PBA,
Avanza sign agreement to develop country’s first blockchain-based banking platform
The Pakistan Banks’ Association (PBA) has signed a contract with the Avanza Group to develop and execute the country’s first blockchain-based national electronic Know Your Customer (eKYC) banking platform.
The signing ceremony held in Karachi was attended by PBA Chairman Muhammad Aurangzeb, Akhter Javed, director of BPRD SBP, Tawfiq Hussain, CEO of PBA, Waqas Mirza, and Omer Khan, CEO of Avanza Solutions (Pvt) Ltd all attended the ceremony.
The eKYC project is part of the State Bank of Pakistan’s
(SBP) ongoing efforts to strengthen the country’s infrastructure against
anti-money laundering (AML)/terrorist financing (TF). The implementation
of this platform will also improve efficiencies at participating banks and
improve customer experience.
Once used by a member bank, eKYC data can be used by other
banks for Customer Due Diligence (CDD), which will reduce the cost and effort
involved in customer onboarding and improving the account opening experience.
This will be a support platform for Pakistan’s banking industry,
and all participating member banks will be able to perform assessments of their
existing as well as new customers by utilizing information/data available.