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Datos Insights 2026 Impact Awards badgeDatos Insights 2026 Impact AwardsShufti Named Best KYC/KYB Innovation SolutionExplore The Win Shufti Named Best KYC/KYB Innovation SolutionExplore The Win Shufti Named Best KYC/KYB Innovation SolutionExplore Liminal 2026 KYC IndexShufti: A top vendor for product executionRead The PR Shufti: A top vendor for product executionRead The PR Liminal 2026 KYC Index — Shufti: A top vendor for product executionRead PR Gavel on AMLR rule bookAMLR Applies 10 July 2027. Don't Wait for the Deadline to Find the GapsBook Consultation AMLR Applies 10 July 2027. Don't Wait for the Deadline to Find the GapsBook Consultation AMLR Applies 10 July 2027 — Find the GapsConsult Bank card and cashBank Account Verification: Get Secure Payouts with Confirmed OwnershipSee How It Works Bank Account Verification: Get Secure Payouts with Confirmed OwnershipSee How It Works Bank Account Verification — Secure PayoutsSee How Geo Compliance Ties Verified Location to a Verified IdentityBook A Demo Geo Compliance Ties Verified Location to a Verified IdentityBook A Demo Geo Compliance — Verified Location, Verified IdentityBook Demo Journey Builder dot gridConfigure Verification Flows as Per Your Needs with Journey BuilderSee How It Works Configure Verification Flows as Per Your Needs with Journey BuilderSee How It Works Journey Builder — Configure Verification FlowsSee How Shufti MCP toggle with ChatGPT and ClaudeShufti MCP: Verification Tools, Ready to Use Inside Claude or ChatGPTExplore Agent Shufti MCP: Verification Tools, Ready to Use Inside Claude or ChatGPTExplore Agent Shufti MCP — Verification Tools Inside Claude or ChatGPTExplore

Scale Identity Verification and KYC Operations in Costa Rica

Verify citizens and foreign residents through the TSE digital ID, Registro Civil cédula checks, passport NFC and 10,000+ ID document types, run KYB on companies and owners, and monitor transactions and sanctions lists. One platform runs compliance and fraud prevention across the full customer lifecycle for SUGEF-, SUGEVAL- and SUGESE-supervised firms.

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Operational Performance for Costa Rica KYC

Our Numbers Speak Volumes

98.31%

Pass
Rates

Under 5 secs

IDV
Verification

99%

eIDV
Coverage

THE COSTA RICA VERIFICATION GAP

Costa Rica IDV/KYC Challenges

Two Cédula Designs and a Digital ID Now in Circulation

Two Cédula Designs and a Digital ID Now in Circulation

KYC in Costa Rica now meets two cédula designs, since the TSE's polycarbonate card with an MRZ arrived in October 2025 and older cards stay valid, plus a phone-based digital ID that firms must be ready to accept. Shufti verifies all three in one flow.

Keeping Customer Risk Current Requires Continuous Monitoring

Keeping Customer Risk Current Requires Continuous Monitoring

Costa Rican rules require continuous monitoring against each customer's declared transaction profile and a KYC refresh at intervals set by risk. Shufti checks transactions against those profiles, rescreens customers whenever a list changes and flags registry, director and ownership changes.

CONASSIF and the RTBF Use Different Ownership Thresholds

CONASSIF and the RTBF Use Different Ownership Thresholds

Supervised firms collect notarised shareholder details for anyone holding 10% or more under Acuerdo CONASSIF 12-21, while companies declare beneficial owners at 15% to the RTBF. Shufti maps ownership through every corporate layer and applies whichever threshold each check requires.

Virtual Asset Providers Now Fall Under Law 7786

Virtual Asset Providers Now Fall Under Law 7786

Law 10961 brought virtual asset service providers under Law 7786 in 2026, so exchanges and custodians now register with SUGEF and carry full AML duties. Shufti covers them with KYC, wallet screening, Travel Rule messaging and report-ready case files for the UIF.

