Five business days and a share register
What does a crypto exchange want before it opens a company account? Exchange Kraken’s business verification page, last updated August 24, 2026, puts the standard wait at five business days and lists the papers.
Formation documents come first, such as articles of incorporation or a trust deed. Then a share register naming the ultimate beneficial owners, with each one’s percentage stake and voting rights, and an organization chart if a parent company sits above the applicant.
Proof of the operating address must be under three months old and may not be a P.O. box. An anti-money-laundering questionnaire follows, and every beneficial owner and every person who will use the account goes through personal KYC on top. Deposits may come only from a bank account in the company’s own name.
The US rule, with an example
Picture a startup with two founders on 30% each and a dozen small investors sharing the rest. Under FinCEN’s beneficial ownership rule, 31 CFR 1010.230, the bank names both founders, since each holds a quarter or more. Nobody else reaches that line. The bank then adds one person who runs the company, the chief executive, say, or the treasurer.
No more than four owners can ever qualify. The bank may take the customer’s signed word unless something it knows casts doubt on it, and identification records stay on file for five years after the account closes. Listed companies and regulated banks are among the customers exempt. On eCFR, the section’s version history shows it untouched since September 28, 2017.
Crypto exchanges sit outside it. The rule binds banks, securities brokers, futures firms and mutual funds, the four types listed in section 1010.605. A US exchange registered as a money services business runs its company checks as part of its general anti-money-laundering program instead.
The UK moves the line by a hair
Regulation 5 of the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 counts someone as a beneficial owner with more than 25% of the shares or votes, or with control by other means. A co-founder holding exactly 25% is named under the US test. In Britain that person can go unnamed, unless they control the company some other way.
Regulation 28 adds the basics. The company’s name, registration number and registered office must be verified, and the firm takes reasonable steps to learn its constitution and who sits on its board. Owners cannot be confirmed from the Companies House register alone, under regulation 28(9).
The filing ended, the checks did not
Did the Corporate Transparency Act change any of this? Not for banks. FinCEN’s reporting page says an interim rule of March 26, 2025 lifted the duty on every company created in the United States to report its owners to the agency, and a final rule made that permanent from August 14, 2026.
That was a filing owed to the government. A bank’s own question about owners comes from section 1010.230, which still stands. Keep a share register that shows percentages and voting rights for each owner, and expect a source of funds request too, since Kraken asks business clients where their money comes from.