Every system that works does so because it’s built on structure. Whether it’s a city’s traffic grid, a stock exchange, or a cross-border payment network, the logic is the same: rules create order, and order makes scale possible. They create the structure that allows fair participation. The same applies to international payments, where compliance is the backbone of secure and scalable global transactions.
For fintechs, MTOs, and PSPs, compliance isn’t just a regulatory box to check; it’s a core operational function. Every cross-border transfer triggers a complex web of expectations, from AML protocols to real-time sanctions screening.
Yet for many providers, especially those scaling into new regions, staying compliant across jurisdictions can be overwhelming. By the time you are done reading this, you will understand the basics of global payments and strategies that you can implement within your organisation to avoid any potential negative issues
Key Compliance Components
These are non-negotiables for any regulated entity operating in international payments:
Know your customer (KYC)
KYC/KYB is your first and often most scrutinised line of defence. It’s not just about collecting ID documents. It’s about verifying the authenticity, legitimacy, and risk level of each user or business interacting with your platform.
Key areas of focus:
Document Verification: Real-time checks for forgery, expiry, and jurisdictional alignment.
Biometric Authentication: Face match and liveness detection to prevent impersonation and account fraud.
Business Verification (KYB): Checking UBOs (Ultimate Beneficial Owners), company registration, and operating history.
Risk Scoring: Assigning a dynamic risk level to each user based on geography, transaction history, and industry type.
KYC done poorly results in regulatory breaches, high false positives, and onboarding delays, all fatal at scale.
Sanctions Screening
Your systems must actively screen against updated global sanctions lists (OFAC, EU, UN, etc.), covering both the sender and receiver. Sanction breaches, even unintentional ones, come with steep penalties and can result in license suspension.
Critical areas to address:
Real-Time Screening against global watchlists (OFAC, EU, UN, HMT, etc.) during onboarding and every transaction.
Dual-Use Goods & Sector Risk Filters, especially for B2B transactions involving equipment, chemicals, or high-risk jurisdictions.
Continuous List Updates lists change daily. Your screening system must auto-refresh and re-screen impacted users retroactively.
If your screening system only checks once, you’re already exposed.
Anti-money laundering (AML) regulations
AML is about ongoing monitoring, not just onboarding.
It involves analysing transactions both in real time and after they occur, detecting red flags, and reporting them through well-defined escalation paths.
Key elements:
Transaction Monitoring Systems: Built with customizable rules to detect anomalies (e.g., structuring, velocity, volume shifts).
Flagging and Reporting Suspicious Transactions: Any activity that deviates from a customer’s typical behaviour should trigger an internal review, and where necessary, be formally reported to the relevant financial intelligence unit.
Geographic Risk Filtering: Adjusting rulesets based on payment corridors or originating/receiving countries.
Regulators expect you to prove why something wasn’t flagged, not just why it was flagged.
Data Governance & Auditability
Compliance isn’t just about catching bad actors; it’s about proving that you tried your best to prevent risk.
Your data architecture should support:
Comprehensive Audit Trails: Every action in the KYC/AML pipeline must be logged, timestamped, and immutable.
Granular Access Control: Only authorised personnel should access sensitive compliance data.
Data Residency & Privacy Compliance: Adherence to UKGDPR, GDPR, NDPR, and local storage requirements for regulated data.
Reporting Pipelines: Ability to generate instant reports for regulators, banks, and internal audits.
Practical Steps to Simplify Compliance
With regulatory frameworks constantly evolving, maintaining compliance requires more than just internal controls; it demands infrastructure-level readiness and expert oversight.
These are simple ways fintechs and MTOs can stay ahead:
Build (or Integrate) a Scalable Compliance Stack
Your compliance function must evolve from a set of tools to a connected infrastructure. Relying on fragmented vendors for KYC, AML, sanctions, and reporting introduces friction, delays, and risk blind spots.
To scale responsibly:
Unify your KYC, AML, and sanctions checks through a centralised rules engine
Integrate directly with trusted identity providers (e.g., Jumio, Onfido) and screening engines
Use modular architecture so you can plug in regional tools (e.g., NDPR-compliant checks in Nigeria, Aadhaar in India) without rebuilding your core system
Automate workflows and escalations based on severity, geography, and transaction type
If you’re expanding fast and globally, regulatory agility matters as much as product speed.
Outsource Compliance Intelligence, Not Ownership
Regulators still hold you responsible, even if you outsource parts of your compliance function. That said, smart fintechs leverage specialised partners to stay ahead.
What that looks like:
Work with a licensed payment provider whose infrastructure includes built-in compliance tools
Share a live compliance SLA, how flags are handled, how escalations are resolved, what’s reported, and when
Choose partners with multi-jurisdictional experience and proven resilience under audit or regulator inspection
Ensure partners provide data transparency and access to logs, alerts, and reports at all times
Outsourcing should reduce your operational burden, not leave you in the dark.
Invest in Continuous Compliance Enablement
Regulations change. So must your team and tools.
Embed a culture of ongoing compliance readiness by:
Holding quarterly training refreshers for Product, Ops, Engineering, and Support
Subscribing to jurisdiction-specific regulatory bulletins (e.g., FCA, CBN, FINTRAC)
Simulating compliance incident drills with your tech and risk teams
Maintaining live dashboards that track flagged transactions, open investigations, and unresolved PEP hits
Partner with Globally Regulated Infrastructure
The best way to simplify compliance is to build upon providers who already operate with compliance at their core.
At Leatherback, we:
Operate under multiple licenses (including in high-risk and tier-1 markets)
Embed KYC/AML/sanctions monitoring directly into our transaction workflows
Provide APIs with compliance logic baked into every call
Offer real-time visibility into compliance statuses, alerts, and resolution pipelines
By plugging into our infrastructure, fintechs and MTOs can reduce the time, cost, and complexity of managing global compliance expectations, while still maintaining full ownership of their internal policies and risk controls.
We don’t replace your compliance team. We give them the tools, transparency, and coverage to operate more confidently and compliantly, at scale.
In this space, compliance isn’t an afterthought; it’s the foundation.
Fintechs and PSPs that treat compliance as a growth enabler, not a blocker, are better equipped to gain trust, secure licenses, and expand globally.
When you work with Leatherback, you get more than cross-border infrastructure. You get a compliance-first ecosystem designed to help you operate confidently and securely, no matter where your customers are.
