Launched in 2014, KYC.com is a joint venture between Markit and Greenpact Limited. The initiative was created to create a structure for participating banks to share customer Compliance information to expedite the ‘know your customer’ (KYC) process when onboarding new customers.
Providing jurisdictional coverage in the US, UK and Australia, KYC.com has announced that it is adding support for Hong Kong and Singapore. According to the firm, the joint venture currently houses data for over 169,000 entities and 350,000 documents. With the data, KYC.com has created reusable profiles of customers, with the product marketed towards investment managers, corporates and banks who can use the profiles to satisfy KYC requirements when onboarding new customers.
Participating in the new Asian roll-out are Standard Chartered, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, UBS and Morgan Stanley. By adding coverage in Asia, KYC.com believes that the product can solve one of the biggest points of operational friction for financial firms: compliance requirements. According to a survey commissioned by KYC.com, 63% of financial institutions in Asia believed that differences in KYC standards across the region is “the biggest factor impacting their level of regulatory risk”. In addition, 58% of respondents answered that they have terminated existing customers or refused new customers due to compliance concerns.