Documents and Languages

Individual Documents Shufti Verifies in Costa Rica

Shufti verifies 6 Costa Rican identity documents plus passports and ID cards from other countries. The cards below cover the core documents Costa Rican onboarding relies on, with the full list on the supported documents page.

View All Supported Documents

Identidad Digital Costarricense (IDC)

The TSE's mobile digital ID, issued since September 2025, carries the same legal value as the physical cédula and is unlocked with the holder's face, fingerprint or PIN. Shufti accepts the IDC as a primary credential, so citizens can verify from their phone without photographing a card.

Identidad Digital Costarricense (IDC)

Cédula de Identidad

The TSE issues the cédula to citizens from age 18 under Law 3504, and the 2025 polycarbonate design is as valid as earlier cards. Shufti runs forensic checks on either version, matches a live selfie to the photo and confirms the number against Registro Civil data.

Cédula de Identidad

DIMEX (Documento de Identidad Migratorio para Extranjeros)

Foreign residents identify themselves with the DIMEX, held as a physical card or a digital document with a QR code. Shufti checks the card or file for tampering, reads the DIMEX number and residence category, and matches the holder to a live selfie.

DIMEX (Documento de Identidad Migratorio para Extranjeros)

Costa Rican Passport

Costa Rican passports issued since 2022 carry an electronic chip. Shufti reads it by NFC and checks every passport across nine forensic detection layers, from MRZ checksum validation to hologram analysis, so a cloned or altered passport fails before onboarding.

Costa Rican Passport

Foreign Passports and National ID Cards

Shufti actively processes 10,000+ ID document types from 240+ countries and territories, and its zero-shot AI learns new document formats in minutes. Non-residents, investors, retirees and remote workers who hold no DIMEX verify with the passport or national ID they already carry.

Foreign Passports and National ID Cards

Costa Rica Driving License

The MOPT issues driving licenses under Law 9078, and many adults carry one alongside the cédula. Shufti checks the license's authenticity and expiry and matches its photo to a live selfie, which helps ride-hailing, delivery and car rental platforms verify drivers in one step.

Costa Rica Driving License

Proof of Address

Costa Rican addresses are recorded by province, canton and district plus directions from landmarks, so formats vary widely. Shufti verifies ICE, AyA and other utility bills, bank statements and lease contracts in the same step as the ID, matching the extracted address to the customer's declaration.

Proof of Address
Identidad Digital Costarricense (IDC) Cédula de Identidad DIMEX (Documento de Identidad Migratorio para Extranjeros) Costa Rican Passport Foreign Passports and National ID Cards Costa Rica Driving License Proof of Address Identidad Digital Costarricense (IDC)
Personería Jurídica Certificate and Registro Nacional Record Escritura Constitutiva and Bylaws Business Address Proof Personería Jurídica Certificate and Registro Nacional Record

Entity Identity

Personería Jurídica Certificate and Registro Nacional Record

The Registro Nacional certifies a company's status and legal representatives through the personería jurídica. Shufti confirms the cédula jurídica, status and representatives with a live registry call at every check, and flags certificates whose details differ from the register.

Personería Jurídica Certificate and Registro Nacional Record

Escritura Constitutiva and Bylaws

AI-OCR reads ownership, capital and signing authority from the escritura constitutiva that the Código de Comercio requires for every company, and flags GAN-generated or edited pages before they reach an analyst. Each figure is then checked against the Registro Nacional record.

Escritura Constitutiva and Bylaws

Business Address Proof

Lease contracts and utility bills are cross-checked against the registered domicile, which Article 18 of the Código de Comercio requires to be a current and exact address in Costa Rica. A mismatch between the two is flagged for review.

Business Address Proof

Tax Identity

RUT Registration in TRIBU-CR

Since October 2025 the Ministerio de Hacienda keeps taxpayer records in the Registro Único Tributario on its TRIBU-CR platform, where companies are identified by their cédula jurídica. Shufti extracts the registration details and cross-checks the name, number and activity against registry records.

