The Dominican Republic has become the first country to implement SWIFT’s know-your-customer (KYC) Registry as a financial community.
Almost all member banks in the Dominican Republic are now registered users of the KYC Registry, which helps institutions to exchange standardised compliance data in a simple, efficient and secure way.
Fabiola Herrera, director of payments and systems at the Central Bank of the Dominican Republic, said: “Banks who engage in correspondent relationships require a range of information and documents about their counterparties in order to achieve effective due diligence programs and meet other regulatory requirements.”
“Adopting the SWIFT central KYC utility as a whole community means that banks in the Dominican Republic will raise their levels of compliance with applicable anti-money laundering standards. It also allows us to strengthen the mechanisms for preventing and mitigating risks associated with crimes of a financial nature in the Dominican Republic.”
Banks contribute a ‘baseline’ set of data and documentation which is shared with other counterparties. Contributors retain ownership of information and control of which firms can view it, and are not charged for contribution or for using the registry.
The registry now has members from 109 countries around the world.
Jairo Namur, regional manager for Latin America at SWIFT, said: “In a landscape where collaborative approaches are gaining momentum, SWIFT is pleased to help the Dominican Republic community work together to meet the increasing financial crime compliance requirements.”
