KYC (“Know Your Customer” or “Know Your Client”) is critical for verifying client and customer identities to manage risk in the digital world. Both KYC and compliance protocols have been standard in the banking, credit, eCommerce, and other financial sectors for more than 20 years. However, with the widespread adoption of blockchain and increasingly stringent AML/KYC legislation impacting numerous industries, a growing number of organizations are looking for platforms to conduct the required comprehensive KYC activities.
For those new to the fintech world, many can find it overwhelming to determine precisely what is needed for a robust KYC platform. To help get you started, we’ve shared below an overview of three critical functions any KYC platform must fulfill. Additionally, you can find more information about how iComplyKYC offers a scalable, all-in-one compliance solution suitable for applications across all industries and sectors.
Mitigate Risk
Fundamentally, KYC regulations and practices are designed to mitigate risk for businesses when interacting with their clients. Without adequate procedures in place, your organization could be exposed to threats from identity fraud, money laundering, and other illicit activities that can harm both your brand reputation and your bottom line. A truly robust KYC program will protect your business operations and help your compliance team manage these risks more effectively.
Additionally, clients and consumers are rightfully concerned about their data being compromised in today’s evolving digital marketplace. Sensitive information (including personal identification and confidential documents for legal entities) needs to be protected throughout the compliance process; as such, organizations have a responsibility to both their clients and their stakeholders to gather compliance data safely and securely.
iComplyKYC offers an all-in-one suite of tools to protect both your organization and your clients’ privacy through every stage. Our AI-driven platform provides robust identity verification, anti-money laundering (AML) risk screening, Enhanced Due Diligence, and other intelligent protection measures for your organization. On top of that, our digital architecture includes secure edge computing and client-side data processing to protect your clients’ information, helping you to minimize risk and reinforce trust throughout your back-office compliance workflows.
Maintain Compliance
Mitigating risk is only half the battle when it comes to financial crime and data security compliance. Beyond protecting business operations and clients, your organization also needs to ensure it abides by all applicable jurisdictional regulations, no matter where it conducts business. Admittedly, this can be easy to overlook in today’s global marketplace. However, the penalties for non-compliance can be severe enough to dramatically impact your bottom line, making it essential to ensure your process protects you from penalties, sanctions, lost revenue, and other potential consequences.
iComplyKYC’s comprehensive platform leverages cutting-edge AI and blockchain technology to ensure total regulatory compliance in over 245 jurisdictions worldwide. With the ability to build fully-automated workflows for unique client types, jurisdictional requirements, and other relevant factors, compliance teams of all sizes now have access to a complete modular platform to maintain a 360º view of KYC data across your entire organization. Finally, with the ability to set refresh and review dates, automate escalations, and quickly create reports for all entities and cases, only iComplyKYC provides a truly end-to-end compliance solution for the modern global marketplace.
Streamline Workflows
Compliance can be a highly costly endeavour, no matter the organization or its scope. In addition to the significant financial cost of maintaining a compliance workflow, traditional AML/KYC adjudication techniques represent a substantial labour cost, with some firms spending upwards of 60% of their annual budget on staffing their compliance department alone. In order to make compliance both scalable and sustainable, organizations need tools that enable their teams to streamline and automate back-office workflows to focus on what matters most—your people.
iComplyKYC is engineered from top to bottom to provide a consolidated, end-to-end compliance solution that minimizes processing time without sacrificing security. With forward-thinking solutions that leverage edge computing, artificial intelligence, fuzzy logic, and over 150 million points of reference data, our suite of compliance tools is engineered to facilitate faster processing times, rapid discrepancy resolution, and lower compliance costs that can add value to any organization.
Ready to Discover More?
Contact us today to learn about iComply’s comprehensive, modular compliance solutions or to book a demo with one of our product specialists.
In today’s busy global market, the need for security and transparency is greater than ever before. The rapid pace and advancement of digital technology have led to great leaps and bounds when it comes to doing business, but these new developments aren’t without their fair share of challenges and risks.
Knowing who you’re “shaking hands with” is essential to protecting your business, making sure that everyone can move forward as confidently as possible. iComply is pleased to offer world-leading Know Your Customer (KYC) technology that makes it easy to screen for risk, enhance your security and verification procedures, and keep up with the evolving digital compliance landscape.
From onboarding to financial verification, anti-fraud protection, and more, KYC technology has become the go-to assurance measure for organizations around the globe. Learn more below about the value of implementing high-end KYC solutions in your daily operations, as well as the importance of partnering with a team you can trust.
What is KYC?
KYC, as well as eKYC procedures, have become two of the most dominating topics in today’s workforce and security compliance industries, standing for “Know Your Customer” and “Electronic Know Your Customer” respectively. At the core of these procedures lies an age-old adage that guides every relationship we form professionally: you need to know who you’re dealing with. Each layer of the KYC process is designed to help you confirm, identify, and vet the people in front of you, from customers to loan applicants, investors and even prospective team members. In today’s world, knowledge isn’t just power; it’s the safeguard that keeps everyone on the right path and helps avoid accidental facilitation of money laundering, terrorism financing, sanctions evasion, or human trafficking.
