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Bank of America Merrill Lynch sees significant KYC time savings using Swift’s KYC Registry

Bank of America Merrill Lynch sees significant KYC time savings using Swift’s KYC Registry

Financial Crime Compliance,
13 September 2018 | 2 min read

Swift’s KYC Registry provides added resource for correspondent banking client due diligence

“The KYC Registry is a resource for correspondent banking client due diligence, the goal being that we complete our questionnaire online, our client completes theirs, and we then grant each other access to our respective due diligence data and have current and accurate information available at all times. This way, we avoid processing hundreds and hundreds of questionnaires manually every year,” says Stephanie Wolf managing director and global head of Financial Services Companies and Governments for Global Transaction Services at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofAML) in a case study about The KYC Registry from Swift

Wolf continues, “Since all questionnaires are standardised to the same format, and with content that is already validated by Swift, our time savings using the KYC Registry can be as high as 50%,”

The KYC Registry is a global utility operated by Swift that allows banks to upload a standardised set of due diligence and supporting documents. Information is checked and validated by Swift, and can then be shared with approved users. Hence, banks can use the Registry to share their own information with counterparties and obtain due diligence information from other banks. KYC Registry membership is now approaching 5,000 banks in over 200 countries and territories, with Registry users representing about 70 percent of Swift’s message traffic.

“Where the Registry really adds value is by demonstrating to the industry that there can be one common standard that all banks can align to and that banks can adopt as a single standard,” says Wolf. “This strengthens the financial crimes controls as all banks are then being held to the same level of standards and due diligence and, therefore, have a stronger understanding of each other’s controls.”

Where the Registry really adds value is by demonstrating to the industry that there can be one common standard that all banks can align to and that banks can adopt as a single standard.”

Stephanie Wolf managing director and global head of Financial Services Companies and Governments for Global Transaction Services at Bank of America Merrill Lynch
resource
KYC Registry - Bank of America Merrill Lynch case study
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