Banco Santander has joined the SWIFT Know Your Customer (KYC) Registry, a centralised repository that maintains a standardised set of information about correspondent banks required for KYC compliance.
With the KYC Registry, banks contribute an agreed ‘baseline’ set of data and documentation for validation by SWIFT, which the contributors can then share with their counterparties.
Each bank retains ownership of its own information, as well as control over which other institutions can view it. Banks are not charged for data contribution or for using the registry to share their KYC information with other banks.
To maximise its benefits, data consumption is free in 2015 for banks that contribute their own KYC information to the registry and promote it to their correspondents.
Stéphanie Rodríguez Aniorté, head global product at Banco Santander, commented: “This SWIFT initiative will help Santander Group to comply with the KYC requirements in a more trustworthy, efficient and effective way.”
Luc Meurant, head of compliance services at SWIFT, added: “Adding Banco Santander to our growing list of participants demonstrates the value the KYC Registry is bringing to the correspondent banking community.”