RUT Registration in TRIBU-CR

NITE for Non-Resident Taxpayers

Hacienda assigns a 10-digit Número de Identificación Tributaria Especial to taxpayers without a cédula, DIMEX or other Costa Rican ID. Shufti captures the NITE and matches it to the person's passport or the entity's foreign registration.

NITE for Non-Resident Taxpayers

Foreign Tax Registrations and FATCA/CRS Self-Certification

Foreign-owned entities and overseas parents are verified with their home-country tax registrations, and FATCA and CRS self-certifications are captured in the same case file, so cross-border reporting status sits beside the entity's Costa Rican records.

Foreign Tax Registrations and FATCA/CRS Self-Certification
RUT Registration in TRIBU-CR NITE for Non-Resident Taxpayers Foreign Tax Registrations and FATCA/CRS Self-Certification RUT Registration in TRIBU-CR
Registro de Transparencia y Beneficiarios Finales (RTBF) Shareholder Register and Ownership Chart Directors, Legal Representatives and Authorized Signatories Registro de Transparencia y Beneficiarios Finales (RTBF)

Ownership and Control

Registro de Transparencia y Beneficiarios Finales (RTBF)

Companies declare their beneficial owners to the RTBF, the register Law 9416 created and the BCCR runs. Shufti extracts each declared owner, verifies their identity, screens them and compares the declaration with the shareholder register, flagging any owner missing from either record.

Registro de Transparencia y Beneficiarios Finales (RTBF)

Shareholder Register and Ownership Chart

Shufti maps shareholdings through intermediate companies to the people at the top, under either threshold Costa Rican rules apply, and screens each person against sanctions, PEP and adverse media lists. Circular holdings and nominee shareholders are flagged for analyst review.

Shareholder Register and Ownership Chart

Directors, Legal Representatives and Authorized Signatories

Each director, legal representative and signatory is identity-verified and screened, and Shufti alerts the case owner when the Registro Nacional records a change to the board or legal representation, so outdated signing powers are caught early.

Directors, Legal Representatives and Authorized Signatories

Languages We Cover

Spanish, English and Expat Document Parsing

Costa Rican documents use Spanish with accents and the ñ, while foreign residents bring documents in many other languages and scripts. Shufti's OCR reads 150+ languages and scripts at 99.7% accuracy, so accents and both surnames are captured exactly as printed. It averages 93% against Google Vision's 78.4% in its published benchmark, and zero-shot document intelligence reads unseen layouts on first sight, without a template.

Spanish, English and Expat Document Parsing

Costa Rican Name Matching

Costa Rican names carry a paternal and a maternal surname, often with compound given names. Shufti's native phonetic models for 80+ languages match names across surname order, accents and spelling variants in sanctions and PEP screening.

Costa Rican Name Matching

Cross-Document Consistency Checks

Names, dates of birth and identifiers are reconciled across the cédula, IDC, DIMEX, passport, personería jurídica and RTBF declaration, so a mismatch between any two records is flagged before an analyst signs off on the customer.

Cross-Document Consistency Checks
Spanish, English and Expat Document Parsing Costa Rican Name Matching Cross-Document Consistency Checks Spanish, English and Expat Document Parsing

Independent Validation

Shufti's Recognition Across Independent Evaluations

Liminal

Ranked Exceptional in the Liminal Index 2026 for age estimation

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Gartner

Differentiated by Gartner on document diversity and country coverage

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iBeta

Certified at iBeta Level 3 PAD with 0% APCER

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KuppingerCole

Broadest global reach in the 2025 KuppingerCole Extended IDV report

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Homeland Security

Ranked Top 5 in the DHS RIVR 2025 for identity validation

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Liminal

Top Vendor for Product Execution in the Liminal Index for KYC 2026

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Liminal

Ranked Exceptional for age verification by Liminal Index 2026

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G2

Recognised as a Leader in G2 Fall 2026 reports

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Regulatory Update

Every Verification Route Costa Rican Firms Rely On, in One Platform

Article 16 of Law 7786 requires identity to be verified by reliable means, and Article 33 of Acuerdo CONASSIF 12-21 lets firms obtain identification data from official Costa Rican databases and store it electronically. Shufti supports the TSE's digital and database routes, plus chip, document and video routes for non-residents and customers without a cédula.

