Pakistan Banks to Use Blockchain Technology for KYC – The Pakistan Banks’ Association (PBA) has signed a contract with Avanza Group to create a blockchain-based know-your-customer (KYC) platform. The latter brings together businesses that specialize in sophisticated banking applications, customer experience management systems, blockchain, and artificial intelligence.
According to the PBA, the signing ceremony took place on Thursday at the industry organization’s office in Karachi and was attended by a number of authorities, including its Chairman, Muhammad Aurangzeb, and the CEO of Avanza Innovations, Waqas Mirza.
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The project to develop the electronic KYC system is part of the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) continuous efforts to bolster the country’s anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CTF) control infrastructure, according to a news statement.
“In addition to strengthening AML controls, the deployment of this platform will bring about efficiencies at participating banks and will result in improvement in customer experience,” stated the PBA, which is monitoring the project on behalf of its members.
Consonance, Avanza’s e-KYC platform, uses blockchain technology to enable banks to standardize and trade personal information over a “decentralized and self-regulated network.” According to the association, this should only happen with the customers’ permission.
Using data from KYC checks performed by other participating institutions, banks will be able to analyze their existing and new customers. This should reduce onboarding expenses and improve the client experience when opening an account, thereby “facilitating financial inclusion,” according to the PBA.
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SBP Governor Reza Baqir was reported in March of last year, stating that he sees few potential use cases for cryptocurrency. At the same time, he agreed that blockchain technology had the ability to tackle a wide range of problems.
