Paul Taylor of Swift’s Financial Crime Compliance Services Division discusses the evolving compliance landscape and the critical role of technology in helping the industry come together as a whole to combat financial crime.
The global correspondent banking network is under pressure in several countries as some financial institutions close relationships. While financial inclusion continues to climb the agenda of regulatory authorities and financial institutions pledge their support, the de-risking taking place in correspondent banking threatens to scupper inclusion.
Untangling the “knots” at global treasuries, especially with regard to bank maintenance issues around know your customer (KYC) and other compliance activities, was the theme of a corporate treasury session yesterday (18 October) at Sibos.
As financial authorities express concern about de-risking in correspondent banking, a similar phenomenon is emerging in trade finance, driven by the high costs of KYC compliance.
Swift is aligning its KYC Registry with the new Wolfsberg Due Diligence Questionnaire (DDQ) for correspondent banks. First issued in 2004, the DDQ was updated in response to regulatory pressure.
Regulatory technology (regtech) is often cited as the answer to the rising cost of compliance, risk and reporting duties at banks. Will it help financial institutions escape IT silos and enhance control over data?
OCBC Bank, HSBC and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), together with the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), has become the “first consortium” in South East Asia to complete a proof of concept for a know your customer (KYC) blockchain. The parties say the development “raises the possibility” of using blockchain to make KYC “more efficient […]
Webhelp, a Paris-based customer experience and business process outsourcing (BPO) firm, has acquired fellow French tech company GreenPoint.
Tokyo-based Bitcoin exchange BitFlyer has been selected as a partner vendor to provide an experimental environment for the Japanese Bankers Association’s “collaborative blockchain platform”. BitFlyer’s proprietary blockchain technology – Miyabi – will be used and the platform is scheduled to begin operation in October. Miyabi is a private blockchain “exclusively” for enterprise users. The experiment […]
The US Department of State recently released a report that identified mobile money services as particularly susceptible to money laundering in Africa. It cites services like M-PESA and M-Shwari as “services [that] remain vulnerable to money laundering activities”.
Financial services IT consultancy Synechron is working with enterprise software firm R3 on a distributed ledger technology (DLT) collaboration to develop a know your customer (KYC) solution. The solution will be built on R3’s Corda platform – that “operates in strict privacy in an open, global network”. The project aims to improve data collection, data […]
Nordea is now keeping people informed about an ongoing investigation by the Danish Prosecution Service into its alleged anti-money laundering (AML) violations. By way of recap, it follows criticism by the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority (DFSA) in June 2016 regarding AML transgressions by Nordea Bank Danmark. According to Danish newspaper Berlingske, the money laundering involves […]
The second edition of Regtech Supplier Performance Report, featuring some 50 regtech suppliers, published by Market Fintech Limited and supported by Banking Technology, says that with over 50,000 regulatory documents published across the G20 since 2009, and an average of 45 new documents every week, we must assume that the future of banking will be driven by technological developments.
In a Series B round led by Commerce Ventures, digital identity verification specialist Socure raised $13.9 million in new funding. The investment, which also featured the participation of Flint Capital, Santander InnoVentures, Synchrony Financial, Two Sigma Ventures, and Workbench, takes Socure’s total funding to $27.5 million.
Big data and text analytics firm Hello Soda has launched Fraud Web, a new software solution built to combat identity fraud committed through the untraceable internet. The company says Fraud Web identifies the risk of consumer data being available for sale on the dark web and issues high, medium and low risk alerts so that […]
It’s no secret that increased regulations are a significant pain point for commercial and community banks. According to Thomson Reuters Global Cost of Compliance 2016 Survey, more than one-third of participating financial institutions reported spending at least an entire day each week keeping track of regulatory changes. The good news? Regtech, or regulatory technology, is […]
The Risk Management Association of Australia (RMA) has partnered with KPMG and match-making firm Matchi to offer three fintech companies the opportunity to pitch their solutions to forty chief risk officers (CROs) from various Australian banks. KPMG is arranging this year’s CRO roundtable event for the RMA members with the theme “Generation Next”. Matchi says […]
Melissa Global Intelligence, a provider of global contact data quality and identity-verification solutions, announced that its technology is fueling know your customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) initiatives for Meta Payment Systems, one of the largest prepaid card issuers in the US. Meta relies on Melissa to provide “a 360-degree view” of the customer, including […]
U.K.-based W2 Global Data, a provider of regulatory, KYC/AML and fraud prevention solutions, has welcomed three new hires, including Alex Lafferty, Richard Evans and Kerry Cleary.
A consortium of Spanish companies has created Red Lyra, the “first multisector technology platform in the world based on blockchain”. Lyra comprises fintech and non-fintech companies, professionals, and experts in blockchain. Its founding members include Banco Sabadell, Banco Santander, Bankia, BBVA, Bolsas y Mercados Españoles (BME) and consulting firm Grant Thornton. In fact, just last […]
Exploring how the robotic process automation (RPA) powered digital workforce looks to disrupt the manual effort intensive regulatory compliance landscape in BFS, what edge it has over its human counterpart, the roadmap towards RPA driven compliance, challenges in this digitisation journey and success mantras, and innovations that are underway towards building intelligent RPA to replicate human decision-making.
