Customers are at the centre of any business, yet very few firms truly understand who their customers are. It is known that one of the biggest challenges in this industry is the ability to identify the uniqueness of human beings, therefore having the lack of a Single Customer View (SCV) within your database. Without a SCV and real-time insights, organisations struggle to deliver the quality experiences that customers are looking for today.

Many have records for the same person dispersed across different data systems and, all too often, the data held in those different systems is inconsistent. With fraud and money laundering remaining high on the regulatory and risk agenda, detecting and preventing identity theft continues to demand attention. Firms must remain focused if they are to control the fast-changing threats to which they are exposed.

Achieving a single view of the customer is a significant challenge for several reasons, including different data collection methods, independent or disparate systems, and the inevitability of occasional human intervention and error. However, having a SCV will assist greatly when conducting due diligence on your subjects.

With a company it is simple, you can search by C-number, TIN number or VAT number. However, with an individual there is the problem of having multiple identities, multiple passports, which lead to the risk of the organisation not knowing that the same person is already involved in another company.

Having a dynamic KYC system that allows your compliance team to tell the system what makes an entity unique, across all your services is the key in achieving a single customer view.

Having more accurate customer data and, subsequently, risk profiling, will keep firms reliably informed of the financial crime risks posed to the business; allowing them to better identify suspicious activity during transaction monitoring. Having a true view of a customer allows any organisation to be compliant with anti-money laundering, sanctions and reporting obligations. Knowing what information you hold and being able to access it quickly, can reduce the risk of a data breach.

Once you have achieved a SCV within your KYC system, you will have peace of mind that you have a full, birds-eye view of your subjects' involvement as a director and/or shareholder under multiple companies, showing you the risk that you are exposed to on the multiple involvement of the entity across structures.