Banking co-operative Swift is is extending the reach of its KYC Registry utility beyond correspondent banking to support Know Your Customer compliance requirements for funds distribution and custody services.
Similar to banks, fund distributors and custodians will now be able to contribute an agreed ‘baseline' set of data and documentation for validation by Swift, which the contributors can then share with their counterparties.
All Registry users retain full ownership of their KYC information, along with control over who can access the data via the secure online platform.
"Fund distributors and custodians face similar challenges to banks with KYC due diligence,” says Mark Gem, head of compliance at Clearstream and chair of the Swift Securities Compliance Working Group. "I am pleased that Swift is extending the reach of The KYC Registry, building upon its momentum in correspondent banking."
Launched in December 2014, The KYC Registry now lists entities from more than 110 countries, spurred on by an offer of free access throughout 2015 to banks that contribute their own data to the service.