DBS Bank Hong Kong has connected with the Hong Kong Companies Registry (CR) through commercial data interchange (CDI), which is expected to enhance the bank’s digital capabilities and support the overall development of CDI and fintech in Hong Kong.

The new connection is in partnership with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, where DBS has built its own CDI portal to ingest CR data via application programming interface (API) and in a machine-readable format.

This proof of concept aims to test-run the API infrastructure with the aim to automate know-your-customer (KYC) processes in the future, such as checking for changes in a client’s directorship, etc.

With the success of the proof of concept, the bank says, it will work closely with HKMA to further reduce paperwork required during the customer onboarding, lending applications and KYC processes in the next step.

“By ingesting CR data into DBS bank system via CDI, we can enhance our KYC capabilities and ultimately provide a more efficient and seamless experience to our clients,” says Lareina Wang, the bank’s executive director and head of digital and innovation for its institutional banking group. “We will continue to work on other use cases to bring in relevant external data via CDI to further upgrade our digital offerings.”