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UniCredit streamlines know your customer data collection with Swift’s KYC Registry

UniCredit streamlines know your customer data collection with Swift’s KYC Registry

Financial Crime Compliance,
30 August 2016 | 3 min read

As an early adopter of The KYC Registry, UniCredit is actively encouraging other institutions to join the platform

Banks face growing pressure from global regulators to implement and demonstrate effective KYC due diligence processes. This can be a costly and time-consuming exercise. Large banks may need to answer hundreds of individual KYC questionnaires every year, sourcing input from compliance, legal and data security teams across their organisations.

For UniCredit SpA, collecting data for due diligence purposes represented a significant burden – particularly given the bank’s large correspondent banking network. In some cases, the data collection process could take days or even weeks.

“In the past, too much time was wasted in identifying the right people and getting the information to perform appropriate due diligence,” Luca Piccione, the bank’s KYC Registry project manager, explains in a new KYC Registry case study.

UniCredit SpA was an early supporter of The KYC Registry  and the first bank in the world to have all of its KYC data published on the Registry.

“It was a very easy choice,” says Michael Kohn, Global Head of Corporates & Investment Banking KYC Programme at UniCredit. “The KYC Registry’s broad coverage and focus on correspondent banking is important – and the standard baseline of information in the Registry fits very well with our internal policy.”

The KYC Registry’s broad coverage and focus on correspondent banking is important – and the standard baseline of information in the Registry fits very well with our internal policy.

Michael Kohn, Global Head of Corporates & Investment Banking KYC Programme,  UniCredit

Since joining The KYC Registry, UniCredit has seen a number of significant benefits. “Data collection times in many cases have been reduced from days or weeks to a few hours,” Kohn says. The time taken to perform additional due diligence, such as collecting information on Ultimate Beneficial Owners (UBOs), board members and PEPs, can be reduced by up to 60% - freeing up time to focus on risk analysis instead of data collection. The cost of ownership of KYC processes has also significantly reduced.

For large banks, Kohn says that the benefits of the Registry include the ability to manage KYC requests quickly and efficiently, both for collecting and sharing KYC information. “The KYC Registry provides everything you need to perform a standard KYC review on another bank,” he says. “Everything is in one place and the information is validated by Swift, meaning you are able to perform KYC activities much more quickly and efficiently.”

For smaller banks, the possibility of being de-risked by correspondents if they are unable to demonstrate compliance and transparency may be a powerful motivation for using the Registry. “Contributing your data to The KYC Registry demonstrates to the community that you are a trustworthy, transparent institution that is easy to deal with and has nothing to hide,” says Kohn.

Download the full UniCredit case study:

resource
KYC Registry - UniCredit Case Study
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