BNM to regulate e-KYC remittances, new standards by October

The overnight policy rate (OPR) has been raised by 25 basis points to 3.25% by Bank Negara, with the floor and ceiling rates for the OPR correspondingly raised to 3.00% and 3.50% respectively.

KUALA LUMPUR: Bank Negara is planning to regulate electronic Know-Your-Customer or e-KYC processes for remittance transactions, with the new standards to be finalised by October this year.

This will pave the way for an industry-wide implementation of e-KYC for remittance transactions in the country, and remove the existing requirement for face-to-face verifications.

KYC is defined as the process of a business, or a financial institution verifying the identity of its clients, while e-KYC is the electronic and paperless method of doing this, without the customer having to fill in forms or any data entry. 

BNM assistant governor Jessica Chew Cheng Lian said the central bank would soon be issuing the proposed regulatory parameters for the conduct of e-KYC processes for remittance transactions 

"We expect to finalise the standards for e-KYC by October after receiving industry comments.  

"Following this, the existing requirement for face-to-face verifications for onboarding new customers will be removed for companies that have received approval to conduct e-KYC," she said in her keynote speech at the Money Services Business Asia Pacific Conference 2017 on Tuesday.

Earlier this year, BNM Governor Datuk Muhammad Ibrahim had expressed his hope to operationalise an industry-wide implementation of e-KYC for the on-boarding of customers by 2018.