DBS Hong Kong teams with Know Your Customer on digital KYC

March 5, 2026

DBS Bank (Hong Kong) has partnered with Know Your Customer to enhance digital account opening for small and medium-sized enterprises.

The collaboration aims to address the growing need for faster and more efficient SME onboarding processes, which are often slowed by manual compliance checks and complex corporate verification requirements. By integrating automated business verification capabilities into its onboarding workflows, DBS Hong Kong intends to streamline customer due diligence procedures and significantly reduce the operational burden associated with traditional SME account opening processes.

Know Your Customer provides an AI-powered digital compliance platform designed to automate corporate verification and business KYC checks for financial institutions.

Through the partnership, DBS Hong Kong will gain access to real-time business verification data, including instant retrieval of official company documentation and automated mapping of ultimate beneficial ownership (UBO) structures. The platform supports data coverage across more than 140 jurisdictions, enabling institutions to verify complex corporate networks and ownership structures more efficiently.

DBS Hong Kong is part of the wider DBS banking group and plays a key role in supporting businesses and SMEs across the Hong Kong market. The bank has been investing heavily in digital transformation initiatives designed to improve customer experience and operational efficiency. Through this partnership, DBS Hong Kong is seeking to modernise its onboarding infrastructure by introducing automation into processes that have traditionally required manual review and verification.

The integration of automated compliance tools is expected to simplify the end-to-end business KYC process for SMEs. By automating corporate structure verification and ownership checks, the platform helps reduce manual intervention, shorten onboarding timelines and improve operational efficiency for the bank. As a result, business customers should benefit from a faster and more seamless digital onboarding experience.

The collaboration also reflects broader trends across the financial services sector, where banks are increasingly turning to RegTech solutions to manage complex compliance obligations while improving customer journeys.

Automated verification tools are becoming particularly important in SME banking, where company structures and ownership networks can often be difficult to validate quickly using traditional methods.

In recognition of its digital strategy, DBS Hong Kong was named Asia’s Best Digital Bank in 2025 by Euromoney. The bank has continued to prioritise innovation as SMEs in Hong Kong accelerate their adoption of digital technologies. According to a recent SME survey conducted by DBS, more than 70% of Hong Kong SMEs are already integrating or exploring AI and digital tools within their operations.

DBS Bank Hong Kong head of SME banking Lareina Wang said, “ At DBS Hong Kong, we are dedicated to reimagining the customer onboarding experience through continuous digital innovation. By engaging Know Your Customer, we leverage advanced technology to streamline CDD workflows, delivering faster service to our customers. This collaboration also represents a major advancement in automating SME onboarding processes that have historically been complicated and manual, solidifying SME banking position of DBS in the market of Hong Kong. ”

Know Your Customer CEO and co-founder Claus Christensen said, “Our service provided to DBS Hong Kong exemplifies how financial technology can simplify complex onboarding challenges. With our global data coverage and AI-powered automation, we empower DBS Hong Kong to accelerate KYC processes and provide business customers with an unrivalled onboarding journey. Together, we are shaping the future of digital banking.”