Mario de Diego, Executive Vice-President at Panama’s Bank Association, says, “The endorsement of SWIFT´s Know Your Customer (KYC) Registry by the Panama Banking Association is a clear illustration of the association’s steadfast commitment to collaborate with the international community to prevent financial crime and to attain financial inclusion. The PBA looks forward to effectively having all its member banks on The KYC Registry.”

Ricardo Fernandez, Superintendent of Banks of Panama, adds, “By adopting SWIFT’s KYC Registry, Panama’s financial community furthers its commitment to enhance transparency amongst corresponding banks, a critical aspect of the country’s economic development. Public-private partnerships are instrumental in supporting a country’s regulatory framework and its compliance with international standards. We thank the Panama Bank Association for its leadership and compromise in this important matter.”

Banks contribute an agreed ‘baseline’ set of data and documentation for validation by SWIFT, which the contributors can then share with their counterparties. Each bank retains ownership of its own information, as well as control over which other institutions can view it. Banks are not charged for data contribution or for using the Registry to share their KYC information with other banks.

Jairo Namur, Head of Latin America at SWIFT, says: “In a landscape where collaborative approaches are gaining momentum, SWIFT is pleased to help Panama’s Bank Association address the increasing financial crime compliance requirements and welcome them to the growing community of users leveraging SWIFT services to support an effective and efficient implementation of their financial crime compliance processes.”

Today, more than 1,573 financial institutions in 179 countries are using The KYC Registry to facilitate compliance with a growing number of correspondent relationships worldwide. The KYC Registry is operated by SWIFT and was developed in collaboration with major global banks around the world, providing a simple, secure way to exchange a standardized set of information for correspondent banking Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance, increasing efficiency and reducing risk.