Fraud Prevention Across the Costa Rican Customer Journey

Reduce fraud losses and protect customer trust across onboarding, account access, and payments. Shufti connects identity, behavioral, device, network, and transaction intelligence to help Costa Rican businesses act on risk while keeping legitimate customers moving.

  • 01

    Account Takeover and Recovery Abuse

    Stop attackers who take over banking and wallet accounts through SIM swaps, phished passwords or stolen one-time codes before they reach customer funds. Shufti scores every login and recovery attempt with device, behavioral and location signals, and steps up to a selfie check only when the risk calls for it.

  • 02

    Social Engineering and Manipulated Payments

    Scammers posing as bank staff talk customers into authorizing SINPE Móvil and bank transfers themselves. Active-call detection and behavioral biometrics spot a customer being coached during a session, while transaction monitoring holds payments that break the customer's normal pattern before the money leaves.

  • 03

    Device Spoofing and Automated Attacks

    Block bot-driven sign-ups and emulator farms that open accounts at volume for mule networks and promotion abuse. Device fingerprinting ties every session to its hardware and network, so one device behind dozens of new accounts is flagged at onboarding rather than after the first payout.

  • 04

    Connected Fraud Rings and Repeat Offenders

    Shut out fraudsters who return under new names after being offboarded. Fraud network detection links shared devices, documents, faces, phone numbers and payment details across accounts, and cross-company fraud intelligence flags identities already tied to confirmed fraud elsewhere, so whole rings are removed together.

  • 05

    Synthetic Identities and Fabricated Documents

    Reject identities built from a real cédula number, a borrowed address and an invented face. Zero-shot document intelligence tests every cédula, DIMEX and foreign ID for template and print anomalies, while email and phone enrichment shows whether the contact details carry any genuine history.

  • 06

    Deepfakes and Camera Injection

    Protect selfie onboarding and video identification from face swaps, replayed footage and virtual cameras. Deepfake detection inspects every frame and the capture channel itself, so an injected stream is rejected even when the face looks convincing and the document is genuine.

  • 07

    Money Mules and Rapid Fund Movement

    Find mule accounts that receive scam proceeds and move them on within minutes through SINPE Móvil and other instant transfers. Money mule detection combines onboarding signals, device links and transaction velocity to flag accounts recruited or rented by fraud networks before the funds disappear.

  • 08

    Fraudulent Businesses and Concealed Ownership

    Keep shell companies and fronts off your merchant and corporate books. Shufti checks Registro Nacional status, legal representatives and tax registration, maps beneficial owners through layered structures and screens every person behind the company before an account or merchant ID is issued.

Governance & Controls

Audit-Ready Decisions, Lower Operational Drag

Fewer Avoidable Re-submissions

Capture guidance for both cédula designs, DIMEX cards and digital DIMEX files catches glare, cropping and blur before submission, so customers rarely retry.

Fewer Avoidable Re-submissions

Cleaner Audit Trails

Shufti's case management records sources, results, timestamps, evidence, analyst notes and decisions, packaged as report-ready bundles for filing through UIF Directo or UIF Reportes.

Cleaner Audit Trails

One Workflow, One Back Office

Unify KYC, KYB, AML screening and transaction monitoring in one case file. Perpetual KYC/KYB tracks ownership, director and transaction changes, managing the full compliance lifecycle.

One Workflow, One Back Office

IDC and Cédula-First Flow Design

Citizens verify through the IDC or a cédula check first, while foreign residents and non-residents move to DIMEX or passport checks in the same flow.

IDC and Cédula-First Flow Design

Shufti's IDV/KYC Solutions for Costa Rica

KYC Solutions

KYC verification in Costa Rica serves citizens who carry the IDC or a cédula, foreign residents with a DIMEX and non-residents with only a passport. One Shufti flow routes each by risk, so nobody faces checks they don't need.

