I am not too aware how it is in the U.S. In continental Europe you usually need to provide verifiable form of official identification, like a driver's license, a national ID card, a passport, or any of that in digital form (like the Estonian ID program for example). I never got this thing with utility bills.

The point here is to prevent money laundering and KYC is one instrument out of many for this.

Now come to think of it, in Germany for example, if it can be shown that if a bank employee, even after a good KYC had reasons to doubt that the account holder is the ultimate recipient of the funds or if the client is involved in money laundering, they might be personally criminally liable. Wonder how that is in the U.S.