Glossary

The terms used across Fill Easy's pages, defined in plain words, with where each one comes from and the Fill Easy search or product it relates to.

A

Adverse media: Negative news or public records about a customer or its owners that bear on money laundering, fraud or sanctions risk, used in the risk assessment.
AMLAnti-money laundering: The laws, controls and checks that stop criminal proceeds from passing through a firm: due diligence, monitoring, screening and reporting.
AMLO (Hong Kong)Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance (Cap. 615): Hong Kong's main AML statute, in force since 1 April 2012, which sets customer due diligence and record-keeping duties in Schedule 2 and licenses TCSPs and VASPs.
Annual return (NAR1)Annual return, Form NAR1: The form a Hong Kong company files with the Companies Registry each year, stating its registered office, directors, secretary, members and share capital.

Business Registration Certificate (BRC)Business Registration Certificate: The Inland Revenue Department's certificate that a business is registered under Cap. 310, showing its name, address, nature of business and BR number.

Certificate of good standing: A registrar's certificate that a company is on the register and up to date with its filings and fees, commonly required for BVI and Cayman companies.
Certificate of Incorporation: The certificate a registrar issues when a company is formed, stating its name, number and date of incorporation; proof of formation, not of current status.
China eIDChina electronic identity (网络电子身份标识): Identity confirmation for a Mainland Chinese resident from the chip of the national resident identity card, read by an NFC tap on a phone and checked at source.
Company particulars: The Companies Registry's summary of a Hong Kong company: status, registered office, share capital, shareholders, directors, secretary and filed documents.
Customer due diligence (CDD)Customer due diligence: The statutory duty in AMLO Schedule 2 to identify and verify a customer and its beneficial owners and to understand the purpose of the relationship.

e-KYCElectronic know your customer: Identity verification done remotely by electronic means, from a document scan and selfie to a government digital identity, instead of in person.
Enhanced due diligence (EDD)Enhanced due diligence: Additional checks required where the money laundering risk is higher, such as a politically exposed customer or a non-face-to-face relationship.

GBA Standard ContractStandard Contract for the Cross-boundary Flow of Personal Information within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (Mainland, Hong Kong): A simplified PIPL standard contract, from December 2023, for personal information moving between nine Guangdong cities and Hong Kong, filed within ten working days.

iAM SmartiAM Smart (智方便): The Hong Kong Government's digital identity for Hong Kong identity card holders aged 11 or above, used to log in, fill forms with verified data and sign.

KYBKnow your business: Due diligence on a company: confirming it exists, is live, who runs it and who owns it, from the registry where it is incorporated.
KYCKnow your customer: The checks a firm runs to confirm who a customer is, who owns or controls them, and why they want the relationship, before and during it.
KYC remediation: Bringing an existing book of customer files up to the current standard: re-checking each customer at source and fixing missing or stale data.

NFC ID verificationNear-field communication identity verification: Reading the chip of an identity document with a phone's NFC reader and checking the data at source, so the identity does not depend on a photograph of the card.

Perpetual KYC (pKYC)Perpetual know your customer: Keeping customer records current by re-checking them when a change occurs or on a short cycle, instead of only at a fixed periodic review.
PIPLPersonal Information Protection Law of the People's Republic of China: Mainland China's personal data law, in force since 1 November 2021, which sets the lawful routes for sending personal information out of the Mainland.
Politically exposed person (PEP)Politically exposed person: An individual entrusted with a prominent public function, their family and close associates; foreign PEPs require enhanced due diligence under AMLO.

Sanctions screening: Checking customers, owners and counterparties against sanctions lists that Hong Kong and other jurisdictions give legal effect to, at onboarding and after.
Significant Controllers RegisterSignificant Controllers Register (SCR): The register of beneficial owners every Hong Kong company must keep at its registered office since 1 March 2018, open to law enforcement but not the public.
Singpass: Singapore's national digital identity, run by GovTech, through which residents log in and share government-verified personal data from Myinfo.

Trust or company service provider (TCSP)Trust or company service provider: A business that forms companies or provides directors, nominees, registered offices or trustees; licensed by the Registrar of Companies under AMLO since 2018.

UAE Pass: The national digital identity of the United Arab Emirates for citizens, residents and visitors, used for login, verified identity and digital signature.
Ultimate beneficial owner (UBO)Ultimate beneficial owner: The natural person who ultimately owns or controls a customer: in Hong Kong, more than 25% of the shares or voting rights, or ultimate control.
Unified Social Credit CodeUnified Social Credit Code (USCC, 统一社会信用代码): The 18-character identifier on every Mainland Chinese business licence, used to search the company in the SAMR registry and as its tax number.