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Face Verification

Face Verification

Remote onboarding depends on proving that the person holding the cédula or DIMEX is its owner. Shufti's face matching delivers a 99.5% first-try pass rate, and DHS RIVR 2025 testing measured a false match rate below 0.001.

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Age Verification

Age Verification

Costa Ricans aged 12 to 17 carry the TSE's Tarjeta de Identidad de Menores rather than a cédula. Shufti estimates age from a selfie in under five seconds, blocks 99.8% of underage attempts and falls back to a document check.

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Bank Account Verification

Bank Account Verification

Payouts and SINPE transfers fail when an IBAN or account holder name is wrong. Shufti validates Costa Rican IBANs with checksum checks and matches the account holder's name in real time before any money moves.

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Address Verification

Address Verification

Utility bills and bank statements describe Costa Rican addresses by canton, district and landmarks. Shufti's layout-aware extraction and fuzzy matching verify them at a 99.3% pass rate, or confirm an address without a document in under three seconds.

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Document Verification

Document Verification

Costa Rican onboarding draws on two cédula designs, physical and digital DIMEX, passports and driving licenses. Shufti verifies each within seconds and returns structured fields, so analysts never retype a cédula or DIMEX number.

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Identity Verification

Identity Verification

Separate tools for documents, selfies, database checks and addresses split one customer across several records. Shufti runs document, biometric, NFC, address and eIDV checks in one API session and keeps every result in one case file.

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KYB Solutions

Business verification in Costa Rica means reconciling the Registro Nacional record, the cédula jurídica, the RTBF declaration under Law 9416 and ownership that often runs through holding companies. Shufti checks each record at its source and screens every owner it finds.

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Business Verification

Business Verification

Onboarding a Costa Rican company means confirming its personería jurídica, tax registration, legal representatives and the people who ultimately own or control it. Shufti's live registry call pulls that picture together in one check, putting corporate onboarding under two minutes.

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Enhanced Due Diligence

Enhanced Due Diligence

Layered ownership, high-risk sectors, PEP links and registry mismatches call for a deeper review. Shufti's branching questionnaires, configurable risk scoring and UBO verification links collect and score the extra evidence in the same case file.

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AML Screening

A customer who is clean at onboarding can land on a list next week. Shufti's perpetual KYC rescreens every customer against 4,000+ watchlists, including the UN Security Council lists Costa Rica enforces, refreshes them every 15 minutes and keeps every alert in one case file.

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Business AML Screening

Business AML Screening

A company's risk often sits with its owners and directors. Shufti screens entities, beneficial owners and directors against UN designations, global sanctions, PEP lists and adverse media, and perpetual KYB rescreens them whenever a list or the company changes.

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Transaction Monitoring

Transaction Monitoring

Cash and international transfers of US$10,000 or more must be registered under Article 20 of Law 7786, including smaller amounts that add up. Shufti's library of 500+ pre-built rules covers structuring, smurfing and mule activity, with 60% fewer false positives and report-ready case bundles for the UIF.

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Travel Rule

Travel Rule

Law 10961 requires virtual asset service providers to obtain and keep the originator and beneficiary information the FATF standard sets for transfers. Shufti's single integration connects to the major Travel Rule networks with IVMS101 messaging and a 2,000+ VASP directory.

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AI Compliance Co-Pilot

AI Compliance Co-Pilot

One common name can return 140+ screening hits, and two-surname naming adds more near-matches. Shufti's AI Compliance Co-Pilot reviews every hit and gives a confidence score with a written reason, so analysts clear false positives faster while the compliance officer keeps the final call.

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REGULATORY ALIGNMENT

Built To Fit Costa Rica's Compliance Landscape

AML compliance in Costa Rica starts with Law 7786, which applies to every obliged entity, while CONASSIF, the superintendencies, the UIF and the TSE each add their own rules. Shufti maps its KYC, KYB, AML screening and transaction monitoring controls to every regime below, so one platform covers each license your group holds.

