ING joins SWIFT’s KYC Registry

SWIFT announces today that ING has joined the Know Your Customer (KYC) Registry, a centralised repository that maintains a standardised set of information about correspondent banks required for KYC compliance.

“Having proper due diligence in place at the start and throughout the ongoing customer relationship is of great importance,” says Benoît Waltregny, Chief Compliance Officer, ING. “At ING, we are committed to really knowing our correspondent banking customers. The KYC Registry from SWIFT will help us retrieve high-quality, standardised KYC information more easily and effectively, and will further enhance the quality of KYC information across the financial industry.”

Banks that join The KYC Registry contribute an agreed ‘baseline’ set of data and documentation for validation by SWIFT, which the contributors can then share with their counterparties. Each bank retains ownership of its own information, as well as control over which other institutions can view it. Banks are not charged for data contribution or for using the Registry to share their KYC information with other banks.

Bart Claeys, Head of KYC Compliance services, SWIFT, says: “The KYC Registry demonstrates SWIFT’s commitment to helping its customers comply with financial crime compliance regulations. Adding ING to our growing list of participants demonstrates the value the KYC Registry is bringing to the correspondent banking community. We will continue to work closely with our community to increase Registry adoption, add KYC-related services, and support banks with integrating data from the Registry into their KYC compliance processes.”

Today, more than 1,875 financial institutions in 191 countries are using The KYC Registry to facilitate compliance with their correspondent relationships worldwide. The KYC Registry is operated by SWIFT and was developed in collaboration with major global banks around the world, providing a simple, secure way to exchange a standardised set of information for correspondent banking Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance, increasing efficiency and reducing risk.