As part of its ongoing efforts to support the industry in tackling the global decline in correspondent banking relationships, Swift has aligned its Know Your Customer (KYC) Registry with the new Wolfsberg Correspondent Banking Due Diligence Questionnaire (CBDDQ) and Financial Crime Compliance DDQ (FCCDDQ).
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI), the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the Financial Stability Board (FSB) have also recently welcomed the Wolfsberg CBDDQ and FCCDDQ, demonstrating the industry’s widespread support for the initiative.
First issued in 2004, the Wolfsberg Questionnaire has been updated in response to an increase in regulatory expectations and a call for action from the FSB and CPMI.
Swift’s KYC Registry was the first KYC utility that fully integrated the Wolfsberg CBDDQ in October 2017. Since then, Swift has seen significant interest in this questionnaire, and a large number of institutions have already migrated to the new standard created through it.
In February, the Wolfsberg Group published a revised version of the CBDDQ and complemented it with an abridged FCCDDQ. Swift supports the revision of the CBDDQ and the publication of the FCCDDQ and will update the KYC Registry to reflect all changes in the near future.
KYC Registry members can answer every Wolfsberg question directly on the platform, increasing transparency and streamlining due diligence processes.
The KYC Registry is a global KYC utility used by more than 4,500 correspondent banks and funds players in over 200 countries and territories, representing 75 percent of Swift message traffic.
More than 50 central banks and monetary authorities are also Registry members. KYC Registry membership was recently expanded to include all supervised financial institutions, even if they are not connected to Swift, facilitating even wider efficiency and effectiveness.
Registry members upload their KYC data and documents for validation by Swift, and exchange this information with their counterparties for use in onboarding and ongoing correspondent banking customer due diligence.
Aligning the Registry with the Wolfsberg CBDDQ and FCCDDQ ensures coverage of up to 90 percent of the information correspondent banks typically require for KYC compliance, delivering major time and cost savings.
Financial market participants are becoming increasingly united in the belief that financial crime should not be tackled in silos, and the Wolfsberg Questionnaire is one of the industry’s most significant examples of this.
"The decline in correspondent banking is a serious industry-wide issue that needs an effective industry-wide solution, and Wolfsberg is playing a crucial role in driving greater standardisation, transparency and cost-efficiencies for banks across the globe."
The Wolfsberg Group is a member of Swift’s Financial Crime Compliance Advisory Group, and there is a long track record of close collaboration between Swift and Wolfsberg to address a broad range of compliance challenges facing the correspondent banking community and beyond.
For more information about the KYC Registry, visit www.swift.com/kycregistry.
