SWIFT opens its KYC Registry to corporates

The go-live for corporates follows a testing period with 18 corporate groups including BMW, Spotify and Unilever which was supported by 16 global banks representing over 7,000 corporate to bank relationships on SWIFT.

KYC continues to be one of the biggest challenges in the compliance space, both for financial institutions and corporates. Over 90% of treasurers report that responding to KYC requests is more challenging today than it was five years ago. In addition, over 50% reduced the number of banks they work with to avoid lengthy KYC processes, negatively impacting banking relationships.

Corporate groups work with multiple banking partners across the globe, many of which are in different regulatory jurisdictions. This means that corporate treasurers have to provide KYC data in multiple formats, often through bilateral exchanges, in order to meet the regulatory requirements of each partner, which is costly, time-consuming and inefficient.

Banking partners on the other hand, have to reach out to their corporate customers for information and search for data across multiple sources which is often incomplete or out of date. In many cases, they are forced to repeatedly follow up with existing customers as part of regular KYC reviews which is cumbersome and can place strain on relationships.

Established in 2014, SWIFT’s KYC Registry simplifies the process by providing access to a platform for banks, and now corporates, to share KYC data with banking partners. Corporate groups benefit from the ability to structure their KYC data in accordance with a standardised baseline, agreed by banks and corporates across the globe and have their data checked by SWIFT for completeness.

They will also be able to comply with data privacy rules by remaining in control of their data, deciding which banks have access to their KYC data and having the ability to update their records in real-time.