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

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.

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."