KYC
Know Your CustomerCompliance
The cardholder-side identity-verification process, typically performed by the issuer rather than the merchant or acquirer. Some merchant verticals (crypto exchanges, iGaming operators) also perform KYC on their own customers as part of their regulatory obligations.
In practice.
KYC verifies the people behind the account, typically directors and UBOs, with identity documents and sometimes liveness checks. It is a regulatory requirement, not acquirer suspicion. Having clean copies ready for every relevant person routinely saves a week of back and forth.