Identity verification in El Salvador
Country profile for identity verification, KYC, and AML compliance in the Republic of El Salvador. Companion to `sv.yaml`. Focus: banks and cooperativas supervised by the SSF, Bitcoin Service Providers (BSPs), Digital Asset Service Providers (DASPs) registered with CNAD, remittance and payment operators, regulated iGaming, and fintechs operating in a fully dollarized and Bitcoin-legal-tender econo
Documents supported
(Government IDs from 220+ countries)
Average verification time
Countries covered
(Government-issued IDs validated)
Market overview
El Salvador is a civil-law jurisdiction whose financial-regulatory architecture is narrower than most regional peers because the country is fully dollarized and has a single integrated financial supervisor. Monetary policy is constrained by the use of the US dollar (since the Ley de Integración Monetaria of 2001), and after 2021 a parallel legal-tender regime for Bitcoin. The regulatory map that matters for KYC/AML and identity verification looks like this: This is a dense but small regulator set. The same compliance team at a typical Salvadoran bank routinely deals with the SSF, UIF, BCR, and Ministerio de Hacienda in the same week. For crypto-native firms the same is true with CNAD and BCR instead of SSF.
Supported documents
Didit templates cover national IDs, passports, residence permits and regional documents — plus 14,000+ documents globally for cross-border flows.
Regulators
written, board-approved, risk-based, sufficient to ensure the entity knows its clients
Compliance Officer
ROS
LCLDA requires obliged entities to keep records of customer due diligence and transactions for a minimum of fifteen years, one of the longest retention periods in the region
RNPN
restricted
Manages DUI (Documento Único de Identidad) and civil registry. Online services for some consultations but no commercial API for identity verification.
Ministerio de Hacienda
regulated
Tax authority managing NIT. Online NIT consultation available.
Government & regulated databases
Compliance framework
AML framework
Supervised by Adopt a KYC policy
The Ley Contra el Lavado de Dinero y de Activos (LCLDA), originally enacted as Decreto Legislativo N° 498 of 2 December 1998, is still the single most important AML statute in El Salvador despite multiple amendments. It has been revised repeatedly since enactment — most notably in 2014 when the scope of obliged subjects was broadened and the minimum record-retention period was extended — and the official consolidated text is maintained on the SSF website. The law criminalises money laundering, d
Data protection
Supervised by National DPA
1. Price — $0.30 per verification, with 500 free checks per month and no minimums, is roughly 3-5x cheaper than the incumbents, which matters in a price-sensitive market where many BSPs and DASPs are early-stage. 2. Spanish-native UX — the entire verification flow is available in Spanish, including
Penalties for non-compliance
5. PEP and sanctions screening — check OFAC, UN, EU, and national designations; screen against PEP lists
Use cases
Neobanks, EMIs, payment institutions, lenders, brokerages.
The Ley Bitcoin was enacted as Decreto Legislativo N° 57 on 8 June 2021 and entered into force on 7 September 2021, ninety days after publication in the Diario Oficial. It is the shortest major economic law in the country — sixteen articles — and its effect is nevertheless radical: Article 1 declare
Exchanges, custodians, wallets, on/off-ramps.
On 11 January 2023 the Legislative Assembly approved the Ley de Emisión de Activos Digitales (LEAD), a bespoke statute that regulates both the issuance of digital assets (including tokenized public-debt instruments such as the planned "Volcano Bond") and the commercial activities of Digital Asset Se
Sports betting, online casinos, age-gated platforms.
For most of its history El Salvador did not have a comprehensive data-protection statute; protection of personal data was anchored in constitutional privacy rights, habeas data jurisprudence, sectoral statutes (the LCLDA data rules, the banking secrecy regime, the Ley de Acceso a la Información Públ
Gig platforms, delivery, creator economy, e-commerce.
El Salvador has regulated gambling since the Ley de Juegos de Azar of 2001, but the market was modernised in December 2021, when the Ministry of Finance and the Lotería Nacional de Beneficencia (LNB) reorganised gaming oversight. Since that reform the LNB has been the centralized authority for lotte
Biometric liveness
The national ID document is the Documento Único de Identidad (DUI), a credit-card-format biometric ID issued to every Salvadoran aged 18 or older. The DUI was introduced in 2001 (replacing the Cédula de Identidad Personal), is mandatory throughout the national territory, and is valid for eight years from the month of issuance. It is issued by the Registro Nacional de las Personas Naturales (RNPN), an autonomous public institution created by the Ley Orgánica del RNPN and attached operationally to
CERTIFICATIONS
Our platform meets the highest international standards for information security, data privacy, and biometric accuracy.
Full EU data protection compliance
Information security management
PAD (liveness + face match)
TRUSTED WORLDWIDE
Join thousands of companies that trust Didit for their verification needs
Didit’s NFC + active biometrics technology blocks the most advanced fraud scenarios, offering a level of security equivalent to or superior to in-person verification.
Spanish Financial Sandbox
CNMV, SEPBLAC & Spanish Treasury — Conclusions Report
Didit is an exceptionally valuable partner, delivering a stable and highly adaptable solution”.
Vuk Adžić
Head of the E-Business Department at Crnogorski Telekom
Didit offered us a robust technology with a simple implementation and adaptability to different markets”.
Fernando Pinto
CEO & CoFounder at TucanPay
Thanks to Didit we have been able to reduce manual processes and improve data extraction accuracy”.
Diana Garcia
Trust & Safety Executive at Shiply
Didit’s integration slashed verification times and costs, freeing resources for other projects”.
Guillem Medina
COO at GBTC Finance
Didit removed KYC costs, enabling faster scaling with high verification standards and less fraud.”
Paul Martin
VP Marketing & Growth at Bondex
Didit’s secure, user-friendly verification boosts customer trust and optimizes our process.”
Cristofer Montenegro
Executive assistant to the CEO at Adelantos
Didit ensures a precise, secure digital onboarding without slowing negotiations or client time.”
Ernesto Betancourth
Gerente de riesgos at CrediDemo
FAQ
Yes. El Salvador permits remote KYC onboarding under its national AML framework, including document verification, biometric liveness and video identification where required by regulation.
Didit verifies all major national IDs, passports and residence permits issued in El Salvador, plus 14,000+ document types globally for cross-border flows.
Didit charges $0.30 per verification with 500 free checks per month. No contracts, no minimums. Competitors typically charge $1.00–$2.50+ per verification.
Yes. Didit screens against 1,000+ global watchlists including PEP databases, sanctions lists (EU, UN, OFAC, OFSI), and adverse media — covering all AML obligations in El Salvador.
Most regulated sectors in El Salvador require or strongly recommend biometric liveness detection for remote onboarding. Didit provides ISO 30107-3 PAD Level 2 certified liveness.
Yes. Didit supports document verification, liveness, AML screening and ongoing monitoring aligned with El Salvador’s crypto regulatory framework, including EU Travel Rule compliance where applicable.
Yes. Didit provides document-based age verification and identity confirmation suitable for El Salvador’s iGaming regulatory requirements.
500 free verifications per month. No contracts, no minimums. $0.30 per verification after the free tier.
