Know Your Customer

If you're building account opening flows or customer onboarding systems for financial services, this walks you through the full KYC stack: FINRA Rule 2090's "essential facts," CIP identity verification (documentary vs non-documentary methods), FinCEN's beneficial ownership collection for entities (that 25% threshold plus one control person), and when enhanced due diligence kicks in for PEPs or high-risk customers. It covers the practical stuff like risk rating systems, KYC refresh triggers, and recordkeeping timelines. Most useful when you need to map regulatory requirements to actual implementation decisions rather than just reading the rules in a vacuum. The guidance assumes you're in a FINRA-regulated context but also touches on investment adviser obligations under the 2024 FinCEN rule.

skills.sh installs: 715
GitHub stars: 224
last updated: Aug 21, 2026

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Install

$ npx -y skills add joellewis/finance_skills --skill know-your-customer --agent claude-code

Installs into .claude/skills of the current project.

Files

Know Your Customer

Regulatory status current as of June 2026 — verify effective dates, dollar thresholds, and pending rulemakings against current SEC/FINRA/FinCEN sources before advising.

Core Concepts

FINRA Rule 2090 — Know Your Customer

Every FINRA member must use reasonable diligence, with regard to the opening and maintenance of every account, to know and retain the essential facts concerning every customer and concerning the authority of each person acting on behalf of the customer. "Essential facts" are those required to: (a) effectively service the account, (b) act in accordance with any special handling instructions, (c) understand the authority of each person acting on behalf of the customer, and (d) comply with applicable laws, regulations, and rules.

Customer Identification Program (CIP)

Required under USA PATRIOT Act Section 326 and implementing regulations. The broker-dealer CIP rule is 31 CFR 1023.220; the bank CIP rule is 31 CFR 1020.220. (SEC Rule 17a-8 separately requires broker-dealers to comply with BSA recordkeeping and reporting.) The CIP must include:

SKILL.md on GitHub