Deutsche Bank's Global Transaction Banking (GTB) division has embedded in its procedures Swift's Know Your Customer (KYC) Registry, a centralised repository that maintains a standardized set of information about correspondent banks required for KYC compliance.

GTB's financial institution clients who make their data available via this shared platform will now benefit from a smoother and streamlined review as part of the regular KYC process the bank has to undertake. Deutsche Bank has also contributed its own data into the repository, the European bank says.

The KYC Registry includes entities from more than 130 countries, facilitating compliance with a growing number of correspondent relationships worldwide.

Swift, a global payment services provider, operates the service and steers an annual review cycle to ensure the data is up-to-date. The KYC Registry was developed in collaboration with major global banks around the world. Deutsche Bank was part of this working group and uses the service since June 2015.

The centerpiece of The KYC Registry is an extensive and transparent standardset of KYC data and documentation that was endorsed by the industry working group in 2014 and embedded into the application allowing contributors to share their data with their counterparties. Each bank retains ownership of its own information, as well as control over which other institutions can view it. Banks are not charged for data contribution or for using the registry to share their KYC information with other banks.

Marcus Sehr, global head of institutional cash, Global Transaction Banking, at Deutsche Bank, says: "The KYC Registry should help us to meet ever growing requirements around compliance standards while at the same time reduce the administrative burden for those clients who participatein the initiative. Such level of standardisation and collaboration is key to improve the efficiency and reliability of recurring KYC controls."