IBM recently announced a blockchain project with Singapore fintech start-up KYCK! to help enable financial services providers to more rapidly on-board their customers in a secure environment. This and other similar KYC projects using IBM Blockchain aim to help reduce the time and expense required to on-board a new client.
KYCK! is a startup, co-founded by three Singaporeans to provide users with information pertaining to the Southeast Asia Exchanges and access to brokerage demo accounts with easy on-boarding opportunities. As former sales traders, the co-founders experienced the inefficiencies of the customer on-boarding process due to stringent financial compliance requirements. This gave them the idea of starting a business that focused on improving the client on-boarding process and enhancing the overall customer experience by deploying secured and appropriate technology capabilities.
Through the application of blockchain technologies, banks can streamline operations by adopting a one-time process with secure data protection and enhanced identity verification. Using the open-source Hyperledger Project Fabric, immutability, traceability and privacy of the information is provided on a permissioned distributed ledger which is key for the highly regulated environment.
Working with the IBM Bluemix Garage in Singapore to design and test the new solution to be built on the Hyperledger Fabric, KYCK! intends to provide brokerages a platform with video conferencing and encrypted document submission capabilities for the secure on-boarding of new customers. The platform also aims to provide enhanced identification validation through a trusted blockchain based business network that will potentially include banking and governmental entities. Once identity verification is confirmed, KYCK! will enter the customer’s information into current bank-based checks or third-party KYCK! systems before account on-boarding.
Darryl Tan, Co-Founder of KYCK!, remarked: “We were fortunate to have found a partner in IBM with the right capabilities to enable us to apply our financial industry know-how and bring our ideas to life. Working with the IBM Bluemix Garage, we have seen how blockchain can improve operational efficiency, increase transparency and reduce transaction risks. We hope that financial institutions will see an improvement in their current customer on-boarding processes and the overall customer experience,”
The IBM Blockchain based solution will be secured by the IBM High-Security Business network delivered via Bluemix, IBM’s cloud platform. This will enable KYCK! to handle sensitive data with additional levels of security that should help protect against unauthorized access and tampering.
Alan Lim, Practice Lead at IBM Blockchain & Bluemix Garage, ASEAN, said: “The application of blockchain is showing great promise across a broad range of business applications. It is a technology that establishes accountability and transparency while streamlining business processes. Since we launched an IBM Bluemix Garage focused on blockchain in Singapore this year, we have seen more and more startups and entrepreneurs come through our doors with a curiosity and passion for how they can apply blockchain as a competitive differentiator. We have the privilege of working with the start-up community and the wider ecosystem to realize some of these ideas, and we are excited to see the impact of their work in their community and industry,”
The IBM Bluemix Garages serve as hubs for developers, product managers and designers to come together to rapidly design and develop successful applications on Bluemix. With a total of eight Bluemix Garages globally, the Singapore Bluemix Garage is one of the latest to be added to the IBM global network, which includes locations in London, New York, Nice, Melbourne, San Francisco, Tokyo and Toronto.
