CRIF and Know Your Customer announce strategic partnership with PAOB to further enhance the digital onboarding experience for SME customers

The partnership is setting the foundations to support PAOB meeting the increasing demand for quick-to-access banking services by local SMEs through the provision of a highly scalable and cloud-native solution.

The new system, developed by CRIF and Know Your Customer, leverages real-time registry connections to automatically retrieve documents and map shareholders. This provides a centralised solution that integrates data from multiple official sources into one place, allowing PAOB to streamline the SME onboarding process and facilitate the customer due diligence process whilst reducing costs and manual work.

CRIF and Know Your Customer's joint offering provides digital banks and financial institutions with a one-stop solution that addresses their client onboarding and on-going monitoring requirements. The solution draws on unique strengths from both sides to empower digital banks and financial institutions with all the compliance tools they need. CRIF offers an extensive portfolio of business data and intelligence, including credit data; open banking; and Environmental, Social and Governance data. Meanwhile, Know Your Customer provides unmatched coverage of real-time registry connections, Ultimate Beneficial Owner mapping across borders, and modular workflow capabilities.

Jamie Anderson, Global Head of Sales at Know Your Customer, said, "We have seen time and time again how the modular design and unique set-up of our solutions are especially compatible with the needs of virtual and digital banks in Hong Kong and globally. We are delighted to be working with our partner CRIF to support PAOB's vision of outstanding SME onboarding and next-generation digital compliance and we look forward to supporting their growth in Hong Kong and across the APAC region."

Ivan Chow, Head of Strategy & Partnerships of PAOB, is pleased with this partnership, "Since our successful launch in 2020, we have been thriving our virtual banking services for local SMEs and we significantly expedited the bank account opening and loan approval processes. And this is well-received from our SME customers, especially when the SME sector was generally impacted most amidst the pandemic. Given Hong Kong is now opening up, we believe the SMEs would be benefited from the economic rebound and recovery, and the demand for operating capital financing is likely increased. The partnership with CRIF and Know Your Customer will further enhance our customer-centric experience to the SME customers."

With over 360,000 SMEs representing more than 98% of total businesses in the city, SMEs are of crucial importance to the development of the economy in Hong Kong.
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CRIF

CRIF is a global company specializing in credit & business information systems, analytics, outsourcing and processing services, as well as advanced digital solutions for business development and open banking. The mission that drives CRIF is to create value and new opportunities for consumers and businesses by providing reliable information and solutions, allowing more powerful decisions and accelerating digital innovation.

CRIF is currently the leading credit information banking group in continental Europe and a major player in the global market for integrated business & commercial information and credit & marketing management services. Through continuous innovation, the use of state-of-the-art technology and a strong information management culture, CRIF supports financial institutions, credit unions, insurance companies, telco, media, utility and energy companies, businesses, and consumers. In addition, as part of its end-to-end solutions, CRIF has developed a line of services for individuals and SMEs dedicated to financial well-being and the prevention and protection against fraud and cyber risks, while CRIF Ratings, a credit rating agency authorized by ESMA and recognized as an ECAI, provides ratings on non-financial companies based in the EU. In addition, in 2019 CRIF expanded its coverage as an AISP to 31 European countries where the PSD2 directive for open banking is applicable.

Currently over 10,500 banks and financial institutions, more than 600 insurance companies, 80,000 companies and 1,000,000 consumers currently use CRIF services in 4 continents.

Know Your Customer

Know Your Customer is an award-winning RegTech company specialised in next generation digital onboarding solutions for financial institutions and regulated organisations worldwide.

For teams that are struggling with inefficient corporate onboarding processes, Know Your Customer provides a modular compliance solution that combines the most intuitive digital workspace on the market with unmatched real-time registry data, seamless integrations and smart automation to transform the essence of the compliance function at its core. The products' modular design enables efficient customisation, as clients can select and implement only the functionalities they really need, all available via Rest API. For more information visithttps://knowyourcustomer.com or follow Know Your Customer onLinkedIn or Twitter.

Ping An OneConnect Bank (Hong Kong) Limited

Ping An OneConnect Bank (Hong Kong) Limited ("PAOB"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of OneConnect Financial Technology Co., Ltd. ("OneConnect") (HKEx:6638; NYSE:OCFT) and a member of Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China Ltd. ("Ping An") (HKEx:2318; SSE:601318), is committed to establishing a virtual banking ecosystem by optimising customer-centric services through its innovation and sophisticated technology. PAOB was granted a virtual banking licence by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority in May 2019. PAOB is developing diverse business segments including retail banking and SME banking.