Speaking at the SWIFT Business Forum London 2015, bosses from Citi, Commerzbank and Lloyds Banking Group said that with regulatory demands becoming even more stringent, it makes sense to work to the highest global standard, even in jurisdictions where it may not currently be required.</p> Thomas Piontek, senior regulatory advisor at Commerzbank, said: “Right now, we are running a project to harmonise local standards and the global compliance manual so we have a stronger regime in certain locations. It is better to have one standard and if it is a higher standard, that is much better for the organisation.”</p> Citi also follows this approach. Peter Drake, director and head of Europe Middle East and Africa Trade & Transaction Solutions and Anti-Money Laundering at Citi, said it is easier for the company to do so as it is focused on corporate banking and doesn’t attempt to compete with domestic retail banks in most markets.</p> He added: “Citi has a particular challenge with the diversity of markets in which we are based. We have a physical presence in more than 100 countries worldwide…so we have an incentive to maintain that gold standard.”</p> Lloyds Banking Group restructured part of the business after the credit crisis in 2008. Russell Saunders, global payments managing director at Lloyds Banking Group, said “having a brush with the US authorities” encouraged the business to embrace a global gold standard and pull out of some jurisdictions.</p> However, he explained the requirements from regulators in some jurisdictions mean it can be frustrating for smaller clients to handle requests. He cites the Know Your Customer (KYC) rules under the UK’s Money Laundering Regulations 2007 as one example.</p> He explains: “SME companies don’t have time to have conversations about KYC. Medium sized corporates and SMEs are a real challenge for our relationship managers.”</p> Martin Taylor, managing director of Equiniti Investment Services, said there can also be issues with overseas clients looking to do business in the UK. He explained: “The majority of our customers overseas struggle with the whole KYC process. The days of asking for a bank statement to prove who they are, are long gone. How do you make it easier for customers to prove who they are whilst meeting all of the different regulations?”</p> Commerzbank’s Piontek thinks he might have the answer. When asked how best to tackle global KYC requirements in the years ahead, he said banks will likely move away from pure ‘identification’ in a traditional sense to something far more detailed.</p> He said: “I think we will step away from customer identification. We will look much more into customer transactions. When we are working with a bank in a certain country, we will see the cashflows.</p> “We are doing parts of that today but we are not going into that much detail. We need to understand the payment methods being used and compare them to multi-market processes and market behaviours to find out if there are suspicious transactions or not.”</p>