Know Your Customer’s Company Registry Solution Now Available Through HKMA’s Commercial Data Interchange

HONG KONG SAR  20 September 2023 – Know Your Customer, a leading RegTech provider specialised in Business KYC verification, is delighted to announce the addition of its solution to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s (HKMA) Commercial Data Interchange (CDI). This collaboration is the latest milestone in the HKMA’s strategy to foster more efficient financial intermediation in the banking system and promote financial inclusion in the region.The CDI represents a cutting-edge financial data infrastructure that eliminates the need for multiple one-to-one connections between banks and data providers. Through CDI, each bank and data provider establishes a single connection, streamlining data sharing at unprecedented levels.

Know Your Customer’s pivotal role within CDI is to provide seamless and automated access to the Hong Kong Companies Registry (HKCR) and Inland Revenue Department (IRD), as well as to a global network of official registries across 130+ countries worldwide. Know Your Customer’s proprietary technology empowers compliance teams at banks and regulated institutions with real-time access to official company documents, including certificates of incorporation and annual returns. Furthermore, the solution intelligently reads and extracts all shareholder and company details from company documents as structured data, thereby accelerating entity structure mapping and ultimate beneficial owner (UBO) identification for anti-money laundering purposes.

By adopting Know Your Customer through CDI, financial institutions in Hong Kong can significantly enhance the efficiency and accuracy of their Know Your Business (KYB) and UBO checks. This transformative integration paves the way for digital transformation, facilitating a superior customer experience for both local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large multinational corporations (MNCs).

Claus Christensen, CEO & Co-Founder of Know Your Customer, expressed his enthusiasm for the strategic potential of RegTech adoption in the financial services sector, particularly within HKMA’s forward-thinking approach. He stated:
“The CDI is just one of the many tangible and proactive initiatives taken by the regulator to drive RegTech adoption across the industry. Myself and the entire team at Know Your Customer are eager to contribute to helping banks strengthen their internal compliance processes and embrace digital transformation in the critical areas of business verification and onboarding.”

The integration of Know Your Customer with HKMA’s Commercial Data Interchange signals the importance of real-time registry access and primary source data to ensure on-going compliance in the eyes of the regulator. As Know Your Customer continues to lead the way in high-quality compliance solutions, this partnership stands as a testament to the banking sector’s commitment to concrete innovation and measurable progress.