When a bank or EMI asks a company to describe its business activity, a short answer may look reasonable. Examples include “marketing services,” “IT consulting,” or “we provide software to companies worldwide.”
In practice, it often explains almost nothing.
A useful business activity description should make the company understandable to someone unfamiliar with it. The reader should be able to see what it sells and who its customers are. It should also be clear how the products or services are delivered, who performs the work and how the company makes money.
This matters because financial institutions do not assess the business description in isolation. Customer due diligence is intended to help them understand the customer and the purpose and intended nature of the relationship. It also helps them assess whether subsequent activity makes sense in that context. Understanding the nature and purpose of the relationship helps establish a baseline for expected activity.
The goal is not to make the company sound impressive. The goal is to make the business understandable.
What is a business activity description?
Different banks, EMIs and payment providers use different terminology. An application may ask for the company’s business activity, business description, nature of business, principal business activity, or similar information.
For practical onboarding purposes, the underlying question is usually similar:
What does this company actually do?
A weak answer identifies an industry:
The company provides marketing services to clients worldwide.
A more useful answer explains the commercial activity:
The company provides SEO and digital marketing services primarily to small and medium-sized businesses in Europe. Its main services include technical SEO, on-page optimisation, content development and digital marketing strategy. Client requirements are assessed internally. Specialist work is then performed by a combination of the company’s team and external contractors.
The second version explains the services, customer base and part of the delivery model. It is specific enough to describe the company’s actual activity. It does not rely only on a broad industry label.
Why banks and EMIs want to understand the business
A business activity description is not just another field in an onboarding form. It provides context for the wider company profile.
If a company says that it provides digital marketing services to small and medium-sized businesses in Europe, the reviewer may reasonably expect the rest of the profile to support that description. This includes the website, customer contracts or invoices and the operating model.
If the same company presents contracts for an unrelated service or describes a completely different customer base, that creates an obvious inconsistency. The same is true if it cannot explain how the work is delivered.
The same logic continues after onboarding. Actual account activity may later look very different from the profile provided at the start of the relationship. If it does, the difference may require further review.
For this reason, a business description should be treated as part of the company’s operating profile, not as marketing copy.
Business activity, business description and nature of business
Banks and EMIs may use these terms somewhat differently, and there is often overlap between them.
Nature of business
usually refers to the broader commercial category of the company.
Business activity
is more specific: what the company actually does within that category.
Business description
brings those activities together into an explanation of how the company operates.
For example, the nature of business might be digital marketing. The activities could include technical SEO, content development, marketing strategy and social media management. The business description would then explain how those services are delivered and who the customers are. It would also explain who performs the work.
The terminology matters less than the quality of the explanation.
What should a good business activity description explain?
A useful test is to imagine explaining the company to a friend who knows nothing about the industry. After two or three minutes, that person should understand the basic economics and operations of the business.
Start with what the company actually sells. Not simply “consulting,” but what kind of consulting. Not simply “software,” but what the software does. Not simply “marketing,” but which marketing services are provided.
Then explain who buys those products or services. “B2B clients worldwide” is much less informative than “small and medium-sized IT and SaaS companies in the UK and EU.”
The description should also make the delivery model clear. For a service business, explain how a client request is assessed and how the scope is defined. The reader should also understand who performs the work and how the result is delivered.
The team structure matters too. Are there employees, independent contractors, subcontractors, or a combination? If work is outsourced, explain what the company itself does and where it creates value.
Where relevant, mention professional tools or platforms that help explain how the service is delivered. An SEO company, for example, may use Ahrefs, Semrush, Google Search Console and Google Analytics. The point is not to sound technical; it is to make the operating model concrete.
The revenue model should also be understandable. This might be a fixed project fee, monthly retainer, subscription, commission or another clear form of compensation.
Finally, add enough geographic context to make the customer base and operating model meaningful.
The objective is not maximum detail. It is enough specific information to make the real business model clear.
A practical framework for describing the business
A business activity description can usually be built around seven elements:
A simple structure might look like this:
[Company] provides [specific products or services] to [type of customers] primarily in [main markets]. The company delivers these services through [delivery model], with the work performed by [team structure]. Customers normally pay through [revenue model].
This is a framework, not a template to copy word for word. The final description should reflect how the specific company really operates.
Business activity description examples
The difference between a weak and a strong description is usually not length. It is how much useful information the reviewer receives.
Example 1: Consulting company
The company provides business consulting, business development and marketing consulting to companies worldwide. The director is an experienced entrepreneur who finds clients independently and provides consulting based on his experience.
