Transforming the Know Your Customer (KYC) Process using Blockchain

A major yet trivial problem in the banking industry right now is how tedious and costly the traditional Know- Your-Customer(KYC) process is. The process is also tiresome for customers as they need to undergo the same process for each bank or financial institution with which they intend to work. Personal experiences of people dictate the cumbersome nature of the process, thereby demanding an efficacious alternative. Through this paper, we intend to do exactly that. We propose a new solution based on Distributed Ledger Technology or Blockchain technology, which will reduce the traditional KYC verification process cost for Institutions and cut short the general time line of the completion of the process while making it smoother for the customers. Major enhancement in our solution over the conventional methods is that the whole verification process is conducted only once for each customer, irrespective of number of institutions he or she wishes to be linked to. Also, since we are using the DLT, verification results can be securely shared with the customers thereby increasing transparency. Following this approach, we developed a Proof of Concept (POC) with the Ethereum API, websites as endpoints and an android app as front office; realising the feasibility and effectiveness of this approach. All in all, this approach improves customer experience, reduces cost overheads, and increases transparency in the process of onboarding a customer.