What is Customer Due Diligence?

Customer Due Diligence (CDD) means knowing your customer, their risk, and monitoring over time. It’s the bedrock of AML programs and business risk management both. You collect core attributes, verify identity, evaluate purpose and expected behavior, and determine what friction is appropriate—standard, simplified, or enhanced due diligence.

Operationally: gather and validate data; verify with documents, selfies, and liveness; screen for sanctions and PEP exposure; assess adverse media; and assign risk tiers that drive reviews and limits. Refresh when risk changes—new products, geography shifts, negative news, or anomalies.

Good CDD is explainable: show what you collected, what you verified, what you found, and why you decided as you did. Keep audit trails, role‑based access, and retention aligned to policy.

To execute remotely, orchestrate robust identity verification and connect it to a risk‑based program per our AML compliance guidance. CDD isn’t a form; it’s a lifecycle—done once to start, then renewed by signals.