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Caribbean Association of Banks endorses Swift’s KYC Registry

Caribbean Association of Banks endorses Swift’s KYC Registry

Compliance,
28 September 2015 | 4 min read

Swift's KYC Registry gains momentum amongst Caribbean banks.

New York, 28 September 2015 - Swift today announces that the Caribbean Association of Banks (CAB), with regional membership of 45 financial institutions across 16 countries, endorses The Know Your Customer (KYC) Registry, a centralized repository that maintains a standardised set of information on correspondent banks' requirements for KYC compliance.    

Joanna Charles, Chairperson of the CAB, says, "In keeping with the CAB's mandate of advocacy and the strengthening of the regional financial services sector, we strongly support Swift's global initiative to reduce the cost and risk related to know your customer correspondent banking compliance. Our members actively exchange a range of information and documents with their counterparties in order to achieve effective due diligence standards and meet other regulatory requirements.  The KYC Registry enables member banks to proactively share information with correspondent banks, increasing efficiency, reducing cost and allowing our region to demonstrate transparency and KYC compliance more effectively."

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. Banks are not charged for data contribution or for using the Registry to share their KYC information with other banks. To maximise 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.

Bart Claeys, Head of KYC Compliance Services at Swift, says: "The KYC Registry is a key component of Swift's commitment in helping our community comply with financial crime compliance regulations. We are very pleased with the level of participation from financial communities across the Americas.  Adding the CAB to a growing list of Associations and Central Bank endorsers demonstrates the value of The KYC Registry in enabling financial inclusion across developing markets."

Ed Adams, Managing Director Americas at Swift, adds: "Here in the Americas, we continue to see an emphasis on financial crime compliance in regional markets and are very pleased that the CAB endorses adoption of The KYC Registry as part of their important advocacy role in the Caribbean". 

Today, more than 1,315 financial institutions from across 168 countries are using The KYC Registry to facilitate compliance with a growing number of 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.

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

Contact:
Jade Faugno
 jfaugno@intermarket.com
Tel: +1 212 754 5425

About CAB
Caribbean Association of Banks, Inc. is a community of banks and other financial institutions in the Caribbean/CARICOM Region, which provides opportunities for discussion on issues impacting the regional banking/financial services community as well as for the sharing of experiences and networking. CAB is an organization dedicated to the advocacy of national and institutional adherence to AML/CFT. It recommends and supports full compliance with the AML/CFT standards in order to protect all financial systems, within the region, from ongoing money laundering and terrorist financing risks offering ongoing training and education for its members.

For more information, visit http://www.cab-inc.com/ or follow us on Twitter: @CABassoc and LinkedIn: caribbean-association-of-banks

Contact:
Mary Popo
General Manager
mary.popo@cab-inc.com
Tel: (758) 452‐2877

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