The company provides business consulting primarily to medium and large businesses in Europe and selected African markets. It focuses on technology companies. Its main service areas include financial and operational consulting, marketing strategy and audits, business development support and recruitment-related consulting. It also provides selected regulatory or licensing support. Different areas are handled by professionals with the relevant expertise. External professional firms may be engaged for specialist projects.
Why this works better. The stronger version identifies the actual service lines, customer profile and how the required expertise is delivered.
Example 2: IT services company
We are an IT company providing IT consulting, custom software, websites and applications. Our team is distributed around the world and we work with businesses globally.
The company provides technology services including cybersecurity, CRM development, AI-related business integrations and data analysis. Cybersecurity is its main service line. It includes application security testing, code analysis and security reviews performed by specialist professionals. Additional external specialists are used for complex projects. The company primarily works with medium and large businesses in the UK and EU. Its clients include technology and marketing companies that process significant volumes of customer and operational data.
Why this works better. The description identifies the company’s main specialisation and connects the services to the people who perform them and the customers who buy them.
Example 3: Marketing agency
We are a marketing company helping businesses worldwide with advertising and marketing services.
The company is a digital marketing agency working primarily with small and medium-sized businesses in Europe. It has a particular focus on technology companies. Its core services include technical and on-page SEO, content development, marketing strategy and social media marketing. SEO work includes analysing website structure, search visibility and content performance. The company uses platforms such as Ahrefs, Semrush, Google Search Console and Google Analytics for this work. External contractors are engaged when a project requires additional capacity or specialist expertise.
Why this works better. The stronger version explains the actual services, customer profile and delivery model instead of relying on the label “marketing services.”
Across all three examples, the principle is the same: focus on the core activities that genuinely represent the business.
A real clarification case: when outsourcing made the business model unclear
A real onboarding case shows why naming the services is sometimes not enough.
The company was a UK marketing agency focused primarily on SEO. Its initial description said that it worked with small and medium-sized businesses in the UK. It also said that all specialist work was outsourced.
The financial institution came back with three questions:
- 1How exactly are the services provided to customers?
- 2What industries do the customers operate in?
- 3What is the company’s own business model if the work is outsourced?
Outsourcing itself was not the issue. The description did not explain what the company itself was responsible for and where it created value.
The clarification therefore broke the service down into concrete areas: technical SEO, on-page SEO, off-page SEO, local SEO and content development. It also explained the work within each area. Examples included website architecture and crawling issues, keyword targeting, internal linking, backlink development, local search visibility and search-oriented content.
The customer profile was made more specific. Instead of only “small and medium-sized businesses,” the company identified the types of clients it served. These included local manufacturers and distributors of consumer products, as well as construction, renovation and home-improvement businesses.
Most importantly, the company explained the outsourced operating model. It communicated with the customer and analysed the commercial problem. It then converted the requirement into a technical or marketing scope of work, selected the appropriate specialist and coordinated delivery. The company also remained the customer’s point of contact.
The company was therefore not simply passing requests directly to freelancers. Its role was to understand what the customer wanted to achieve and determine the work required. It then selected the appropriate expertise and managed delivery.
That explanation resolved the key questions around the business model.
What this case shows
A company does not need a large internal team for its operating model to be understandable. But when freelancers or subcontractors perform significant parts of the work, the division of responsibilities should be clear. The description should explain what the company does internally, what is delegated and where the company itself creates value.
The description must match the evidence
A strong business activity description does not help if the supporting documents tell a different story.
The website, contracts, invoices and onboarding application do not need to use exactly the same wording. Contracts and invoices will often describe the services in greater detail than the website, and that is normal.
What matters is that the underlying business activity is consistent.
For example, a website may describe a company broadly as a digital marketing agency. A customer contract may then specify technical SEO, content development and search-performance analysis. An invoice may refer to a particular stage of that work. Those documents describe the same business at different levels of detail.
The problem begins when the documents point to fundamentally different activities. A website might present the company as a marketing agency, while the application describes it as a business consultancy. If the main contracts then relate to unrelated technology-development services, the reviewer is left asking what the company actually does.
The same principle applies to the operating model. The application may say that the company has an internal team of employees, while the work is actually performed by independent contractors. In that case, the description should reflect the real structure.
A useful rule is: the documents can provide different levels of detail, but they should describe the same underlying business.
Reviewing the materials together before submission often makes inconsistencies much easier to spot.
What if the company does not have a website?
A website can be useful during onboarding because it gives the reviewer an external view of the company’s products, services and positioning.
