KYB review for marketplace sellers and small-business lenders

Sweat AI is an AI-native BPO for banks and fintechs. For marketplaces and small-business lenders, we start with onboarding and fraud reviews. We review marketplace sellers and small-business loan applicants 24/7, verify the business and the people behind it, and hand each case back with the evidence, a recommendation and one list of what is still needed. You decide who sells and who borrows.

Marketplace sellers

What the rules ask of marketplaces

In the US, the INFORM Consumers Act requires online marketplaces to collect and verify information from high-volume third-party sellers. The FTC defines a high-volume seller as one that, during any 12-month period in the past 24 months, made 200 or more separate sales of new or unused consumer products and $5,000 or more in gross revenues on the marketplace. Marketplaces must collect the seller's bank account information, tax identification number and contact information, and verify it within 10 days, using methods that let them reliably determine the information is valid, belongs to the seller, and is not misappropriated or falsified (FTC).

Card networks add their own expectations for marketplaces that take payments on behalf of sellers. Visa's Payment Facilitator and Marketplace Risk Guide, for example, says payment facilitators and marketplaces must monitor sellers' ecommerce websites on an ongoing basis, including for signs of illegal activity and transaction laundering, and that "a marketplace is financially liable for all disputes" (Visa, April 2021). The current Visa Rules govern; check them with your acquirer.

What we review on a seller

• The business: registration, status, formation date and addresses, compared with what the seller submitted.
• Tax identifier and bank account details checked for consistency with the business name and other records you hold.
• Owners and principals, traced through holding companies where the seller is a company, and screened.
• What the seller actually sells, from its storefront, website and public footprint, against its category and your prohibited-items policy.
• Links between sellers: shared addresses, contact details, bank accounts or principals that suggest one operator behind several accounts, where your data shows them.
• Documents supplied, checked for entity match and date.

Sellers who cannot be verified are listed with exactly what is missing, so your team can suspend, request or escalate under your policy.

Small-business lenders

Know the borrower before you underwrite

A small-business loan application is a KYB case with money attached. Before a credit analyst models cash flow, someone needs to establish that the business exists, that the applicant has authority to borrow for it, that the owners are who they say they are, and that the business described in the application is the business in the public record.

When those checks are thin, lenders see familiar problems: entities formed or reactivated just before applying, businesses whose claimed operating history does not match the registry, addresses that are virtual offices or registered-agent addresses only, bank statements and tax documents that disagree with each other, and guarantors connected to other failed or disputed businesses.

What we review on a borrower

• The entity: registration and status, formation date against claimed time in business, and registered and operating addresses.
• Owners, guarantors and control persons, including indirect ownership, with screening.
• Authority: whether the person applying appears in the filings as an officer, member or manager with authority to borrow.
• The business model and operating footprint: website, licenses where the activity requires them, and public reporting.
• Litigation, liens and adverse media in the public record, where available and relevant to your policy.
• Documents: bank statements, tax documents and formation documents checked for consistency with each other and with filings. Each document's limits are recorded; a bank statement shows deposits into an account, and it does not show where the money came from.

We verify identity and consistency. Credit analysis, pricing, terms and adverse action stay with you.

What you get back

For each seller or borrower: an evidence packet in which every finding is tied to its source excerpt and capture time, a recommended disposition, and one consolidated request for anything still needed, with why and what would satisfy it. See the illustrative sample KYB review.

Coverage and escalation

Sellers sign up and borrowers apply at all hours. We work 24/7, so the queue is done when your team logs in, and urgent cases (for example, signs that a live seller is using stolen business details) go to your named contact immediately. See 24/7 onboarding review. For fraud signals after onboarding, see fraud and alert review.

What stays with you

Seller approval, suspension and removal; compliance with the INFORM Consumers Act and network rules; credit decisions; and any consumer-related decisions. Our work is business due diligence, and our Terms prohibit using its output for consumer credit, insurance, employment, housing or tenancy decisions.

Talk to us

Tell us where sellers or borrowers wait longest and what your verification policy requires. We will show you how we would work your next batch. If your marketplace also acts as a payment facilitator, see KYB for payments platforms.