The importance of e-KYC

Last December, Bank Negara issued an exposure draft on e-KYC seeking the industry’s feedback on its proposed requirements and guidance for e-KYC implementation. The feedback deadline was Feb 17,2020. Since then there has been no announcement yet from the central bank on their e-KYC guidelines

One crucial component of the financial data space is the ability of players to onboard their customers through digital means, quickly, efficiently and safely. The technology that has developed to enable this is called e-KYC, which stands for electronic know your customer.

The KYC terminology is an old banking one that refers to knowing a customer’s identity, their financial activities and the risks they pose, especially in areas such as money laundering. Today, with the wide usage of mobile devices that have high quality cameras and scanners, coupled with technologies such as document verification, facial recognition and biometrics, e-KYC has become the norm in countries like China.