Sri Lanka’s Blockchain Bank KYC Platform to Enter Development ‘Shortly’: Central Bank
Colombo, Sri Lanka (PicadorPictures/Shutterstock)
Sri Lanka’s Blockchain Bank KYC Platform to Enter Development ‘Shortly’: Central Bank
The Monetary Board of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka is close to starting development of a blockchain platform expected to speed up the processing of bank users’ ID information.
- The Monetary Board has now shortlisted three software development firms to be tasked with designing a proof-of-concept (PoC) know-your-customer (KYC) platform, local news source the Daily Mirror Online said Thursday.
- The final decision and the start of development are expected “shortly,” said Central Bank director of payments and settlements, D. Kumaratunge, at a Tuesday event.
- The KYC platform is planned to allow the banking sector and the government to share and update bank customer data in real-time on a blockchain.
- Kumaratunge said several banks have given their consent to join the project.
- The open call was on a voluntary basis, with 36 candidates both national and international having applied for the project last November. One of the three finalists is a foreign tech firm.
- The development of the system is expected to take anywhere between six and nine months to complete.
- The project is expected to allow banks to onboard new customers without delays for manual processing, as well as save costs associated with traditional paper-based methods of verifying documents.
- Sri Lanka has been taking steps to improve its financial sector to meet international standards.
- In October 2019, the nation was removed from the Financial Action Task Force’s anti-money laundering/counter the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) “strategic deficiencies” blacklist, to which it had been added in 2017.
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