Know Your Customer with openthebox

Know Your Customer

Know Your Customer (KYC) is part of the due diligence process in which we analyze and identify our clients. This involves uncovering the network around your client, their financial situation, and any dubious shareholders with whom you would prefer not to engage.

Much of this data can be found through searches in the CBE (Belgian Crossroads Bank for Enterprises), the National Bank, or the Belgian Official Gazette. However, such searches can be time-consuming and make it difficult to link companies together. This is where openthebox comes in, connecting and visualizing data from these official sources in real-time. If desired, you can add companies to an entity group so that you are immediately notified via email of any changes, such as new directors or a new annual report.

The KYC research starts with the business profile of your client (whether a company or an individual). Here, you get a brief summary of the main information, including:

• General info such as address, current status, and legal situation
• A concise version of the Spiderweb with first-degree connections
• Key financial figures and benchmarking within the sector
• The most recent publications in the Official Gazette and articles from De Tijd
• Whether any of the administrators are politicians

The Spiderweb as a Visualization

When analyzing the potential risks of a new collaboration, it's essential to know exactly who you are dealing with. For this, openthebox uses a powerful algorithm that brings together and visualizes data from official sources (CBE, Official Gazette, and the National Bank of Belgium). The Spiderweb displays all information about mandates, shareholders*, and participations—not just those directly connected. For example, if you want to see other mandates a person holds, you can expand the Spiderweb, allowing you to see with whom you are doing business directly and indirectly.

*When a company has a participation of at least 10%, it is reported in the annual accounts. Companies with a participation of less than 10% are not required to publish this information, so such participations may not be captured.