Mews Know Your Business (KYB) process for individuals or organizations based in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region

This help article provides specific guidance for individuals or organizations submitting information to Mews so they can complete their KYB as part of their Mews onboarding journey. Mews manages the KYB process through the Mews Onboarding Portal. You receive access to this portal once you sign your agreement with Mews. If you need more information on KYB, and the reasons for doing it at Mews, you can read about this here.

 

In this article you can learn about the information and documents necessary for the KYB process for the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, at Mews: 

 

Once you sign the agreement Mews sends you an invitation to the Mews Onboarding Portal where you get access to your KYB project. The information about the legal entity and the company representative within it is on the basis of the information in the agreement you signed with Mews. You need to submit additional information about your bank account, customer representative and beneficial owners as well as some supporting documents. The document upload via the Mews Onboarding Portal is a secure file transfer mechanism. When you submit your information via the Mews Onboarding Portal, make sure to review the help bubbles at each step. The design is such that it provides guidance on the requirements. 

 

This includes your legal entity name, address, company registration number and tax number.  The system prefills these in the KYB project based on the information from the agreement you sign with Mews.  

 

You also need to provide the bank account information for your legal entity. This is where you receive your payouts. NoteIt is not possible to send payouts to a third person or company. The bank account needs to belong to the legal entity as per the agreement with Mews.  If the bank account where you want to receive payouts is held in the name of a different legal entity, please refer to the Mews KYB FAQs and speak to your Sales Representative.

 

Lastly, you need to provide information on the customer representative and all beneficial owners of the legal entity. There is more information on how to identify beneficial owners in the Mews KYB FAQs.  The required information is their full name, date of birth, residential address, and contact details. Beneficial owners also require to provide their percentage shareholding of the legal entity.  
   

The advice provided in this section is general, in some cases local variations apply so Mews advises you to review the table at the end of this help article for the country of your business to confirm the requirements applicable to you. Note: Mews does not accept screenshots, photocopies, or photocopies of scans.  

 

Accepted identity verification documents include passports, national ID cards and driving licenses.  The identity document needs to be valid and at least 6 months before expiry and in full color, well readable, high resolution, and unpixellated when zoomed in. You can view complete guidelines for identity documents here, including some useful examples of how to complete the upload successfully.

Note:

  • Always provide two different documents for identity and address verification. For example, do not use a national ID card which shows an address as proof of address.  
  • Certain cases require passport scans for identity verification. When a legal entity and an individual associated with that legal entity, such as Company representatives or Beneficial Owners, are from different countries, they must provide a passport scan to verify identity.   

 

Depending on the country of location of your company, you may be asked to submit a proof of residential address. Proof of Address is a document that indicates the person’s residential address. It does not need to be a permanent residence, but it needs to be the residential address of the person where they receive their utility bills. 

 

The following are accepted personal residential address documents. These need to bear the person's full name and dated within the last 3 months. 

  • Utility bill: Gas, electricity, water, internet, landline and not mobile phone bill. 
  • Personal bank statement: Mews does not accept documents that are tampered with, for example have inscriptions or modifications. Do not redact amounts. 

 

Note:  Always provide two different documents for identity and address verification. For example, do not use a national ID card which shows an address as proof of address. 

 

The following are accepted company/ legal entity documents: 

  • Commercial register extract 
  • Articles of Incorporation 
  • Certificate of Registration 
  • VAT registration 
  • Tax certificate 

 

The document needs to be issued by a reliable, independent source such as the national commercial register of the country of registration of the company and bear the company name, company registered address, registration number, and date of incorporation. There are some country variations consolidated below for ease of reference.   

 

Mews needs to collect information on your bank and your legal entity’s bank account number in full, incl. a bank identifier. For this you need to provide the company bank account statement to Mews, issued in the full name of the legal entity contracted with Mews. This is to confirm the bank account number to which you receive your payouts.NoteIt is not possible to send payouts to a third person or company. The bank account needs to belong to the legal entity as per the agreement with Mews.  If the bank account where you want to receive payouts is held in the name of a different legal entity, please refer to the Mews KYB FAQs and speak to your Sales Representative.

 

 Other accepted documents are: 

  • Certificate/ Letter of confirmation of the account holder's identity, bearing the bank logo, the company name in full, account number/ IBAN and date. Note:You can obtain this from the bank on request. 
  • Confirmation of account details. 

 

In all cases the document needs to be issued within the last 3 months and bear the date of issue. For this document request type there are several country wise variations influenced by local banking processes. Make sure to review the table relevant to the country where your business is based prior to submitting.  

 

Country specific requirements  

Below you can click on a specific country to view the details for the type of documents and information required for that location. You can check the details for the corresponding country of location of your legal entity that signed up with Mews: 

Australia

Identification

Proof of address

Business registration

Bank statement

  • Passport: Scans of front and back
  • Driver licence: Scans of front and back 
  • Driver licence: Scans of front and back and only if a passport was supplied for personal identification, one document used for both verifications is not sufficient.
  • Utility bill: Only gas, electricity, water, internet, landline, not mobile phone
  • Personal bank statement or Certificate (Letter) of confirmation of the account holder's identity/Confirmation of account details
  • Photo card: Scans of front and back
  • Tasmanian government personal information card: Scans of front and back 
  • ImmiCard: Scans of front and back
  • Medicare document (Government health insurance document)
  • Australian taxation office letter or assessment (Government tax document) 
  • Australian business number Confirmation (Certificate of Registration)
  • Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) record of registration (Certificate of registration)
  • Australian business register extract (Commercial register extract)
  • Certificate of registration of change of name
  • Australian charities and not-for-profits Commission extract (Charity or Non-profit extract)
  • Consumer affairs association extract (Incorporated association extract)

 

  • Company bank statement or Certificate (Letter) of confirmation of the account holder's identity/Confirmation of account details
  • Bank details: Account number + 6 digit BSB number

 

 

Requirements for Australian discretionary trusts

The  KYB  requirements are the same for both the corporate trustee and individual trustee setups. If you are using a corporate trustee for your trust, the corporate trustee (‘Pty Ltd‘) needs to be the contracted entity and not the trust as trusts cannot sign a contract. However, your bank typically issues your bank statement in the name of the trust. 

