ask for the companyâs beneficial ownership declaration
A user can find the beneficial ownership declaration document here.
Definition of a Beneficial Ownership Declaration
The declaration is the official document coming from the Beneficial Ownership register and includes information such as the beneficial owner's name, date of birth, nationality, country of residence, and details about their ownership or control. The beneficial owner is typically someone who owns or controls, directly or indirectly, more than 25% of a company's shares or who otherwise exercises control over the management of the entity.
If a company DOES NOT provide a beneficial ownership declaration, we ask for the company's Shareholder Structure (dated & signed by a legal representative or a reliable third party such as an attorney, notary, or external accountant).
In the product, a user can see an example â Itâs basically a document highlighting who owns the company and how much they own.
See the example here
More explanation of required documents
Certificate of registration | It must be dated less than 3 months.
The document can be found by visiting this link | Why do we need this? It verifies that the company legally exists, meaning that it is registered with the appropriate authority. |
Proof of Identity (POI) | It's a copy (front/back) of the ID card or a copy of the 2 pages (top/bottom) of a passport.
The copy of the document must be in color, very clear and have no defects that could make the inscriptions unreadable (reflection, trimmed part...). | Why do we need this ? It identifies the person based on their unique information. It also prevents fraud with the provision of private & reliable documentation. |
Power of Attorney (Proxy) | It is a delegation of power signed by a legal representative authorizing somebody to act on behalf of the company. This document should be associated with the POI of the Legal Representative who delegated power.
You can find the document by visiting this link. | Why do we need this ? It verifies that the payment account is opened by someone that is legally authorized to do so. |
Beneficial Owner Declaration | The Beneficial Owner declaration is an official document declared to the specific country's register, mentioning the individuals who have significant powers of the company. An individual can be a beneficial owner because : - It holds, directly or indirectly, more than 25% voting rights or capital of the business. - It has the power to control it by any other means (e.g. can appoint or remove a majority of the members of the management bodies) - If none of these criteria is met, it is the person or persons who legally represent the business (manager, president, etc.).
A user can find the beneficial ownership declaration document here | Why do we need this ? It allows us to identify who control effectively the company and it contributes to the fight against the financing of terrorism and money laundering.
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Shareholding structure* | Official document showing the complete shareholding structure of the company (organization chart/capitalisation table/shareholding attestation dated and signed by a director, register of shares for every shareholding company...).
Example below - We need the entire shareholding structure (for example, if a company has shares in the company the KYC is about, we also need its shareholding structure). | Why do we need this ? It identifies the persons that have significant control over the company. It also prevents fraud with the provision of confidential information. Since we cannot rely on the official document to identify & verify the identity of the beneficial owner, we rely on another reliable source (government issued identity documents).
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* Shareholding example - We need the entire shareholding structure (for example, if a company has shares in the company the KYC is about, we also need its shareholding structure).
Other potential required documents & glossary
Bank letter | It's a letter from your bank attesting that it maintains your company's bank account. |
Source of Funds (SOF) | Gives the origin of the companyâs money or financial assets. In establishing the source of funds, firms must seek to understand not only where funds came from (in terms of the account from which they were transferred) but the activity that was involved in generating those funds. |
Source of Wealth (SOW) | Refers to the means by which a company has acquired their entire body of wealth. In establishing the source of wealth, financial institutions must ascertain why the client has the assets they do and how they came to accumulate them |
Date of birth | Date of birth of person mentioned (no document needed) |
Nationality | Nationality of person mentioned (no document needed) |
Proof of Address (POA) | In some cases, we may ask for a proof of address dated less than 3 months old from the following list:
- Bank statement (no credit card statement);
- Gas, electricity, water and internet bills (no telephone bills);
- Letter from a recognized public authority.
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For more information and to prepare your KYC review, go to :