While running a business may be complex, KYC or Know Your Customer compliance often perplexes individuals. This stems from a lack of awareness as to what KYC really is and how it works.
Knowing Know Your Customer – The KYC Process
Know Your Customer or KYC process allows the verification of the identity and information of a customer that a business interacts with. It is a key process for business management, regulatory compliance, and is essential for businesses of all sizes. KYC is critical in helping businesses prevent financial crimes, losses, and legal issues. Furthermore, the KYC verification process helps to build trust and foster positive relationships with customers, clients, and partners. This is key to a business’s growth.
To add on, the KYC process is even more important in order for businesses to be able to better understand their customers. This can subsequently help businesses fulfil their customers’ needs. This information can help these entities develop more and better specific products and services.
Addressing the Complexities: Understanding the KYC Process Steps in Banks
KYC process is the verification and authentication of each individual client that a bank or business may deal with. While this may sound exhaustive, and to some extent, rightfully so, it is an essential part of running a business. This is particularly critical for financial businesses. Financial management entities must be aware of their customers’ credentials, financial activity, and other key parameters that may point towards any illegal activity. The KYC & AML verification process helps towards exactly that.
Banks have to follow a multi-step KYC process for all their customers when they sign up. Later on, additional and regular KYC is also critical in order continuous checks. This regular checking can span the oversight of each transaction that may take place and later, its sources. Overall, this may include the following steps.
The KYC Onboarding Process
This onboarding KYC process refers to the process of collecting critical information from new clients or customers . This information is then verified to confirm for authenticity.
Step 1 – Customer onboarding
When a new client opens up an account at a bank, the bank will have to collect all essential basic information from them. This information includes name, address, date of birth, and the clients government-issued photo ID.
Step 2 – Identity verification
In the second step, the bank attempts to verify the customer’s identity alongside all the data that they provided in step 1. This is done by using the government ID which may be a driver’s license or passport and comparing it against a national database.
Step 3 – Risk assessment
Here, the bank assesses the customer’s risk profile. This is done to categorize clients based on their likelihood of being involved in financial crime as well as for other routine categorizations. This risk assessment is based on various factors such as the clients’ occupation, income, and transaction history.
Consistent Ongoing monitoring
As mentioned, the banks have to make sure that each and every transaction is monitored. Here, the bank checks for transaction amount, transfer location, etc. This helps to monitor the client for suspicious activity. Furthermore, regular check-ins and updates related to personal credentials such as expired IDs, change of address, employment status, etc. is also essential.
What is the Global KYC Process
The global KYC process refers to the application of Know Your Customer KYC to a larger, wider scale and making it global. This is the process of the verification of identities of customers who may be located in different locations around the world. Global KYC is evidently more complex than the local KYC process. This is because it involves multiple countries, states, international regulatory bodies, and diverse laws. However, at the same time, global KYC compliance is also more important considering the fact that 2-5% of the global GDP is laundered each year. Furthermore, scammers and lost funds are also much more difficult to catch when abroad and therefore, in matters like this, safety is better than security.
Understanding How to Implement KYC Process Effectively for Your Business
In order to effectively implement the KYC process, businesses need to make sure that they are up to date on all the latest developments in the domain. Each entity engaging in KYC needs to take critical steps to ensure that it implements KYC in the most useful of ways.
- Develop a strong KYC policy.
- Outline procedures and guidelines in detail.
- Train business/bank staff on KYC process and procedures.
- Keep staff and employees up to date on all KYC process updates and information that may involve customers.
- Utilize a KYC solution/service that is most suitable for your business, its size, risk profile, and industry laws.
- Keep a check on all KYC process updates regularly.
Conclusion
Knowing Your Customer or the KYC process is a critical part of businesses of all sizes. It helps these businesses in preventing financial crimes, protecting their customers and reputation, and also,strongly in compliance with regulations. By ensuring effective implementation of KYC, businesses can be sure to reduce their risk and also to build a strong reputation in the market.