Six global banks have jointly signed up to Swift’s know-your-customer (KYC) registry: a digital repository that maintains a standardised set of information about banks for due diligence purposes.

Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Erste Group Bank, HSBC, ING and Raiffeisen Bank now join Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citi, Commerzbank, JP Morgan, Société Générale and Standard Chartered, who joined the initiative in March 2014.

The principle behind the registry, announced at the start of the year, is that every user will have a standardised access point to obtain details on their counterparties, while retaining control of their own information, including which organisations that are able to view it.

Together, the banks have formed a working group to agree the registry’s processes, and the documentation and data that will fulfil most of the KYC requirements across multiple jurisdictions. User testing of the registry’s web-based platform is ongoing and some banks have been populating it with relevant KYC information.

Head of banking markets and compliance services at Swift, Luc Meurant, says: “We are receiving tremendous support from the banking community and are making great progress delivering a tool the industry needs to better support KYC compliance for correspondent banking.”

“Collaboration is playing a major role in the development of this industry-driven initiative. Banks want to collectively address the challenges around KYC compliance and Swift is well-placed to help.”