KYC Registry adoption has shown strong momentum, with banks in 152 countries now on board. The Registry is well-represented worldwide, with more than 575 institutions in Europe, the Middle East and Africa; over 180 in the Americas; and nearly 375 in the Asia Pacific region.

Luc Meurant, Head of Compliance Services, SWIFT, says: “The KYC Registry is helping the industry to increase efficiency and mitigate cost and risk associated with Know Your Customer compliance. The rapid adoption by the financial community is a clear indication of the industry’s collaborative support for a standardised approach to address KYC compliance challenges worldwide. We look forward to working with our community to further expand the Registry and the benefits for its users.”

Launched in December 2014, The KYC Registry provides KYC information for correspondent banks as well as fund distributors and custodians. The Registry is operated by SWIFT and was developed in collaboration with major global banks around the world.

Banks 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. To maximise the Registry’s benefits, data consumption is free in 2015 for banks that contribute their own KYC information to the Registry and promote it to their correspondents.

The KYC Registry was recently awarded ‘Project of the Year’ and ‘Compliance Project of the year’ in The Banker’s prestigious technology Projects of the Year awards 2015 competition. These awards recognise innovation in technology and are the latest recognition of the success of SWIFT’s community-driven approach to delivering financial crime compliance services.