In this guide
KYC remediation is the work of bringing existing customer files back to the standard your policy and the Money Laundering Regulations require.
A modern remediation programme is risk-based rather than uniform, is driven by data and automation, and leaves behind a complete evidence trail for every file it touches.
What KYC and CDD remediation covers
Remediation is the correction of customer due diligence that is incomplete, out of date, or not evidenced correctly. The scope follows the obligations in the Money Laundering Regulations 2017.
Triggers and backlogs
Programmes usually start for one of a small number of reasons: audit findings; supervisor feedback; policy or risk appetite changes; or a backlog of periodic reviews.
Risk-based prioritisation
Assessed Risk
Higher risk relationships, including those subject to EDD, come first.
Evidence Quality
Files where the record is missing or unreadable rank highest.
Elapsed Time
Age since last review plus events like ownership change or adverse media.
Exposure
Product type, jurisdictions involved and activity levels.
Where automation helps
Automation is well suited to gathering, enrichment, screening execution, case assembly, document handling, and progress tracking. These are high volume, rule-describable activities where consistency is the point.
How Agora supports remediation
The Agora Due Diligence Platform provides the operational components a remediation programme needs: structured data capture, ownership resolution, screening, and case management for exceptions.
Frequently asked questions
What is KYC remediation?
KYC remediation is a structured exercise to bring existing customer due diligence records back up to the standard a firm's policy and the Money Laundering Regulations require. It typically covers refreshing identification and verification evidence, confirming beneficial ownership, re-screening, recording the purpose and intended nature of the relationship, and reassessing customer risk.
What usually triggers a remediation programme?
Common triggers include internal audit or compliance monitoring findings, supervisory feedback, a policy or risk appetite change, a migration or merger that brings in files captured to a different standard, a backlog of overdue periodic reviews, or the discovery that evidence held on file cannot be located or relied upon.
How should files be prioritised?
On a risk-sensitive basis. Higher risk relationships, relationships with the weakest evidence, and those with the longest elapsed time since the last meaningful review are normally addressed first. The prioritisation logic should be documented and approved so the sequencing itself is defensible.
Can KYC remediation be automated?
Parts of it can. Data gathering, enrichment from registries, ownership chain construction, screening, document checks, case assembly and progress reporting can all be substantially automated. Decisions about risk rating, acceptability of evidence, escalation and exit remain matters of accountable human judgement.
What evidence should a remediation leave behind?
A complete, retrievable record for each file: what was checked, against which source, on what date, by whom, what was concluded, and where judgement was applied. Programme-level evidence matters too, including the methodology, sampling and quality control results.
Where the technology fits
Agora is a technology provider: the platform supports the remediation described above, and your own teams operate it and hold the accountable decisions. See KYC remediation software for the technology against a remediation requirement, or work through the free KYC Remediation Technology Assessment and the KYC Remediation Planning Pack. No pricing, no staffing estimates and no personal details required. Once the population is back to standard, it is kept there through periodic and perpetual KYC software, within the wider customer due diligence software platform.
Next step
Modernise your remediation
Walk through a remediation scenario with your own file structure on the Agora platform.