"As FinTech innovation and virtual banking continues to gain global traction, customers' expectations of fully digital experiences have expanded to every corner of the financial services realm. To reflect this shift, over the past few years regulators have been slowly introducing new e-KYC guidelines to allow financial institutions to perform KYC checks and approve customer applications electronically."
Decentralized non-custodial crypto trading platform ShapeShift will sunset its 6+ year business of trading directly with customers and now route orders through decentralized finance (DeFi) applications to get rid of know-your-customer (KYC) requirements. These multiple decentralized exchanges (DEX) will include Uniswap, Balancer, Curve, Bancor, Kyber, 0x, mStable among about a dozen others. DEXs, which operate as trading systems on top of blockchains, such as Ethereum, have eaten into centralized exchange volumes over 2020. For example, Uniswap cites itself as the fifth-largest spot-trading crypto exchange. https://erikvoorhees.medium.com/no-more-kyc-with-shapeshift-6d95a3e63ddf
Wallet, a third-party cryptocurrency wallet app on Telegram, will impose stricter know your customer (KYC) rules to access all features. Before the update, users did not need to complete any KYC, but they will have to provide their name, birthdate and phone number for "basic" transaction limit levels. "Extended" access will require the user's national identification, and providing the residential address remove all transfer limits. https://wallet.helpscoutdocs.com/article/239-identity-verification
The process of AML/CFT regulatory compliance involves KYC (know your customer) throughout transaction lifecycles. This post runs through the typical KYC process and compares different crypto exchange approaches.
SWIFT's global KYC registry goes live today, allowing corporate groups to manage and share KYC data with global partners. The launch follows a testing period supported by 18 corporate groups and 16 global banks, amounting to over 7,000 corporate-to-bank relationships on SWIFT.
The Arab Monetary Fund published the Arab Regional Fintech Working Group's Digital Identity and Electronic Know Your Customer (e-KYC) Guidelines for the Arab Region.
This year, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) issued strict new global standards for crypto assets. In 2020, the guidance will begin to come into force, while in January the EU's Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD5) kicks in. The upshot of this is more Know Your Customer (KYC) enforcement, stricter controls on buying and selling cryptocurrency, and increased compliance. Bad news for bitcoiners, in other words, who value their privacy.
BitMEX has completed its User Verification Programme, claiming to start 2021 with "a fully verified active user base." BitMEX ramped up the rollout of its know-your-customers (KYC) program on October 21, after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed money-laundering and other civil charges against it. The BitMEX Programme had some theet behind it as, according to BitMEX's initial announcement, all its customers who remained unverified by December 4 would have lost the ability to deposit, trade, and withdraw their funds.
According to a CipherTrace study 56% of virtual asset service providers lack strong know-your-customer (KYC) practices, and 81% of decentralized exchanges (DEXs) have little-to-no user verification. The study analyzed more than 800 cryptocurrency exchanges, as well as over-the-counter trading desks and other kinds of service providers. It looked at 21 DEXs, which have seen massive trading volume growth over the past year, and are designed to let users exchange currencies without a third party and therefore bypass certain regulatory obstacles.
"Recent innovations in self-sovereign identity and zero-knowledge cryptography, along with proper ecosystem design, allow for a novel approach to know-your-customer (KYC) that protects the customer's privacy without reducing transparency. The proposed solution concept, zkKYC, removes the need for the customer to share any personal information with a regulated business for the purpose of KYC, and yet provides the transparency to allow for a customer to be identified if and when that is ruled necessary by a designated governing entity (e.g. regulator, law enforcement). This approach breaks the traditional privacy vs. transparency trade-off and provides structured transparency, resulting in a net positive outcome for all parties involved."
A global study of 216 exchanges found 69% of them do not have complete and transparent KYC procedures. It also found that only 26% had a "high" level of AML procedures.
A new partnership between the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), Mashreq BankĀ and fintech firm Norbloc aims to launch a blockchain-based Know Your Customer (KYC) data-sharing consortium in 2020.
Maker will also possibly add KYC to its onboarding process, once again defeating the purpose of decentralized finance to offer low barriers to entry. This extends the troubles with Maker, including the very high participation fee, which is, in essence, its interest rate for lending.
The wallet with the weakest know-your customer (KYC) strength is an anonymous wallet, which can be opened with only a mobile phone number. Such wallets, which can be opened with just a mobile phone numbers are completely anonymous to the PBOC and various operating agencies. However, this type of wallet will the lowest balance and daily transaction limit, which can only meet the daily needs of small payments. To make large payments , the wallet needs to be upgraded, and the wallet balance and payment limit will increase as the KYC intensity increases.
Bitcoin is pseudo-anonymous; transactions can be traced and centralized exchanges hold know-your-customer (KYC) information. For security reasons, some users prefer to maintain anonymity, for example to protect against exchange hacks that expose KYC information. Options for buying and using Bitcoin anonymously include peer-to-peer exchanges, Bitcoin ATMs and dark web tumbler services.
The Libra Association is thinking of radical approaches to reach the unbanked in certain locations, including a "step-ladder" approach to KYC regulations. The FATF said it is open to working with Libra about potentially building new forms of digital identity. Libra believes blockchain forensics firms like Chainalysis, Elliptic and Coinfirm will help strengthen the case for "tiered KYC" by monitoring wallet profiles and transaction histories. Non-profits in the Libra Association like the Kiva Foundation may play a key role.
Issuers of today's fiat-backed stablecoins (such as PAX, USDC and TUSD) need to identify (or KYC) only those users who convert between bank account money and stablecoin, not all holders."
Bank Negara Malaysia issued a policy document on Electronic Know-Your-Customer (e-KYC). The policy document aims to accelerate and streamline practices of industry players in their adoption of e-KYC technology.