Anti Money Laundering and Know your customer policies are initiated by accounting and financial institutions to check customers source of funds. Bitcoins block chain technology aim to reduce these 2 policies by making transactions anonymous. However, Bitcoins exchanges ensuring strict AML and KYC policies defeat the aim of using Bitcoins as anonymous currencies. In my view, Exchanges should relax these policies in order to set block chain technology apart from mainstream banking .
Although from an etiologic point of view,
asking about origins of a term is a common practice but it is not always the best or a complete approach to understanding it comprehensively. Instead it is always useful and enlightening that you try
figuring it out how it is used right now.
So, saying 'accounting and financial institutions' invented KYC/AML discourse is not only a false statement (security/intelligence sector did it) but also misleading and confusing. It is misleading because 'washes' the term by pretending it to be a product of technological/scientific development and confusing because it remains silent about the political nature of KYc/AML discourse, the way it is being manipulated by power to be used against people.
The ultimate mission of cryptocurrencies is to deconstruct this term and protect people (and not just the white, rich, citizens of the USA or Europe) from government/accountants/financial institutes sniffing in their private life.
It is good to have governments to fight with drug smugglers, we don't have one though. Anti drug agencies are practically a part of the drug trafficking, playing their role, getting their share.
Fighting terrorism is a sacred mission to accomplish for governments, they don't. They plant terrorism, finance it, equip it, arm it, everywhere and everywhen they find it (foolishly) useful. Governments use this label as an accusation against their own puppets when they get out of line or against their rivals' puppets or (more oftenly) against ordinary people, intellectuals, resistance organizations (like Hezbollah in Lebanon) , ....
It is very interesting that instead of asking about where the weapons or the drugs come from, these hypocrites, KYC/AML proponents, advertisers/imposers are asking about the money.
As I have mentioned earlier (in this topic?) tracking money is a business and nothing more, I pay someone to 'wash' my money and government pays someotherone to play cat and mouse with me.