Identification

Trust deed

Proof of address

Entity document (for corporate trusts only)

Bank statement

  • Passport
  • Driver licence: Scans of front and back 
  • Photo card: Scans of front and back
  • New South Wales Driving instructor licence: Scans of front and back
  • Tasmanian government personal information card: Scans of front and back
  • ImmiCard: Scans of front and back
  • Proof of age card: Scans of front and back
  • Australian Defence Force identification card (Military ID): Scans of front and back
  • Note: Identity documents are required for the ultimate beneficial owners and company 
    representative. Ultimate beneficial owners of a trust include: 
    •  For trusts with individual trustees (natural persons): The trustees of the trust
    • For trusts with a corporate trustee (company):  The directors of the corporate trustee 
  • Trust deed:  This legal document outlines the rules and guidelines governing the trust, including details about the trustee, beneficiaries, and the trust's objectives.
  • Driver licence: Scans of front and back and only if a passport was supplied for personal identification, one document used for both verifications is not sufficient.
  • Photo card: Scans of front and back
  • Tasmanian government personal information card: Scans of front and back 
  • ImmiCard: Scans of front and back
  • Medicare document (Government health insurance document): Dated within 12 months
  • Centrelink document (Government pension document): Dated within 12 months
  • Australian taxation office letter or assessment (Government tax document): Dated within 12 months
  • Council rates or land valuation notice (Property tax document): Dated within 12 months
  • Note: Proof of address documents are required for ultimate beneficial owners and company representative. 
  • Confirmation of the corporate trustee's Australian Business Number (ABN) or Australian 
    Company Number (ACN): Certificate of registration, Commercial register extract or ASIC certificate of registration

 

  • Bank statement or Certificate (Letter) 
  • Must meet the following information requirements:
    • Issued in the trust or company name, not the corporate trustee,
    • Issued within the last 3 months,
    • Shows the full bank account number and/ or IBAN,  and
    • Shows the bank's logo/ name 

 

New Zealand

Identification

Proof of address

Business registration

Bank statement

  • Passport: Scan of the entire document, both adjacent data pages on one image
  • Driver licence: Scans of front and back 
  • Passport: Only if driver licence was been supplied for personal identification, one document used for both verifications is not sufficient
  • Driver licence: Scans of front and back, but only if a passport was supplied for personal identification, one document used for both verifications is not sufficient
  • Utility bill: Only gas, electricity, water, internet, landline, not mobile phone
  • Central government agency document
  • Local council/ government letter
  • Signed rental tenancy agreement
  • Electoral roll papers
  • Insurance policy document
  • Car registration notification/ demand
  • Financial statement
  • New Zealand business number registration extract
  • New Zealand certificate of good standing
  • Statement from a financial institution
  • Government issued letter
  • VAT registration
  • New Zealand companies office company extract
  • New Zealand Certificate of Incorporation
  • Memorandum of Association
  • Financial statement

 

  • Company bank statement or Certificate (Letter) of confirmation of the account holder's identity/Confirmation of account details
  • Bank details: Account number + Routing number
Japan

Identification

Business registration

Bank statement

Additional requirements/ Notes

  • 日本旅券 (Japanese passport): Scan of the entire document, both adjacent data pages on one image
  • 運転免許証 (Driver's licence)
  • 在留カ:ド・特別永住者証明書 (Residence card)
  • 登記謄本 (Touki)
  • 印鑑登録証明書 (Seal registration certificate)

 

  • Company bank statement or Certificate (Letter) of confirmation of the account holder's identity/Confirmation of account details
  • Bank details: Account number + 7 digit Zengin code

 

  • All entity and personal information must be provided in Kana and Kanji as well.
Singapore

Identification

Business registration

Bank statement

  • Passport: Scan of the entire document, both adjacent data pages on one image
  • Driver's licence: Scans of front and back
  • National registration identity card: Scans of front and back 
  • Note:
    • Company representative and beneficial owners must provide aliases or alternate names they are known by, if applicable.
    • If there is no beneficial owner exceeding 25% ownership of shares or voting rights, any owners with more than 10% of shares or voting rights must be listed and identified.
    • Enhanced identity verification of representatives using Singpass MyInfo, a popular digital identity provider, or Stripe Identity tool is required.
  • Proof of Registration (ACRA BizFile for locally incorporated businesses)
  • Certificate of Registration with Registry of Societies (ROS)
  • The following  information is required:

    • Legal entity name,

    • Tax ID from the local tax authority,

    • Company address, and

    • Names and positions of  all directors, shareholders, and beneficial owners, if applicable. 

       

  • Note:

    • In the case of non-profits, Recent Annual Return or Recent Constitution document is required as well.

    • If a holding company owns a larger than 25% stake in the company, a Proof of Registration document for the holding company is also required.

  • Company bank statement or Certificate (Letter) of confirmation of the account holder's identity/Confirmation of account details 

 

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