Know Your Customer (KYC) is a term used to describe a set of money laundering measures normally mandated by law which are employed by banks and other financial services to document the true identity of a customer/client and his or her source of wealth to make sure it is legitimate. The KYC information is compiled and retained in a client “profile” that is periodically updated.  Actual activity over the account is compared to the KYC profile to identify activity that raises suspicions of money laundering.