Digital intake for every party type

Onboarding starts with a digital intake flow that adapts to who is on the other side of the transaction: individual buyers and sellers, corporate entities, trusts, and parties connected to a politically exposed person (PEP). Each intake path collects the identity, ownership, and source-of-funds information a DNFBP is required to hold on file before a transaction proceeds — structured from the outset so it stands up to later regulator review rather than being reconstructed after the fact.

Document collection checklist

The exact document set depends on the client type and transaction, but a typical onboarding file includes:

• Passport or Emirates ID (individuals and signatories)
• Trade licence (corporate buyers, sellers, and intermediaries)
• Memorandum of Association and shareholder register (corporates)
• Proof of address, current within the last three months
• Source-of-funds evidence appropriate to the transaction value

Risk-based CDD vs. EDD routing

Not every client warrants the same level of scrutiny, and treating every file identically wastes effort on low-risk relationships while under-serving genuinely high-risk ones. Every onboarding is scored against a risk methodology covering client type, geography, transaction structure, and screening results, and routed accordingly: standard Customer Due Diligence (CDD) for lower-risk profiles, and Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) — additional documentation, senior sign-off, and closer source-of-funds scrutiny — for higher-risk ones.

UBO and ownership-chain mapping

For corporate buyers and sellers, we map the ultimate beneficial ownership (UBO) chain back to the natural persons who ultimately control or benefit from the entity — a requirement that becomes materially harder, and more important, as corporate structures add layers of holding companies or nominee arrangements. That ownership record is what a Compliance Officer produces when a regulator asks who actually stands behind a transaction.

Illustrative risk-rating output

Once intake and screening are complete, each client file is assigned a risk tier. This is an illustrative example of how the three tiers are presented — not a live scoring tool: