Risk and compliance

Anti-money laundering and know your customer

Also called AML, KYC.

Anti-money laundering and know your customer are the Bank Secrecy Act checks a United States bank or broker runs on an EB-5 investor and on the money itself before an account opens or a wire clears, and they are separate from, and often stricter than, the lawful source of funds test USCIS applies to the petition.

What it decides

The bank applies these rules, not USCIS. Under 31 CFR 1020.220 a bank must run a written customer identification programme and obtain a name, date of birth, address and identification number before opening an account, and for a non-US person a passport number and country of issuance will serve. Under 31 CFR 1010.230 it must identify and verify the beneficial owners behind a legal entity customer, meaning each individual holding 25 percent or more of the equity and one individual who controls it, which reaches the new commercial enterprise because 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(Q) makes it hold pooled capital in a separate insured United States account. Where an account requires deposits of at least $1,000,000, is held for non-US persons and has an assigned relationship officer, it is a private banking account and 31 CFR 1010.620 makes the bank establish the nominal and beneficial owners, ask whether any of them is a senior foreign political figure, establish the source of funds and the expected use, and refuse, suspend or close the account where it cannot. A file that satisfies 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(L) can still stop here.

Governed by 31 U.S.C. 5318(h) Anti-Money Laundering Programs, (i) Due Diligence for United States Private Banking and Correspondent Bank Accounts Involving Foreign Persons, and (l) Identification and Verification of Accountholders; 31 CFR 1020.220 (customer identification programme for banks), 31 CFR 1010.230 (beneficial ownership of legal entity customers), 31 CFR 1010.605(m) (definition of private banking account) and 31 CFR 1010.620 (private banking due diligence); 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(Q) for the separate insured account. None of the Treasury rules is EB-5 specific and none is administered by USCIS, so they are good for what the bank must do and say nothing about petition eligibility. 31 CFR 1010.610 covers correspondent accounts held for foreign banks, a duty owed about the foreign bank rather than about the investor, so it is not cited here for anything the investor experiences.

Related terms

Source of fundsSource of funds is the documentary showing that an EB-5 investor's required capital, and the money used to pay administrative costs and fees, was obtained from a lawful source and through lawful means, proved by records rather than by assertion.
Path of fundsPath of funds is the account by account trail documenting how the capital moved from its proven source into the new commercial enterprise, and it is a separate showing from proving that the source was lawful.
Fund administrationFund administration is the duty under 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(Q) for a new commercial enterprise to hold each investor's capital in a separate insured United States account and to retain an independent fund administrator over that account. The account requirement cannot be waived; the administrator can be, either by an annual GAAS financial audit shared with DHS and every investor, or by a discretionary waiver where an SEC registered adviser or broker-dealer controls the enterprise.
EscrowEscrow in EB-5 is an arrangement under which an investor's subscription money is held in a designated account under a written escrow agreement and released to the new commercial enterprise only when a stated trigger occurs, rather than passing to the enterprise on subscription.
OFAC sanctions screeningOFAC sanctions screening is the search of a person against the Specially Designated Nationals List kept by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which 8 U.S.C. 1153(b)(5)(R) makes a precondition of approving an EB-5 investor petition and which every US bank in the payment chain also runs on its own account.

Checked against primary sources on 10 August 2026. Back to the glossary