# Know Your Business
source: https://developer.mastercard.com/merchant-identifier/documentation/use-cases/know-your-business/index.md

## Know Your Business {#know-your-business}

Unpacking a merchant's identity is a fundamental commercial need that extends well beyond regulatory obligation. Across industries, businesses have a wide range of reasons to verify merchant identity:

* Confirming that a merchant operates in the right category before onboarding them to a program
* Identifying which merchants are active within a specific geography
* Filtering merchant networks by business type
* Pulling foundational firmographics about a merchant for identity verification
* Protecting brand reputation by avoiding association with illegitimate entities
* Creating clear, auditable records of how commercial relationships were assessed and approved

The Merchant Identifier API helps resolve raw merchant information to verified merchant records -- complete with standardized name, category, location, and more -- adding an intelligent layer for accurate KYB processes.

This intelligence layer can help confirm that a merchant operates in an eligible category, within a specific geography or market segment. It can help verify that a business is legitimately categorized and has been operating for a period of time before approving a commercial relationship.

### Where it applies {#where-it-applies}

Various industry segments use enrichment-powered KYB processes for:

* **Identity Verification Companies** augment their capabilities with payment-derived insights.
* **Loyalty \& Rewards Providers** filter and verify merchants by category and location eligibility before admitting them to a program.
* **Agentic Commerce Platforms** verify the merchant behind every agent-initiated transaction in real time -- ensuring correct merchant, category, and location before a purchase is completed on a user's behalf.
* **Embedded Finance \& BNPL Platforms** confirm merchant eligibility by category and location before enabling financing at checkout, ensuring credit products are only activated at verified, eligible merchant entities.
* **Financial Institutions \& Acquirers** identify merchants operating within a specific region, category, or segment for portfolio analysis, reward programs, and more.

## How it works {#how-it-works}

Diagram midOverview

## Relevant Endpoints {#relevant-endpoints}

[Merchant Identifier](https://developer.mastercard.com/merchant-identifier/documentation/api-reference/index.md#tag/Merchants/operation/getMerchants)
Use Merchant Identifier to resolve merchant inputs into a standardized merchant profile and returns a Location ID that can be passed to Places for additional merchant intelligence.

Know Your Business verification draws on two complementary pathways.

**[Search - by Transaction Descriptor](https://developer.mastercard.com/merchant-identifier/documentation/api-reference/index.md#tag/Merchants/operation/getMerchants)**

API Reference: `GET /merchants`

**[Search - AI Powered](https://developer.mastercard.com/merchant-identifier/documentation/api-reference/index.md#tag/Merchants/operation/searchMerchantsUsingPOST)**

API Reference: `POST /merchants/searches`

[Find Details on a Place](https://developer.mastercard.com/places/documentation/api-reference/#tag/Places/operation/getPlaceByLocationIdUsingGET)
Use a 'Location ID' obtained from Mastercard solutions such as Merchant Identifier to retrieve additional information about a merchant location. Places Details provides access to merchant attributes, location information, business status, and other merchant intelligence associated with a specific location.
Tip: Start with [Search - by Transaction Descriptor](https://developer.mastercard.com/merchant-identifier/documentation/tutorials-and-guides/endpoint-overview/search-by-descriptor/index.md) when your input is a clean transaction descriptor, and escalate to [Search - AI Powered](https://developer.mastercard.com/merchant-identifier/documentation/tutorials-and-guides/endpoint-overview/search-with-ai/index.md) when data is truncated, reordered or inconsistently formatted.

## Useful Links {#useful-links}

* [View the full Open API Specification](https://developer.mastercard.com/merchant-identifier/documentation/api-reference/index.md)
* [Review the APIs error responses](https://developer.mastercard.com/merchant-identifier/documentation/code-and-formats/index.md)