But the absence of a traditional corporate website does not automatically mean that the business cannot be explained or supported. Depending on the model, customers may find the company through other channels. These can include a marketplace profile, professional platform, business social-media page, referrals, an invoicing or booking platform or another customer-facing channel.
In that situation, the company should explain how customers actually find and engage with the business.
If a website does exist, it should support the application rather than create additional questions. It does not need to contain every operational detail. But its main services and customer-facing positioning should be consistent with the business described during onboarding.
Newly incorporated companies need even more clarity
An established company can often support its description with historical contracts, invoices, customer relationships and financial activity. A newly incorporated company may not yet have that history.
In that situation, the business activity description and business plan become especially important.
The company should explain what it intends to provide and who its expected customers are. It should also explain how those customers will be acquired and who will perform the work. The operating model should be clear, including how the company will be funded while it develops.
If commercial activity has not yet started, describe the model as planned, intended or expected. Do not write as if an operating history already exists.
Relevant founder experience can help when there is a genuine connection between the founder’s previous work and the new activity. But the founder may not personally have all the expertise required. In that case, the company should explain where that expertise comes from — for example, employees, contractors, advisers or business partners.
The goal is not to manufacture a history that does not exist. It is to show that the planned business model is coherent. The company should also show that the necessary expertise and resources are available.
Common mistakes in business activity descriptions
The most common mistake is using an industry label instead of describing a business. Terms such as “consulting,” “marketing,” “software,” “IT services” or “international trading” may identify a broad category. They do not explain the operating model.
Other recurring problems include:
- describing services that are not reflected elsewhere in the company’s materials;
- presenting contractors or subcontractors as employees;
- using broad claims such as “clients worldwide” without useful geographic context;
- listing many unrelated activities simply because they are permitted by the company’s constitutional documents;
- relying on phrases such as “innovative solutions,” “global expertise” or “comprehensive services” instead of operational facts;
- describing future services as if they were already part of an established business;
- failing to explain the company’s own role where most of the work is outsourced.
A useful test is to remove the company name from the description. Then ask: Would a reader still understand what this particular business actually does? If the same paragraph could describe hundreds of unrelated companies, it is probably still too generic.
How detailed should the description be?
There is no universal word count.
A straightforward business may have one main service, a simple delivery model and a clearly defined customer base. In that case, one concise paragraph may be enough. A company with several service lines, significant outsourcing, multiple markets or a less obvious operating structure may require more detail.
The objective is to remove obvious questions without turning the description into a business plan or technical manual.
If the business model is simple, keep the explanation concise. But explain any important part of the operating model that could leave the reviewer asking, “How does this actually work?”
The best description is not the longest one. It is the shortest description that makes the real business model clear.
Business activity description checklist
Before submitting the application, check that:
A useful final question is:
If the reviewer reads this description together with the supporting documents, will they see one coherent business or several different versions of the company?
Final thought
A business activity description is not about finding the most impressive way to describe a company. It is about removing uncertainty.
A clear description will not eliminate every follow-up question. It also does not guarantee that a bank or EMI will accept the application. Different financial institutions have different requirements, risk appetites and onboarding processes.
But a well-prepared description can make the company easier to understand. It can also reduce avoidable clarification requests caused by vague, incomplete or inconsistent information.
For corporate service providers and onboarding teams, business activity should therefore not be treated as an isolated text field. It is part of a wider company profile. That profile needs to remain consistent across the application, supporting documents and operational information.
At OnboardOS, this is the process we are working to structure. The aim is to turn scattered client information and documents into a clear company profile. Professional teams can then use that profile when preparing corporate bank and EMI onboarding cases.
About the author
Alexander Blinov is the founder of OnboardOS. His background includes corporate legal, KYC/AML and bank and EMI onboarding work for international companies. He is building OnboardOS to help corporate service providers collect client information, identify missing evidence and prepare consistent account-opening packages.
OnboardOS is being built to help corporate service providers turn scattered business information into a clear, consistent company profile for bank and EMI onboarding — so the business description, supporting evidence and wider application tell the same story.
Sources and further reading
All links were checked on 14 August 2026.
- AUSTRAC — Overview of initial customer due diligence
- Financial Action Task Force (FATF) — The FATF Recommendations, Recommendation 10: Customer Due Diligence
- FINTRAC — Record keeping guidance on principal business or occupation
- Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) — Firms’ customer due diligence processes and controls: our findings
- Lloyds Bank — Business account opening guide
- Payoneer — Tips on completing the Business Profile successfully
- Mollie — What does Mollie need to verify my account?