KYC regulations emerged from decades-long efforts to fight financial crime. The US Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) of 1970 required financial institutions to document and report large cash transactions. This laid the groundwork for modern customer due diligence, even before the term “KYC” was coined. As global financial systems expanded, the G7 created the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in 1989, issuing recommendations that countries adopt Anti-Money Laundering (AML) measures, including identifying customers.