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Perpetual KYC: A Risk and Due-Diligence Breakthrough, but It Takes Some Work

May 22, 2026 | 3 minutes reading time | By Jim Romeo

Failure to implement can cause firms to fall behind operationally and competitively, observers warn.

Continuous know your customer (KYC) monitoring is widely endorsed as a best practice and trendily labeled perpetual KYC (pKYC). Although it promises significant operational and competitive benefits, it is more complex and transformational than a simple upgrade.

Samar Pratt of Capgemini puts it in terms of an “operational reset,” recognizing that the legacy practice of periodic compliance reviews does not align with the requirements – and evolving regulations – of a world in which ownership structures, digital identities, geopolitical exposures and transactional behaviors can shift rapidly, in turn affecting risk profiles and exposures.

"Instead of rediscovering risk during a scheduled KYC review, firms should be able to proactively detect meaningful changes in a customer’s risk profile in near-real-time," says Pratt, global leader, Financial Crime Compliance Advisory Solutions, and a contributor to a Capgemini Reimagining KYC white paper. It posits a “pKYC triad” of data modernization, intelligent automation and intelligent analytics.

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Topics: Regulation & Compliance, AML & Fraud

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