Brussels, 12 November 2014 - Swift announces the development of the Swift Profile, a unique report that provides a global overview of an institution's correspondent banking activities, which banks can share at their own discretion. The new service will be available in January 2015 and forms part of Swift's Know Your Customer (KYC) offering, which is designed to address the growing KYC challenge for banks.
The Swift Profile uses aggregated Swift traffic data to help banks pinpoint areas of potential risk within specific jurisdictions and supports due diligence activities. It provides an independent fact-based overview of both the direct and nested correspondent banking activities of a specific bank. The Swift Profile also acts as a business enabler for institutions that wish to provide more transparency on their correspondent banking activities. Banks have the option of asking Swift to create their institution's Swift Profile, which the banks can then share with their counterparties at their discretion, using The KYC Registry. Each bank retains full control over which institutions can view its Swift Profile information.
"By providing a global summary of an institution's Swift traffic activities, the Swift Profile can help banks to focus their due diligence efforts and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their KYC assessments," says David Fleet, Managing Director, CDD and Middle Office, Standard Chartered Bank.
"Industry leaders and regulators alike have highlighted the importance of knowing your customer's customer," says Luc Meurant, Head of Banking Markets and Compliance Services, Swift. "The Swift Profile will enable banks to better assess their counterparties' own declared behaviour and gain insights into potential risks posed by the activities of their counterparties and those institutions' customers. Likewise, it will also help banks provide more transparency to their correspondent banking service providers."
The Swift Profile is the first in a series of value-added KYC and customer due diligence services that Swift will introduce following the general availability of The KYC Registry in December 2014. The KYC Registry and the Swift Profile have been developed by Swift in collaboration with 12 leading banks.
Swift recently announced that banks that contribute their own institution's KYC data to The KYC Registry will be able to use the Registry free of charge in 2015.
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 10,500 banking organisations, securities institutions and corporate customers in 215 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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