KYC, onboarding and identity verification software for Mauritius

SonarPulse is KYC, onboarding and identity verification software for Mauritius reporting persons. It onboards individuals and companies with document capture and biometric identity verification, maps beneficial owners through the shareholder hierarchy, screens every party against sanctions, PEP and adverse-media sources, rates the customer low, medium or high and keeps the file current with risk-based CDD renewal. It is hosted inside Mauritius, so identity documents and customer data never leave the jurisdiction.

What Mauritius asks of your customer due diligence

• Beneficial owners from 20%. The Companies (Beneficial Owner) (Percentage of Shares) Regulations 2019 set the threshold at 20%, whatever the type of share; for financial institutions the figure is instead the Banking Act’s “significant interest”. A group policy written to a single 25% standard misses holders of 20% to 25%. Beneficial ownership across the six.
• Enhanced CDD for high risk countries. General Notice No. 358 of 2026 names the DPRK, Iran and Myanmar. Under section 17H(2) of FIAMLA and regulation 12 of the 2018 Regulations, business relationships or transactions involving them call for enhanced CDD: more information on the customer, source of funds or wealth, senior management approval and enhanced monitoring. Where enhanced CDD cannot be performed, the relationship ends and an STR is filed. The April 2026 high-risk country notice.
• PEPs on a risk basis. Senior management approval is automatic for foreign PEPs and risk-based for domestic ones, and the FIU’s January 2026 guidelines base decisions on former PEPs on an assessment of risk rather than a fixed time limit. Who counts as a PEP.
• Screening that covers beneficial owners. The National AML/CFT Strategy 2026-2029 promotes automated systems that screen individuals and entities, including beneficial owners and transactions, against UN lists and domestic designations in real time, and plans inspections of whether screening tools are kept up to date. What the national strategy plans.
• Penalties for the gaps. The FIAMLA Administrative Penalties Regulations 2025 list 39 breaches in three bands, from Rs 5,000 to Rs 250,000. The penalty grid.

How SonarPulse handles KYC

• Onboarding and KYB. Six entity types with purpose-built data models.
• Identity verification. Document capture and biometric identity verification at onboarding.
• Beneficial owners. UBO and shareholder hierarchy, with every owner in the chain screened, not just the customer.
• Sanctions, PEP and adverse media. Both Mauritius mandatory lists, 250+ global sanction, PEP and watchlist sources, a localised in-country PEP database at levels 1 to 3, adverse media and legal and enforcement records including the Supreme Court of Mauritius.
• Risk rating and EDD triggers. A per-tenant rules engine with versioning and rollback, category weights per entity type and a transparent low, medium or high rating, with enhanced due diligence triggered by the rating.
• Perpetual monitoring. Daily re-screening with hit-diffing and consolidated alerts, plus a daily adverse-media watch.
• CDD renewal on autopilot. Periodic review scheduled by risk rating (high every year, standard every three, low every four), a secure OTP-gated portal for the customer, cross-validation of the updated data and per-field maker-checker review, with high-risk sign-off always dual-controlled.
• Due-diligence reports. A per-entity PDF and HTML report and a row-level audit trail of who checked what, and when.

Questions about KYC in Mauritius

What is the beneficial ownership threshold in Mauritius?

20% of shares, under the Companies (Beneficial Owner) (Percentage of Shares) Regulations 2019, whatever the type of share. For financial institutions the figure is the Banking Act’s “significant interest”.

When is enhanced due diligence required?

Among other cases, where a customer or applicant is from a high risk third country (regulation 12(1)(c)) and for business relationships or transactions involving a country the Minister has identified under section 17H, currently the DPRK, Iran and Myanmar. In SonarPulse the risk rating triggers enhanced due diligence, and high-risk sign-off is always dual-controlled.

Can customers update their KYC without coming to a branch?

Yes. The CDD renewal module reaches customers through a secure OTP-gated portal with save and resume, checks uploaded documents for malware, cross-validates the data and sends each field to maker-checker review. Only the approved set is written to your system of record.

Where are identity documents held?

Inside Mauritius. Sonar runs as an in-country cloud service, with a private data centre or on-premises deployment where that is mandated.

Further reading

• AML/CFT screening software for Mauritius
• Transaction monitoring software for Mauritius
• Beneficial ownership across the six: where the line is drawn
• Mauritius: what the April 2026 high-risk country notice requires
• Six jurisdictions, six answers to who counts as a PEP