Fundamentally, KYC procedures are concerned with discerning the following:
establishing a valid customer identity;
evaluating and vetting the customer/prospect’s activities and associations for alignment concerns;
verifying whether the individual has represented their capabilities honestly (i.e. if a business has the legal status and licenses to operate in their region(s), etc.); and
assessing a multitude of risks including background details, risk of money laundering, and previous fraudulent activities.
By using eKYC technology, your business can drastically reduce the risks involved in forming outside partnerships with customers, vendors, or other parties, and save countless hours that would otherwise be spent on manual vetting and onboarding processes.
How it Works
As we mentioned above, KYC has become an extremely popular term and area of development within the financial services world, but it’s important to note that not all practices and procedures are equal. While many companies will claim to utilize “KYC procedures”, their back-end process typically involves manual, human-led verification that is ultimately too slow and prone to error to be considered consistently viable.
eKYC focused platforms like iComplyKYC are more advanced, and focus on giving you true verification data that is seamless, dependable, and easy to analyze.
Through the use of edge computing technology, iComplyKYC allows you to process sensitive user data securely by vetting and encrypting it before it leaves their device. This not only improves KYC effectiveness and reduces friction, it allows your business to nimbly stay on top of global data privacy and protection regulations including GDPR, CCPA, PPIA, and many more.
Partner with a platform you can trust that includes convenient features like easily embeddable KYC Portals, workflows to handle and track requests, adaptation for evolving AML standards, and dashboards that make record keeping as straightforward as possible. The result is a fast, streamlined KYC solution that allows you to screen both natural persons and legal entities quickly and accurately. iComplyKYC makes it easy to onboard new clients, adhere to compliance laws, and avoid headaches when it comes to the accuracy of risk assessment and ongoing monitoring requirements.
Get to Know iComply Today!
iComplyKYC is proud to partner with organizations to ensure you have a complete solution when it comes to Knowing Your Customers. Our platform can be set up in minutes, allowing you to configure compliance workflows by jurisdiction and focus on the next stages of development while our tech does the heavy lifting on verification. With multiple layers of KYC technology, algorithms, and programs at work within our system, you can screen for AML risks, perform Enhanced Due Diligence, and conduct Daily Ongoing Monitoring to minimize your risk, all in one robust platform.
Book a demo with our team today to learn more about iComplyKYC and how our intelligent suite of products can best be used for your specific needs and applications.
Are you set up for success when it comes to compliance with the many safety regulations that moderate the finance and banking sectors? If your institution is lagging when it comes to KYC and AML processes, it’s time to invest in proven compliance assets that are designed to protect your bottom line, give your customers peace of mind, and give your business a competitive edge.
Below, we’ll take a closer look at the world of KYC practices, particularly with regards to the banking and finance sectors, and why it’s so crucial to partner with the right solution in your marketplace. Read on to learn more!
Exploring KYC
If you’re in the banking, capital markets, or financial services sectors, you’ve no doubt dealt with some form of KYC protocols. Financial institutions around the world are subject to increasing levels of regulations when it comes to having safeguards in place to accurately identify and verify the individuals and legal entities interacting with an organization. KYC and eKYC (Electronic Know Your Customer) processes and programs are designed to uphold these standards by:
establishing a valid customer identity;
evaluating and vetting a customer/prospect’s activities and associations for alignment concerns (e.g. do they have known ties to terrorist or illicit organizations?); and
assessing a multitude of risks including background details, risk of money laundering, risk of sanctions and judicial orders, previous fraudulent activities, and more.
Electronic KYC technology simplifies compliance procedures and dramatically reduces the risks associated with onboarding new clients and forming partnerships with unknown third parties.
Introducing iComplyKYC
As an essential asset to the banking industry, as well as the finance, employment, and several other markets globally, eKYC platforms like iComplyKYC transform outdated and inefficient manual KYC practices and add multiple additional security features you can trust. iComply’s platform uses edge computing to process sensitive user data before it leaves their device – a game changer for data privacy and protection regulations such as GDPR, CCPA, PPIA, etc..
Using iComplyKYC allows you to dramatically cut the costs of your KYC operations (by up to 80%), reduce client onboarding times, remove the risk of human error, and perform real-time risk assessment that keeps your organization mobile and efficient. iComplyKYC is an intelligent, modular compliance platform that can be set up in minutes, allowing you to configure workflows by jurisdiction for maximum efficiency.
Simply put, if you’re looking to make a strong investment in your security protocols and compliance procedures, iComplyKYC is the all-in-one asset designed to work with your team to guarantee success.
