When a shareholder is a company, it doesn't get squeezed into a name field: it becomes its own entity in ComplyWise, with its own KYB record, connected to yours by the ownership link. This article covers how those connected entities work and how to read the group as a whole.
Corporate shareholders are entities
Add a corporate owner from the entity's ownership register (see The ownership register) and ComplyWise creates a linked entity for it. From there:
- The parent has its own Business Docs checklist, its own ownership register, and its own screening, exactly like your primary entity.
- The ownership percentage lives on the connection between the two.
- The chain can continue upward: the parent's own corporate owners become entities too, so a multi-level group builds naturally.
Click through from the register or the structure chart to open a connected entity's KYB record.
The group KYB summary
Because each group company has its own KYB record, ComplyWise can summarize the group: connected entities with their ownership percentages and their KYB readiness, in one view. Each figure is worked out exactly as it is on that company's own KYB record, from its required documents plus any optional ones already uploaded, so the group view and the KYB record never disagree. Use it to spot which company in the chain is holding the group's paperwork back, before a bank does.
What "Restricted" means
Workspace members can be scoped to specific entities. When a connected entity is outside your scope:
- It still appears in the ownership register, structure chart, and group summary, so the shape of the group stays honest.
- Its details are hidden: no name, no ownership figures, no readiness. It renders greyed and labeled Restricted, and there's no link through to its KYB record.
- Its documents and facts never surface to you anywhere else in the product either: search, exports, and AI features respect the same boundary.
If you need to work with a restricted entity, ask a Workspace Admin to widen your access scope.
Tips
- Don't duplicate group companies. Before creating a group company by hand on the KYB Manager page, check whether it already exists as a corporate owner; the duplicate-name warning on the create form helps catch this.
- Screen the chain. Owners' screening results roll up, weighted by ownership, into your entity's risk band, so screening the parents is part of screening yourself.
Related articles
- The ownership register: adding corporate owners
- The corporate structure chart: the group drawn as a diagram
- Add a business entity: creating standalone entities