Two very recent announcements from SWIFT and KYC Exchange represent the first concrete answers to growing market demand for a common and global repository for Know Your Customer (KYC) information.

In the interest of banks and of corporate clients, SWIFT and KYC Exchange are still in time to avoid harmful and unnecessary fierce competition. Both are focusing to develop a global KYC repository and if they do it right they will create the best conditions for true collaboration, bringing value to all parties involved: Themselves, banks, and banks’ corporate clients.

• KYC Exchange has the technical skills to develop a solid web-based platform for KYC and due diligence, but has no bank participants as of yet.
• SWIFT has the network of banks and the credibility to establish internationally de-facto recognized standard procedures and practices for KYC, but it is not a software house.

If SWIFT refrains from its temptation to develop software and instead stick to its core values (i.e., “act as the catalyst that brings the financial community together to work collaboratively to shape market practice, define standards and consider solutions to issues of mutual interest”- source:  www.swift.com) SWIFT could provide the necessary guidelines, criteria, and datasets that KYC Exchange would then implement into software applications.

Bottom Line

Collaboration between SWIFT and KYC Exchange along the suggested lines is the only factual way that can turn into real value the proposition of creating a global KYC Registry.