Get to Know iComply Today!
iComply Investor Services is proud to partner with organizations to ensure you have a trustworthy solution when it comes to Knowing Your Customers. Our platform can be set up in minutes, allowing you to configure compliance workflows by jurisdiction and focus on the next stages of development while our tech does the heavy lifting on verification. With multiple layers of KYC algorithms and programs at work within our system, you can screen for risks like AML, conduct Enhanced Due Diligence, and conduct Daily Ongoing Monitoring to minimize your risk, all in one easy platform.
Book a demo with our team today to learn more about iComplyKYC and how our platform can be used for your specific needs and applications.
Sanctions Update: Russia, Ukraine, and Global Uncertainty
The Update: What Happened?
Uncertain relations between Ukraine and Russia continue to affect many countries engaging in trade including Canada, the United States, the European Union, China, Iran, and Russia. Effective DATE, sanctions have been imposed and will continue by the largest countries doing trade with Russia; most significantly, the United States.
The Background: SWIFT Access Sanction – Russia’s Main Banking System
On February 26th, a call to action was imposed by the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, the UK and the US to remove specific banks from the SWIFT (system that facilitates financial transactions and money transfers for banks located around the world) messaging platform. The agreement was imposed to break down Russia’s financial system, a method to further hamper the invasion in Ukraine. Additionally, any other banks will be affected as a German government source reported.
The Solution: How iComply Can Help
iComply Investor Services Inc. (“iComply”) is a global compliance software provider that helps compliance teams reduce the cost and complexity of KYC and AML operations while providing a seamless user experience to their KYC subjects. Compliance teams can configure and monitor KYC portals to securely gather, validate, and encrypt client data and documentation before it leaves their device
Our iComplyKYC solution enables access to the most up-to-date client data available and gain a more comprehensive view of risk related to each entity. It also uses AI and deep data analysis to identify new risks and sanctions within 17 minutes, enables management to visualize the volumes and bottlenecks in KYC and AML operations, and it reduces the operational cost of AML risk screening, record keeping, and reporting.
How can iComplyKYC screening help you enhance your sanctions compliance?
Our solution’s capabilities onboard natural persons, beneficial ownership, and legal entities data, saving your organization time and valuable resources. By using iComply’s platform, you can easily scan sanctioned banks listed by regulatory authorities.
Why is this important to my business/organization?
iComply is working with its clients to ensure they have their bases covered from an AML/KYC compliance perspective.
Improve screening accuracy while minimizing false positives
Stay on top of ever-evolving financial crime activity
Ensures GDPR compliance so your organization does not risk being imposed with hefty financial penalties from regulators
Do all your compliance checks and due diligence for you rather than using your own human resources or having to contract with multiple vendors
Regulatory Actions and Updates from Around the Globe
Enforcement Highlights – October 2021
United States:
The SEC charged CanaFarma Hemp Products Corp. and co-founders with defrauding investors of nearly USD $15 million and misappropriating a majority of investor funds for personal use and unrelated purposes.
The SEC charged former broker and investment adviser Kenneth A. Welsh with misappropriating almost USD $3 million from his clients’ accounts in order to personally purchase gold coins and other precious metals.
The SEC announced that clearing agency Fixed Income Clearing Corporation (FICC) will pay USD $8 million in penalties to settle charges that it failed to enact adequate risk management policies within its Government Securities Division.
Credit Suisse Group AG has agreed to pay hundreds of millions in penalties, including nearly USD $100 million to the SEC, for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and misleading investors in a fraudulent loan scheme in Mozambique.
United Kingdom:
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) also fined Credit Suisse over £147 million for significant failure to conduct adequate due diligence regarding loans worth over $1.3 billion, which the bank arranged for the Republic of Mozambique.
Hong Kong:
The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) fined Ample Capital Limited $5.5 million and suspends its responsible officer for IPO sponsor failures.
This latest update forms part of the FATF’s ongoing monitoring of the virtual assets and VASP sector and provides relevant examples and potential solutions to implementation obstacles. The 2021 Guidance includes updates focusing on updates and additional information in the following six key areas:
Clarification of the definitions of virtual assets and VASPs
How the FATF Standards apply to stablecoins
Related risks and tools available to countries to address money laundering and terrorist financing risks for peer-to-peer transactions
Licensing and registration of VASPs
Public and private sector guidance on the implementation of the “travel rule”
Principles of information-sharing and co-operation amongst VASP Supervisors
The Department of the Treasury and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) recently released updated statistics on the SARs submitted up to the end of September 2021, showcasing an anticipated record high of over 3,000,000 SARs filed by the end of the year.
The challenge now facing enforcement agencies is to sift through the high volumes of reports to determine quality vs quantity. The AML Act of 2020 has been the biggest proponent of improvement in the quality of meaningful feedback and trends, with the purpose of encouraging higher-quality reporting, not simply higher quantity.
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