Financial messaging and services cooperative SWIFT reports that it has signed up more than 1,125 financial institutions for its Know Your Customer (KYC) Registry, a centralized repository of standardized information about financial institutions that facilitates KYC compliance.
SWIFT officials say that banks in 152 countries are “now on board” with the KYC Registry, which now represents more than 575 institutions in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In the Americas, more than 180 firms have signed up while nearly 375 in the Asia Pacific region have done so.
“The rapid adoption by the financial community is a clear indication of the industry’s collaborative support for a standardized approach to address KYC compliance challenges worldwide,” says Luc Meurant, head of compliance services at SWIFT, in a prepared statement. “We look forward to working with our community to further expand the registry and the benefits for its users.”
SWIFT launched its registry in December 2014, in a bid to provide KYC information for correspondent banks as well as fund distributors and custodians, officials say. The KYC Registry is operated by SWIFT and was developed in collaboration with major global banks around the world.
“Banks contribute an agreed ‘baseline’ set of data and documentation for validation by SWIFT, which the contributors can then share with their counterparties. Each bank retains ownership of its own information, as well as control over which other institutions can view it,” according to SWIFT. “Banks are not charged for data contribution or for using the Registry to share their KYC information with other banks. To maximize the Registry’s benefits, data consumption is free in 2015 for banks that contribute their own KYC information to the Registry and promote it to their correspondents.”
SWIFT’s compliance services unit includes financial crime compliance services in the areas of sanctions, KYC and anti-money laundering (AML), officials say. The portfolio of offerings includes sanctions screening and sanctions testing services, compliance analytics and the KYC Registry.
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