Law 7786 (as reformed by Law 8204)

Law 7786 (as reformed by Law 8204)

Costa Rica's core AML law requires identity to be verified by reliable means under Article 16, a register of transactions of US$10,000 or more under Article 20 and five-year record keeping under Article 22. Laws 9449 and 10961 extended its duties to designated businesses and virtual asset providers.

Acuerdo CONASSIF 12-21

Acuerdo CONASSIF 12-21

In force since 1 January 2022, replacing SUGEF 12-10, it binds entities supervised by SUGEF, SUGEVAL, SUGESE and SUPEN. Article 34 requires notarised shareholder details at 10%, Article 36 caps the KYC refresh cycle at 60 months and Article 38 keeps records five years after the relationship ends.

Superintendencia General de Entidades Financieras (SUGEF)

Superintendencia General de Entidades Financieras (SUGEF)

SUGEF supervises banks, financial groups and other credit entities, and registers businesses covered by Articles 15 and 15 bis of Law 7786 under Acuerdo SUGEF 11-18. Those businesses follow the prevention rules in Acuerdo SUGEF 13-19, and SUGEF now also registers virtual asset service providers.

Unidad de Inteligencia Financiera (UIF)

Unidad de Inteligencia Financiera (UIF)

The UIF sits within the Instituto Costarricense sobre Drogas and receives suspicious operation reports, which Article 25 of Law 7786 requires confidentially and immediately. Supervised entities file through UIF Directo, while Article 15 and 15 bis businesses register and file their reports through UIF Reportes.

Law 10961 (Virtual Asset Service Providers)

Law 10961 (Virtual Asset Service Providers)

Published in June 2026, Law 10961 adds Article 15 quater to Law 7786. Virtual asset service providers must register with SUGEF, identify customers and beneficial owners from reliable independent sources, apply PEP controls, control virtual asset transfers and report suspicious operations to the UIF without delay.

Superintendencia General de Valores (SUGEVAL)

Superintendencia General de Valores (SUGEVAL)

SUGEVAL supervises securities market participants, including brokerage firms and investment fund managers, which apply Acuerdo CONASSIF 12-21 on the same footing as banks. Article 4 of that regulation lets each superintendency issue market-specific guidelines on top of the shared customer due diligence and monitoring rules.

Superintendencia General de Seguros (SUGESE)

Superintendencia General de Seguros (SUGESE)

SUGESE supervises insurers and insurance intermediaries, which apply Acuerdo CONASSIF 12-21 to customer due diligence, beneficial ownership, PEP controls, monitoring and record keeping. The Superintendencia de Pensiones (SUPEN) applies the same regulation to pension fund operators, so insurance and pension groups follow one AML standard.

Banco Central de Costa Rica (BCCR)

Banco Central de Costa Rica (BCCR)

The BCCR runs SINPE, the national payment system behind SINPE Móvil transfers, and develops and administers the RTBF platform through Central Directo. It is also the certifier behind CA SINPE firma digital certificates, which Acuerdo CONASSIF 11-21 accepts for authorizations to consult the CICAC.

Registro de Transparencia y Beneficiarios Finales (Law 9416)

Registro de Transparencia y Beneficiarios Finales (Law 9416)

Law 9416 requires companies and other legal structures to declare owners holding 15% or more, and Decree 44390-H replaced its regulation in 2024. Under Article 84 bis of the tax code, non-filers face fines of 2% of gross income and cannot obtain personería certificates from the Registro Nacional.

Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones (TSE)

Tribunal Supremo de Elecciones (TSE)

The TSE's Registro Civil issues the cédula under Law 3504 and the Tarjeta de Identidad de Menores for ages 12 to 17. Decreto TSE 16-2025 gives the IDC the same legal value as the physical cédula and gives public and private entities until 1 January 2027 to accept it.

Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería (DGME)

Dirección General de Migración y Extranjería (DGME)

The DGME issues Costa Rican passports, which carry a biometric chip, and the DIMEX that identifies foreign residents, either as a physical card or a digital document with a QR code. DIMEX numbers run to 11 or 12 digits and also serve as the tax identifier for foreign residents.

Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto (UN Security Council Lists)

Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto (UN Security Council Lists)

Under Article 33 bis of Law 7786, the foreign ministry notifies the UIF of persons designated on UN Security Council lists, and the UIF passes them to obliged entities. Entities must freeze assets immediately without prior notice and report the result to the UIF within 24 hours.

GAFILAT (Financial Action Task Force of Latin America)

GAFILAT (Financial Action Task Force of Latin America)

Costa Rica is a GAFILAT member, evaluated in 2015 and released from fourth-round follow-up, and was not on the FATF list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring in June 2026. The ICD published Costa Rica's third National Risk Assessment in May 2026, which shapes supervisory priorities.

Costa Rica Data Residency and Deployment

Costa Rica has no local AWS, Azure or Google Cloud region, so firms that want verification data kept in the country can run Shufti on-premises inside their own infrastructure, including air-gapped deployments. Cloud hosting locations and transfer arrangements are defined in the agreement.

Costa Rica Personal Data Protection Law (Law 8968)

Law 8968, enforced by PRODHAB, requires informed, express consent before personal data is collected and security measures suited to current technology under Article 10. Shufti protects identity and biometric data with encryption, role-based access controls and configurable retention, with consent captured inside the verification flow.

Financial-Sector Cloud and Outsourcing Rules (Acuerdo CONASSIF 5-24)

Acuerdo CONASSIF 5-24 lets supervised entities use cloud services when providers meet requirements such as ISO 27001 certification and encryption of confidential data, and Article 30 keeps outsourced records within supervisors' reach. Shufti supports these reviews with certifications, audit logs and contractual access rights.

Retention Controls

Retention is configurable by client and license, covering the five-year AML minimum and the 10-year limit the Law 8968 regulation sets for keeping data that could affect a person once its purpose ends. Statutory minimums are not automatic deletion dates, and legal holds pause deletion.

Encryption and Security

Data is encrypted in transit and at rest, with role-based access and audit logging throughout. Article 38 of Decree 37554-JP requires affected people to be told of a security breach within five business days, and ISO 27001:2022 and SOC 2 Type 2 reports support vendor assessments.

Automated Decisions and Biometric Data

Article 7 of Law 8968 gives people the right to know the system, program or method used to process their data. Shufti returns verification results and supporting details through the API and back office, so support teams can explain outcomes and escalate disputed results.

Scope of Our Role

Article 40 of the Law 8968 regulation does not treat handing data to a service provider as a transfer, and Article 43 requires a contract. Shufti processes data on the firm's instructions under that contract, the firm stays responsible for its database, and Shufti's privacy notice identifies independent-controller activities.

Data Residency and Privacy Controls in Costa Rica

BUILT FOR COMPLIANCE TEAMS

Costa Rica AML Sources That Strengthen Decisions

Turn Costa Rica Verification Requirements into a Smoother Customer Journey

Share your customer types, risk rules and current onboarding process. A Shufti specialist will show you how to connect identity verification, KYB and ongoing monitoring, reducing operational hand-offs while keeping decision evidence organised for compliance review.

INDEPENDENTLY AUDITED. GLOBALLY CERTIFIED.

Certified to Global Standards

PROVEN WORKFLOWS

Identity Verification Built Around Your Industry in Costa Rica

Open Accounts Remotely Under Acuerdo CONASSIF 12-⁠21

Digital bank onboarding in Costa Rica follows Acuerdo CONASSIF 12-⁠21, which sets due diligence, beneficial ownership and monitoring duties for every SUGEF-⁠supervised bank. Shufti verifies citizens through the IDC or a cédula check and foreign residents with DIMEX, maps corporate owners and keeps every account under perpetual monitoring.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Shufti support the Identidad Digital Costarricense, and what happens when customers cannot use it?

Yes. Citizens can verify with the TSE's IDC from their phone, and the TSE's free Verificador IDC app confirms the holder's data in real time. Customers without the IDC verify through a cédula database check, document and selfie, passport NFC or a video session, all within the same flow.

