SWIFT to offer KYC report on customer’s customers

Early next year SWIFT will offer a unique report, called the “SWIFT Profile,” that provides a global overview of an institution's correspondent banking activities, which banks can share at their own discretion.

The new service will be available in January 2015 and forms part of SWIFT's Know Your Customer offering, which is designed to address the growing KYC challenge for banks.

The SWIFT Profile uses aggregated SWIFT traffic data to help banks pinpoint areas of potential risk within specific jurisdictions and supports due diligence activities. It provides an independent fact-based overview of both the direct and nested correspondent banking activities of a specific bank.

The new service also acts as a business enabler for institutions that wish to provide more transparency on their correspondent banking activities. Banks have the option of asking SWIFT to create their institution's SWIFT Profile, which the banks can then share with their counterparties at their discretion, using The KYC Registry. Each bank retains full control over which institutions can view its SWIFT Profile information.

"By providing a global summary of an institution's SWIFT traffic activities, the SWIFT Profile can help banks to focus their due diligence efforts and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their KYC assessments," says David Fleet, managing director, CDD and Middle Office, Standard Chartered Bank.

"Industry leaders and regulators alike have highlighted the importance of knowing your customer's customer," says Luc Meurant, head of Banking Markets and Compliance Services, SWIFT.

The SWIFT Profile will enable banks to better assess their counterparties' own declared behavior and gain insights into potential risks posed by the activities of their counterparties and those institutions' customers, according to Meurant.

“Likewise,” says Meurant, “it will also help banks provide more transparency to their correspondent banking service providers."

The SWIFT Profile is the first in a series of value-added KYC and customer due diligence services that SWIFT will introduce following the general availability of The KYC Registry in December 2014. The KYC Registry and the SWIFT Profile have been developed by SWIFT in collaboration with 12 banks.

SWIFT recently announced that banks that contribute their own institution’s KYC data to The KYC Registry will be able to use the registry free of charge in 2015.