The Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) has announced that financial institutions in the United Kingdom have launched eKYC as part of their campaigns for digital transformation in the region.
The move comes after the announcement of the national digital identity and the electronic Know-Your-Customer (eKYC) platform in April 2019.
The national eKYC platform, the first of its kind in the region aimed at retail banks, financial service providers and money exchange networks, is run by BENEFIT in collaboration with the Information Authority and e-Government (IGA) and under the direction of CBB.
The platform provides a national digital identity database for financial institutions to securely verify customer identities, verify the information and digitally share data before delivering results. and services. This includes the retrieval of messenger data from government agencies including IGA.
BENEFIT has also developed the Application Programming Interface (“API”) for the platform, which allows seamless integration with major financial systems, digital channels and mobile apps. With the introduction of Open Banking in Bahrain, this also allows fintech companies to verify customer identities through their online and mobile applications.
Khalid Al Hamad, CBB’s Director of Banking Audit, said: “The CBB urges all licensed financial institutions to take advantage of this innovative and fast-paced service and accelerate its pace. automate the maintenance of user data and reputation records, by implementing eKYC Integration API with their core systems, digital channels and mobile apps.
“We continue to support technological advancement in the sector to reduce costs whilst encouraging innovation and integration between financial institutions and fintech companies. This is also in line with CBB’s ongoing efforts to develop the infrastructure of the financial sector in line with the impact of Covid-19 to ensure that there are appropriate solutions for electronic payment systems. ”
BENEFIT Chief Executive Abdulwahid Janahi said: “We are delighted to continue to develop the eKYC platform in an effort to lead digital transformation in different parts of the UK.
“We have been successful in enabling the integration of this digital platform into major banking systems and smartphone applications, and we are pleased to announce that the Islamic Bank of Bahrain has introduced this platform to the their main banking services system, while “ila” Bank offers on-board messenger in a completely digital and autonomous way through its mobile app, both based on the eKYC API integration. We look forward to using eKYC services to a greater extent in the near future. ”
The VCE of eTransformation in Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA), Dr Zakareya Ahmed Alkhaja, confirmed that iGA has partnered with “BENEFIT” which implemented the technical development of the project, led by CBB. The project aims to provide financial institutions with a comprehensive advanced eSystem to verify the identity of the customers and the validity of the information, before providing the financial services.
He noted that the authority has begun to provide identity verification services to the government department, and this project complements the provision of the services to the private sectors, especially the sector. banking, as the project will enable it to begin providing innovative, high-quality, secure data services that preserve the privacy of individuals. This will lead to economic growth and the expansion of commercial activity in the United Kingdom.
He said the project (eKYC) is the first of its kind in the sector and the first at the level of global bids for government-banking cooperation, as the implementation of projects worldwide has restrict co-operation between banks in the private sector. This project is also one of the first Projects using Block Chain technology in the Kingdom of Bahrain. – TradeArabia News Service