Is a cédula image enough to verify a Costa Rican customer?

Not on its own. Article 16 of Law 7786 requires identity to be verified by reliable means, so Shufti authenticates the card's security features, matches a live selfie with liveness detection and confirms the cédula number against Registro Civil data in one check.

Can Shufti verify foreign documents or identity formats it has not encountered before?

Yes. Shufti's zero-shot AI adapts to unfamiliar layouts without a template, so a non-resident's national ID or a newly redesigned passport is checked for authenticity on first sight. Foreign residents' DIMEX cards and digital DIMEX files are verified in the same flow.

How accurately does Shufti read Costa Rican documents with accents and two surnames?

Shufti's OCR keeps accents, the ñ and both surnames exactly as printed on the cédula, DIMEX and passport. Fields are then reconciled across documents, Registro Civil data and registry records, so a dropped accent or reordered surname does not create a false mismatch.

How does Shufti verify ownership when a Costa Rican company has several corporate layers?

Shufti pulls Registro Nacional records for each company in the chain, maps shareholdings through every holding entity and identifies owners at the 10% and 15% thresholds Costa Rican rules use. Each owner is identity-verified, screened and compared against the RTBF declaration.

Does Shufti's ongoing monitoring cover more than sanctions screening?

Yes. Article 46 of Acuerdo CONASSIF 12-21 requires continuous monitoring by customer profile, including transactions above the declared monthly amount. Shufti monitors transactions against those profiles, refreshes KYC on a risk-based schedule and flags registry, director and ownership changes as they happen.

How does Shufti keep screening current and handle Costa Rican name variations?

Watchlists, including the UN Security Council lists circulated by the UIF, update within 15 minutes of a change. Native phonetic models match paternal and maternal surnames in either order, compound given names and missing accents, and the AI Compliance Co-Pilot explains every match it scores.

Can we choose Costa Rica hosting or run verification inside our own infrastructure?

Yes. Shufti deploys on-premises in your own environment in Costa Rica, air-gapped if required, since no major public cloud has a local region. For cloud deployments, the agreement names where data is processed and stored and how any transfer is handled.

What controls help us protect identity and biometric data?

Shufti encrypts data in transit and at rest, applies role-based access and logs every access. Consent is captured inside the verification flow as Law 8968 requires, and retention rules delete biometric data once its purpose and any statutory period have ended.

Can we configure different retention periods for different Costa Rican licenses?

Yes. Retention is set per client, license and record type, so customer files run five years from the end of the relationship and transaction records five years from each transaction under Law 7786. Legal holds pause deletion during investigations or UIF requests.

What does Shufti provide when our compliance team needs to prepare a UIF report?

Shufti's case file holds the customer's verified identity, screening results, transaction history, alerts and analyst notes in one place. Your compliance officer exports a report-ready bundle for filing through UIF Directo or UIF Reportes, so every suspicious operation report is backed by evidence.

Can we add verification checks without rebuilding our onboarding journey?

Yes. The AI Journey Builder adds or reorders checks such as IDC verification, NFC or address verification without code changes. Routing rules send citizens, foreign residents and non-residents down different paths by risk tier, product and channel, so each customer sees only the checks they need.

How does Shufti make verification queries easier for our customer support team?

Every decision is shown in the back office with the reason, the failed check and the captured evidence. Support teams can tell a customer exactly what to fix, such as a blurred cédula photo or an expired DIMEX, and escalate disputed results with full context.

Let’s Build Trust Into Your Business

1B+Verifications Processed

240+Regions Actively Processed

99.7%Accuracy Rate

Samer Al Tamimi

CEO of Safwa Bank

Samer Al Tamimi

“We take our client’s privacy very seriously and always look for new innovative solutions to ensure a safe banking experience. Working with Shufti feels like a breath of fresh air, as their 100% in-house tech keeps our customer’s data free from vulnerabilities and fully safe and protected.”

Trusted. Compliant. Certified

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