Sri Lanka’s Central Bank Shortlists Candidates For Blockchain KYC Platform
- The three shortlisted companies are expected to finish developing their PoC’s in the next six to nine months.
- Since its announcement in November 2019, the project has received 36 applications in total.
Photo by Sri Lanka Mirror
The central bank of Sri Lanka has chosen three development firms to start work on a Proof-of-Concept (PoC) Know-Your-Customer (KYC) blockchain platform, local news outlet the Daily Mirror said on 2 July.
According to the publication, the central bank started the project back in November 2019, when it invited software firms around the world to develop a blockchain-based platform that would enable the government and banking sector to quickly and securely share and update customer data. Out of the 23 applications the bank received, it decided to shortlist only three firms, one of which is rumored to be foreign.
D. Kumaratunge, the central bank’s director of payments and settlements, said during a speech in Colombo:
“We invited software companies to develop a shared KYC PoC free of charge, as a national project. The response to join this project, both locally and internationally, has been extremely heartening and we are happy to say that we have finalised selecting suitable applicants to begin development shortly.”
The three firms are expected to complete the development of their PoC’s in the next six to nine months, after which reports will be submitted for evaluation by the payments and settlements department, the National Payment Council and the Monetary Board. During his speech, Kumaratunge revealed that several banks have already given their consent to joining the new project.
The aim of the central bank’s project is to allow banks to onboard new customers without the delay from manual processing, as well as to reduce the costs associated with paper-based methods of verifying documents.
In recent years, Sri Lanka has been taking steps to meet international standards, by improving its financial sector. Back in 2017, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) placed the country on the so called “grey list”, which represents countries whose Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter Terrorism Financing (CTF) regimes are considered inadequate. The country was finally removed from the list in 2019, when a FATF assessment of the country’s AML and CFT measures stated that it had begun reforms, and that “the necessary political commitment remains in place to sustain implementation in the future”.
- Crypto exchange Bitget will make it mandatory for new users to undergo its level-1 KYC process starting 1 September, old users will have until 1 October to do the same.
- The level-1 KYC process requires users to submit a government identification and undergo facial authentication, and is in line with global regulatory guidelines.
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- The updated KYC checks will be introduced on 15 July, after which new users will be required to complete the process in order to gain full access to the exchange’s services.
- Existing users who fail to complete the KYC checks will face limitations on the platform, such as being unable to deposit new funds and only having access to certain services.
- The 1,400-page document lists the names of all users eligible for withdrawals, as well as the conditions that they need to meet in order to withdraw their assets.
- The bankruptcy court has permitted Celsius to return 94% of each eligible user’s assets, but only after their account has been updated with AML and KYC data.