Ten Major Banks Test Shared KYC Service with R3 Blockchain Consortium

The R3 blockchain consortium and ten of its consortium member banks have developed a proof-of-concept for a KYC registry for Know Your Customer (KYC) ) requirements which allows identities to be managed by their owners. The creation of a shared KYC service on R3’s Corda platform would allow participants to create and manage their own identities including relevant documentation.

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BBVA, CIBC, ING, Intesa Sanpaolo, Natixis, Nordea, Northern Trust, Société Générale, UBS and US Bank worked together in R3’s Lab and Research Centre over a three-month period to develop a shared KYC service proof-of-concept using distributed ledger technology to place control of an identity with its owner. The project simulated establishing the identity of both a legal entity and an individual using KYC data and identity attestations by third-parties.

The proof-of-concept demonstrated how distributed ledger technology can help banks fulfill basic KYC requirements of new customer onboarding while providing increased transparency, security and cost-efficiencies. In addition, it provided bank clients with a single interface for managing their global identity, which in turn simplifies and streamlines the onboarding process.

David Rutter, CEO of R3, comments: “The growing complexity and cost of KYC Compliance requirements presents a major challenge for banks on-boarding new clients and is having a negative impact on those client relationships. Distributed ledger technology can provide a unified view of clients whilst also significantly reducing costs and time spent verifying identity.”