Hong Kong will centralize database complying with KYC starting from the year 2018

As the city of Hong Kong transforms itself as a financial technology centre, the government of the city has initiated the city to comply with the Know Your Client (KYC) standard. The news has arrived from the new financial services and treasury bureau chief, James Lau.

The meaning of KYC is well recognized in the banking sector as it ensures anti-money laundering and other miscreant free security for the bank through the process of identifying and verifying the identity of clients. 

“By using KYC procedures with a financial institution, a customer’s information might be stored with a trusted unique database, enabling the sharing of information across financial institutions for more efficient services such as opening up of bank accounts or the purchase of financial derivatives,” Lau said.

With the new initiation, the government plans to replace smart identity cards with more secured and safe cards starting from the next year and through 2022. According to Lau, storing Hong Kong resident’s data in a secured card would allow for convenient sharing of information across borders.

For the current year, considering the much hyped security breach, government has launched a pilot scheme based on a national personal data platform that contains government-accumulated data such as the national ID number and residential address.