KYC: Getting better....and getting worse

In our recent report: Corporate Treasury - Approaches & Experiences with KYC & AML, 

we concluded:

• …. any “light at the end of the tunnel” may be an approaching train. Some banks share information internally so it is only provided once, but many do not and are largely indifferent to customer impact. Treasurers’ attempts at repositories have failed, and they resist tools that could shift full KYC ownership onto them.
• Requirements are expanding to non-sanctioned countries, while ultimate beneficial ownership data demands keep growing, raising privacy concerns.
• Though both sides complain, they largely accept the process: treasurers challenge KYC but rarely act, while banks will lose customers rather than dilute compliance. As long as this dynamic holds, improvement will be slow at best.

In this Expert Perspectives, Anders Jorgensen explains that banks face genuine operational complexity in managing KYC at scale, but many are still failing to plan effectively or stick to agreed schedules.The better banks are starting to recognise KYC as a customer satisfaction issue, not just a compliance burden, which is slowly driving process improvements.

However, treasurers should expect requirements to keep expanding,  more countries flagged as high-risk, UBO thresholds potentially dropping to 5%, and KYC demands spreading beyond banks to suppliers, customers and investors. Although there is no realistic prospect of things getting simpler, there are some best practices that treasurers can adopt to make life easier going forward.

Listen on Spotify, or view video below.