Cryptocurrency exchange Binance will use an automated Know Your Customer (KYC) application provided by financial software firm Refinitiv, according to an announcement published Nov. 20.
Binance personally confirmed the use of Refinitiv’s software to Cointelegraph.
Formerly the Financial & Risk business division of Thomson Reuters, Refinitiv provides markets data and infrastructure, while its portfolio reportedly accounts for over 4,000 institutions worldwide.
According to the announcement, the KYC solution will enable the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange by adjusted trade volume, Binance, to integrate the World-Check Risk Intelligence database into their internal workflow. This will purportedly allow Binance to streamline the screening process for onboarding, KYC, and third-party risk due diligence.
Speaking about the need for crypto exchanges to add KYC structures, Nadim Najjar, Managing Director, Middle East & Africa, at Refinitiv, said:
“In the past few years, regulators have been working to ensure that anyone moving cryptocurrency into fiat currency is subject to the same KYC requirements as individuals dealing with a conventional bank.”
KYC is the process of a business verifying of the identity of its customers and assessing potential risks of illegal intentions in business relationships. According to Refinitiv’s statement, the service integrates legal entity data from authoritative sources in over 200 countries and is backed by a global policy that has been tested with more than 100 regulators and financial institutions.
Earlier this month, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said that the company is not concerned over low trade volumes caused by the current market slump, even as the exchange currently has one tenth of the trading volume it did in January 2018. According to Zhao, it is still trading far above the volumes the exchange had “two or three years ago,” and is “still profitable.”
Zhao suggested that the entrance of institutions into the industry could be a possible catalyst for market movement, echoing the prediction of investor and digital currency advocate Mike Novogratz, who said that institutional investors will start entering the market in the first or second quarter of 2019, resulting in new highs for Bitcoin’s (BTC) price.