Wed Jul 30

Standard Chartered partners with Know Your Customer Limited to enhance the onboarding process for SME clients and boost financing efficiency

Written by Telegraph Magazine

HONG KONG SAR - Media OutReach Newswire - 28 July 2025 - Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited ("Standard Chartered Hong Kong") and Know Your Customer Limited ("Know Your Customer") announce the launch of a new collaboration on real-time know-your-customer (KYC) verifications via the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA)-led Commercial Data Interchange ("CDI") platform.

The partnership will enhance SME account opening and KYC procedures with improved accuracy, speed, and security.

Stephen Man, Head of Wealth Management and Retail Banking, Standard Chartered Hong Kong (right), and Claus Christensen, CEO & Co-Founder of Know Your Customer (left) participate in the HKMA Data Summit 2025 held today. They showcase Standard Chartered and Know Your Customer’s active involvement in CDI at a dedicated exhibition booth, presenting their achievements to over a thousand attendees.

By leveraging Know Your Customer's capabilities, Standard Chartered Hong Kong can automate the retrieval of company search data via the application programming interface (API) included in CDI and unravel complex ultimate beneficial owner (UBO) structures to identify the true owners of corporate entities and improve risk assessment accuracy. This solution allows the bank to retrieve information required for account opening by automating data feeds from Know Your Customer and empowers the bank to consolidate company search data via CDI, which significantly streamlines the account opening journey, reduces the application turnaround time and drives substantial operational efficiency gains.

Stephen Man, Head of Wealth Management and Retail Banking, Standard Chartered Hong Kong, said, "The partnership with Know Your Customer is beneficial to the digital transformation and business development of Standard Chartered Hong Kong's SME clients. As an active CDI participant we are simplifying SMEs' loan applications and reviews. This new initiative demonstrates our commitment to offering innovative banking solutions that facilitate better client experiences. By automating KYC via Know Your Customer, we're speeding up SME account opening and enabling non-face-to-face account applications anytime, anywhere. By leveraging alternative data through CDI and pursuing opportunities to collaborate with data partners, we can offer SMEs tailored loan solutions, helping them to enhance their operational efficiency and facilitate growth. This also contributes to the development of Hong Kong's digital economy."

Claus Christensen, CEO & Co-Founder at Know Your Customer, said, "When we founded Know Your Customer in Hong Kong almost a decade ago, I experienced first-hand the challenges that SMEs faced when trying to access financial services protected by manual compliance processes. That personal experience continues to inspire our mission to remove unnecessary friction from onboarding. Through real-time registry integrations and intelligent automation, we are helping to make financial access faster, safer, and more inclusive. I'm proud that our technology plays a part in empowering future entrepreneurs and excited to collaborate with Standard Chartered Hong Kong to support the HKMA's digitalisation agenda."

Hashtag: #StandardChartered #KnowYourCustomer

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

Standard Chartered

We are a leading international banking group, with a presence in 53 of the world's most dynamic markets. Our purpose is to drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity, and our heritage and values are expressed in our brand promise, here for good.

Standard Chartered PLC is listed on the London and Hong Kong stock exchanges.

The history of Standard Chartered in Hong Kong dates back to 1859. It is currently one of the Hong Kong SAR's three note-issuing banks. Standard Chartered incorporated its Hong Kong business on 1 July 2004, and now operates as a licensed bank in Hong Kong under the name of Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Standard Chartered PLC.

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About Know Your Customer Limited
Know Your Customer Limited is an award-winning RegTech company specialised in next-generation business verification solutions for financial institutions and regulated organisations worldwide. For teams struggling with inefficient client due diligence and onboarding processes, Know Your Customer offers an intuitive digital compliance workspace that combines unmatched real-time registry data, covering over 140 countries, seamless integrations, and AI-powered smart automation. This streamlined approach transforms the compliance function at its core, allowing clients to customise their solutions by selecting only the functionalities they need, all accessible via a robust REST API.

Founded in Hong Kong in 2015, with a local presence in Singapore, Dublin, London, and Shanghai, Know Your Customer has built a global customer base across 11 verticals and 18 jurisdictions. The company also maintains a wide network of technology and data partners, ensuring high-quality entity data and enhanced compliance processes for its clients.

For more information visit https://knowyourcustomer.com or follow Know Your Customer Limited on LinkedIn or X.