[tfehring]

My very speculative reading of this: Stripe needs to fulfill KYC/AML requirements for its own customers, but not for its customers' customers. If I own a store and accept payments via Stripe, Stripe needs information about me to help make sure I'm not using the money I receive for unseemly things. But if you visit my store and buy something and pay me via Stripe, Stripe doesn't need that same information about you.

If instead of running a store I'm running a bank or some other financial service, that all changes - in that case, someone has to verify your identity to fulfill KYC/AML requirements. Stripe doesn't trust me to do that myself, since it's hard and heavily regulated and it would be onerous for Stripe to make sure I and all their other customers are doing it properly. But now they'll outsource that responsibility to banks on my behalf.