Deutsche Bank and a variety of German and European companies have teamed up to establish a joint, pan-industry platform for online registration, e-identity and data services. The initiative was set up by the bank, Allianz, Axel Springer, Daimler, Postbank, technology think tank Core, and location services provider Here Technologies. Their aim is to “make online […]
Standard Chartered has given a big boost to two Asian start-ups with two proof of concept (PoC) projects. Bambu, a Singapore-based robo-advisory for wealth management firm, and KYC Chain, a Hong Kong-based digital identity management firm using distributed ledger technology, were selected from SuperCharger FinTech Accelerator 2.0 – a 12-week accelerator programme in Hong Kong […]
ATB Financial has joined forces with KPMG in Canada and fintech matchmaking firm Matchi to run a “Customer Onboarding Innovation Challenge”. The challenge is free to enter and open to any firm that has developed and built a solution in one of the four categories: Know your customer (KYC) – ideally the solution will be […]
While the Indian government works toward a digital economy, the Reserve Bank of India is soliciting feedback through March 31 on guidelines for prepaid payment instruments that could adversely affect issuers of prepaid products, including mobile wallets.
IBM and SecureKey Technologies are working together to enable a new digital identity and attribute sharing network based on IBM Blockchain. When launched later this year, consumers can use the network to verify their identity for services such as new bank accounts, driver’s licences or utilities. IBM’s Blockchain service is built on top of the […]
A number of banks in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan have signed up to use Swift’s Know Your Customer (KYC) Registry, a centralised repository that maintains a standardised set of information about correspondent banks, funds distributors and custodians required for due diligence processes. In both deals, Swift worked with its business partner in the Central Asia region, […]
The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) has agreed to sell its Clarient Global and Avox businesses to Thomson Reuters.
The Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT), set up by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has recently issued a whitepaper, “Applications of Blockchain Technology to Banking and Financial Sector in India”. We summarise the report and highlight the key findings.
IBM has unveiled a blockchain-powered Know Your Customer (KYC) project with Singapore start-up KYCK! to help financial services providers onboard customers quicker and cheaper. Using the open source Hyperledger Project Fabric, IBM says immutability, traceability and privacy of the information is provided on a permissioned distributed ledger which is “critical” in a highly regulated environment. […]
The R3 consortium and ten of its member banks have developed a proof-of-concept (PoC) for a know your customer (KYC) registry “that addresses the challenges associated with satisfying KYC requirements and allows identities to be managed by their owners”.
Eight central banks in Latin America have adopted Swift’s financial crime compliance solutions to combat financial crime. The central banks of Belize, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Curacao, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti and Paraguay, have implemented the solutions, including Swift’s KYC registry and sanctions screening. Some of the banks have also endorsed the adoption of the KYC […]
French software firm Dassault Systemes has named the seven finalists for its “3D FinTech Challenge” 2016 to address anti-money laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) issues. This is its fourth annual accelerator programme in collaboration with senior finance executives, regulators and “influencers”. As Banking Technology reported in August, Dassault Systemes invited start-ups to apply. […]
IBM plans to acquire Promontory Financial Group, a risk management and regulatory compliance consulting firm, to boost IBM Watson’s cognitive technology. Upon close of the deal, Promontory’s employees will train Watson, which will learn by “continuously ingesting regulatory information as it is created and through interaction in real-world applications”. Bridget van Kralingen, senior vice-president, IBM […]
French software firm Dassault Systemes is inviting start-ups to apply to its “3D Fintech Challenge” to address anti-money laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) issues. As part of its overall 3DExperience Lab initiative, the seven-week programme will identify and help nurture six start-ups that can provide systemic warnings and a 360-degree view of customer/support […]
Kyc.com is partnering with Dow Jones, Exiger and Regulatory DataCorp (RDC) to drive standardisation and compliance for Know Your Customer (KYC) processes. The alliance plans to deliver an end-to-end KYC process integrating compliance, onboarding, sanctions, screening, negative media searches and client risk assessment across regulatory regimes and multiple jurisdictions. Joel Lange, managing director of Dow […]
US payments firm Stripe has launched “Managed Accounts” for its Stripe Connect to marketplaces in the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Norway. Stripe says by using Managed Accounts, marketplaces in Europe can design “lightweight” setup flows, configure payment schedules, decide who pays fees, determine when information is collected, and more. Managed Accounts was launched […]
IBM and Crédit Mutuel Arkéa have completed their first blockchain project to “improve” the French bank’s ability to verify customer identity. The result of the pilot is an operational permissioned blockchain network that provides a view of customer identity to enable compliance with Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements. “Blockchain is a transformative agent in our […]
US investment management firm Pimco has selected Kyc.com and Markit for its due diligence and onboarding requirements. Pimco has opted for Counterparty Manager, Tax Utility, kyc.com and the “entire regulatory and compliance ecosystem”. Kyc.com and Markit say their “ecosystem” provides buy- and sell-side firms, and corporates with a solution for onboarding, KYC (Know Your Customer), […]
In the past 2 years alone, large global banks have been fined more than $3Bn in fines for breaches of AML and CDD. As a result, global regulators have heightened the scrutiny of AML programs. Compliance Officers are seeking enhanced functions and improved processes from their KYC programs. Some of their key challenges include: Lack […]
