Bloomberg KYC’s on-boarding platform accepts reality: there is NO single standard
by Jack Large
Sometimes the solution is hiding in plain sight. In KYC the solution was not to demand everyone uses same standard. Instead Bloomberg accepted that today, there are no globally accepted KYC standards (and probably will not be for many years to come), and so built a KYC platform - Entity Exchange - based on this reality.
Bloomberg has changed the KYC business by accepting this fact and building a KYC platform - Entity Exchange - that focuses on providing a secure and streamlined way to provide sensitive documents and data critical to the onboarding process in banks and FIs regardless of which KYC standards and policies they use.
Bloomberg believe that the problem that can be solved today is: “the provision of a simple and practical, efficient and secure platform for the exchange of sensitive documents and data required in the KYC process”, there is no mileage in trying to solve the lack of KYC standards. Insisting on everyone using the same standards just doesn’t work, as corporates around the world know to their cost and frustration.
It could be the beginning of the answer to Lenovo’s Damian Glendinnings famous rant at SIBOS 2015, where he listed many nonesenses in global banking that he was fed up of paying for, including, “We’re all providing the same documents 19 times often to different branches of the same bank.”
Entity Exchange service
Entity Exchange is a centralized, web-based platform that gives banks and other financial institutions a secure and streamlined way for their corporates to provide sensitive documents and data critical to the onboarding process. Bloomberg claim the result is faster and easier on-boarding for both parties, as shown below:
Source & Copyright©2017 -Bloomberg
Banks and FIs can use this solution to manage multiple counterparty relationships through a single, secure platform. They can respond to requests for current documentation, give specific organizations permission to receive it and notify multiple counterparties about changes simultaneously.
The Entity Exchange platform optimises the workflow with the corporate treasury department by providing, for example:
- Automatching:
- Source & Copyright©2017 - Bloomberg
- Automated population of documentation and forms requested by counterparties
- Ability to raise issues over the platform and track resolution in an audit trail:
- ⁃ Source & Copyright©2017 - Bloomberg
- Dashboards provide task completion tracking and workflow management tools:
- Source & Copyright©2017 - Bloomberg
Overall, the Entity Exchange platform, is, as Bloomberg put it, “Flexible enough to handle evolving regulatory requirements.” That is the key KYC change here.
Holistic approach to entity management
In any new business relationship all banks and corporates have to comply with regulatory requirements world-wide designed to prevent tax avoidance and fraud, e.g. anti-money laundering. Bloomberg has developed a holistic approach to Entity Management which combines the Entity Exchange functionality with Entity Verification to verify, refresh and monitor this information, and Entity Screening to uncover ultimate beneficial ownership, associated entities and C-level executives while screening for PEPS, sanctions and adverse media, as figure below shows:.
Source & Copyright©2017 - Bloomberg
CTMfile take: Eliminating the key factors hindering the growth of your business is what KYC platforms should be about, not insisting on all using the same KYC standards and processes. This change could be a huge step forward to speeding up the whole KYC business. Entity Exchange is really what KYC is about.
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