Nearly 2,000 correspondent banks are now using Swift's Registry to streamline Know Your Customer compliance
Brussels, 8 December 2015 - Swift announces today that ING has joined the Know Your Customer (KYC) Registry, a centralised repository that maintains a standardised set of information about correspondent banks required for KYC compliance.
"Having proper due diligence in place at the start and throughout the ongoing customer relationship is of great importance," says Benoît Waltregny, Chief Compliance Officer, ING. "At ING, we are committed to really knowing our correspondent banking customers. The KYC Registry from Swift will help us retrieve high-quality, standardised KYC information more easily and effectively, and will further enhance the quality of KYC information across the financial industry."
Banks that join The KYC Registry 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. Banks are not charged for data contribution or for using the Registry to share their KYC information with other banks.
Bart Claeys, Head of KYC Compliance services, Swift, says: "The KYC Registry demonstrates Swift's commitment to helping its customers comply with financial crime compliance regulations. Adding ING to our growing list of participants demonstrates the value the KYC Registry is bringing to the correspondent banking community. We will continue to work closely with our community to increase Registry adoption, add KYC-related services, and support banks with integrating data from the Registry into their KYC compliance processes."
Today, more than 1,875 financial institutions in 191 countries are using The KYC Registry to facilitate compliance with their correspondent relationships worldwide. The KYC Registry is operated by Swift and was developed in collaboration with major global banks around the world, providing a simple, secure way to exchange a standardised set of information for correspondent banking Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance, increasing efficiency and reducing risk.
For more information about the KYC Registry, visit KYC on swift.com.
About Swift's financial crime compliance services portfolio
Swift's Compliance Services unit manages a growing portfolio of financial crime compliance services in the areas of sanctions, Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML). The portfolio includes Sanctions Screening and Sanctions Testing services, Compliance Analytics and The KYC Registry. For more information, visit the Compliance Services on swift.com.
About Swift
Swift is a member-owned cooperative that provides the communications platform, products and services to connect more than 10,800 banking organisations, securities institutions and corporate customers in more than 200 countries and territories. Swift enables its users to exchange automated, standardised financial information securely and reliably, thereby lowering costs, reducing operational risk and eliminating operational inefficiencies. Swift also brings the financial community together to work collaboratively to shape market practice, define standards and debate issues of mutual interest.
For more information, visit http://www.swift.com/ or follow us on Twitter: @swiftcommunity and LinkedIn: Swift
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