Community
How global is the KYC Registry?
Swift’s KYC Registry has been designed in collaboration with banks and corporates from across the globe to ensure that the benefits are experienced on a multi-national level. Today, more than 5,500 financial institutions across 200+ global territories have access to centralised and standardised data via the KYC Registry, which helps alleviate the burden associated with these processes.
Who is eligible to use the KYC Registry?
Currently, the KYC Registry is available for banks and corporates connected to the Swift network as well as all the legal entities of the group not connected to Swift. All you need to join is to have one BIC code to register; the other entities can then be added directly on the platform.
Swift will be assessing the adoption within its own community to ensure the value is maximised before considering opening up to corporate groups not connected to Swift.
Which banks are using the KYC Registry?
There are currently 5,500 financial entities registered on the KYC Registry and using it to exchange KYC data on the platform for the purpose of correspondent banking KYC. Swift is extending the benefits of this proven and tested solution to corporates to streamline their KYC process and provide benefits to both by providing one centralised, secure platform for the exchanging of standardised KYC data. Corporates can incentivise their banks to join and try out the KYC Registry, the community effect is important and hearing from multiple customers should encourage banks to extend the benefits they experience to their corporate clients.
What is the cost of using the KYC Registry?
Contributing your data and documents into the KYC Registry is completely free. To join the KYC Registry community, go to swift.com and follow those easy steps.
The consumption of information provided by other parties will be charged based on a pay as you go model or a pre agreed fixed fee depending on the size of your institution and the number of counterparties you have on Swift. For more information, please contact KYC.Registry@swift.com.
Content/Baseline
What are the types of data and documents to be provided?
Swift’s KYC Registry supports both standardisedand bespoke document requests. This includes a mixture of public and private data, from the identification of the entity to the ownership and management structure to business activities, sanctioned countries’ and tax information. With choices of mandatory and optional information, corporates can upload various levels of information based on what they currently share with their banking partners. Documentation is available to detail the content and format requirements for all documents which serve as guideline towards providing quality information.
How are the disparities between jurisdictions tackled?
Currently, the set of data and documents covers up to 80% of global KYC requirements. As for the correspondent banking standard, this will evolve with time to increase the level of information collected to reach more than 90% coverage. This drastically decreases the time spent and unnecessary costs required to exchange KYC information. Swift is keeping in touch with local and regional KYC initiatives on an ongoing basis in order to assess disparities and overcome them through collaboration.
How do we handle the validity date of documents?
The KYC platform allows the contributor to define a validity date for each document. Once the expiry date is approaching, the platform will automatically alert the contributor that an update will be required.
Is there any validation of the information?
The benefit for a consuming bank using the KYC Registry is that the data and documents are directly sourced from the corporate and the quality is ensured through a qualification process performed by Swift. The qualification process includes a review of the data provided to ensure it is consistent with the content of the documents and that documents are meeting the defined requirement in terms of content, format, validity date and language.
Can the Registry be used as an internal repository?
Users can extract the content (data and documents) of all entity profiles at any point directly from the KYC Registry either for validation by a specific department before publication or to reuse for other purposes. The platform also allows users to upload additional documents not defined in the shared standard but that they find useful to share as part of their KYC processes with their partner banks.
Join the KYC Registry
Simplify your KYC process.
Platform
What sort of solution is the KYC Registry?
KYC Registry is a solution hosted by Swift centrally, in which the customer remains in total ownership and control of its information by deciding who gets access to it. KYC Registry is accessed by users via swift.com through a secured two-step authentication process.
What level of automation is available?
APIs are available to automate consumption of banks and corporate profiles on the Registry. Currently this is the only automation available, contribution remains manual. Swift is investigating partnerships in order to pre-populate public information into the Registry when a customer subscribes.
How do I manage access to my data?
Customers remain in total control of their data and documents on the Registry. No one on the platform will be able to access an entity’s profile without getting access granted first. Access is granted from one entity to another, meaning that customers have the flexibility to allow a specific bank branch to access their data rather than providing access to the whole banking group.
Currently, only parties registered on the KYC Registry will be able to request access to an entity’s profile, no external parties.
How do I register non Swift entities?
As most legal entities under a corporate group are not connected to Swift via a BIC, customers will be able to register legal entities directly on the platform by using a standardisedID card, via the choice of three identifiers (LEI, registration number, tax number). Each registered entity will then have its own profile to be contributed to.
KYC process
KYC processCan I invite my banking partners on the platform?
Yes, you can search for your banking partner directly on the KYC Registry. If the bank is connected to the KYC Registry, you will be able to communicate with them directly on the platform. If the bank is not yet a customer of the Registry, you can send them an email invitation generated by the Registry.
Will Swift’s KYC Registry be sufficient and replace our current KYC exercise?
Data and documents collected on the KYC Registry cover up to 80% of global KYC requirements (and 90% of correspondent banking KYC requirements). As most key elements are covered it will significantly support the KYC processes required by banks today. Bilateral exchange will not disappear, as banks and corporates still like to keep close contact on certain topics and additional documents might be required due to local requirement or the risk level of the entity or the type of banking products used. The remaining bilateral exchange will also be defined based on the data and documents provided in the Registry. It is important to contribute as extensively as possible to fully benefit from the centralisedsolution.
Can my bank request more information or original documents?
Swift’s KYC Registry is striving to decrease the number of bilateral exchanges between a corporate and its banks, or between banks. The standardisation exercise done with the community is also supporting a more efficient approach to KYC for all parties involved. However, local requirements and specificities due to the type of client or products used can always raise the need for additional information from a bank. The platform is catering to bilateral exchanges between a bank and its customers. The KYC Registry thus remains the main platform of interaction for a secure exchange of KYC information even outside of the defined standard.
Join the KYC Registry
Simplify your KYC process.
