In response to the requirements for transparency and in order to enable both financial institutions as well as the industry at large to be able to have access to information about clients, The Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council has developed the MYKYCBANK model for a “Know Your Customer” interface.

Pranay Narvekar of Pharos Beam Consulting who is working together with the GJEPC  to develop the model, made a presentation and unveiled the initiative at the World Diamond Conference.

“Every company and country has its own standards and there are no across-the-board standards which exist today,” said  Narvekar.

He explained how the model would work: all companies would update their own information digitally through an authorised and approved entity like industry bodies; these bodies would then verify their own members; standardised information would be collected so that it would work across all jurisdictions; each verified company would get a number; and information could be linked across platforms and be shared.

“The concept is based on “The Circle of Trust” Principle,” Narvekar said. Outlining the time frame, Narvekar said that by January 2015 the model would be firmed up and a Working Group formed to monitor the project. Thereafter, around April-May it would be launched and a pilot would be done in India.  By September 2015, the project would go into the next phase and be taken international.