The Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC), the federation representing the Belgian diamond industry, has introduced a customer-screening platform built on RegTech principles and tailored specifically for diamantaires.
The tool aims to streamline mandatory checks, reduce administrative pressure and enhance accuracy in AML and Know Your Customer (KYC) assessments. This marks the first time a Belgian industry has adopted a collective digital compliance solution of this scale.
At the heart of the initiative is KYCP, or Know Your Customer Portal, a system created to automate both customer checks and the monitoring of transactional activity. The application supports diamond companies by scanning sanctions lists, identifying ultimate beneficial owners and generating alerts when potential AML risks arise.
KYCP also facilitates faster reporting of suspicious behaviour and transactions. AWDC is providing access to all 1,470 Antwerp-based companies within its network at no cost, after investing €250,000 into the solution’s development.
Explaining the tool’s impact, AWDC head of compliance Trisevgeni Stavropoulos said, “With this tool, the Antwerp diamond sector is at the forefront of non-financial institutions when it comes to compliance and transparency.
“Diamantaires carry a great responsibility: they must identify their clients for every transaction above €10,000, report suspicious behaviour, and regularly conduct risk assessments. For many diamantaires — often small, family-run businesses — the administrative burden is considerable. Thanks to KYCP, they can now perform client screenings more efficiently, more quickly, and with a very small margin of error.”
The platform was configured in partnership with KYC Portal, an IT consultancy specialising in client lifecycle management technology. Its bespoke work ensured the tool met the unique requirements of the diamond trade, including complex ownership structures and the high-risk nature of international transactions.
KYC Portal CEO Kristoff Zammit Ciantar said, “For a sector federation to take such a bold decision and move into offering such a collective digital compliance solution to the entire market is quite an impressive statement.
“I believe this makes AWDC one of the frontrunners to combatting fraud and money laundering within the diamond industry globally. We were quite excited to work on this project when we were selected to help AWDC configure launching such a central service, even more so now that we are seeing their traders setting up access and using KYCP globally.”
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