On April 22nd, the Asia Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association (ASIFMA) published a comprehensive guide to client onboarding and KYC refresh best practices in Hong Kong.
The report – which can be viewed in full here – is the result of collaborative efforts by an ASIFMA member group led by EY, which included representatives from 15 financial institutions active in capital markets. The objective of the committee was to document common practices for meeting KYC requirements in Hong Kong and to demonstrate the potential benefits of a shared approach to KYC/AML compliance among peer banks.
The report offers useful guidance on the specific information and documents that financial institutions should collect from their domestic customers when opening new accounts or refreshing existing ones. In particular, the guide identifies the specific requirements that apply to the following types of customers:
- Single-layered low-risk domestic entities and relevant individuals associated with privately owned entities
- Funds regulated by an approved regulator and relevant individuals associated with funds regulated by approved regulators
- Trusts and relevant individuals associated with trusts
- Individuals
- Regulated financial institutions from approved regulators and relevant individuals associated with regulated financial institutions
- Non-Bank Financial Institutions (NBFIs) regulated by an approved regulator and relevant individuals associated with regulated NBFIs
- Public listed entities from approved jurisdictions and relevant individuals associated with public listed entities from approved jurisdictions
- Partnerships and relevant individuals associated with partnerships
At Know Your Customer, we specialise in helping financial institutions digitise every step of their corporate onboarding process while ensuring on-going regulatory compliance. As a Hong Kong-headquartered RegTech organisation, we provide digital solutions whose built-in workflows reflect local regulatory requirements and can be easily adapted as new guidance is introduced.
For Hong Kong single-layered entities, our system exclusively utilises information extracted from official documents downloaded on demand and in real-time from the Company Registry. For multi-layered organisations, we expedite the identification of Ultimate Beneficial Owners through automated connections to official company registries around the world and instant unravelling of company structure charts. To discover the benefits of digital-first KYC compliance in Hong Kong and around the world, please request a consultation here.
Last updated on May 9th, 2023 at 08:32 pm
