- Acquisition Move: Encompass Corporation acquires CoorpID and Blacksmith KYC from ING to enhance its corporate Know Your Customer (KYC) services.
- Specialization Focus: Encompass, a UK-founded regtech specializing in aiding banks with onboarding large corporate clients, aims to address the “critical challenge of identification and verification” in corporate KYC.
- CoorpID Acquisition: CoorpID, founded by ING Labs in 2018, is a web-based platform for banks to gather, store, and structure private KYC data from corporate clients, offering a complete KYC profile and full corporate digital identity (CDI).
- Blacksmith KYC Acquisition: Encompass acquires Blacksmith KYC from ING Labs Singapore (2017) to enable banks to implement customer due diligence (CDD) and KYC requirements, anticipating significant enhancement in offering and process automation for monitoring financial crime risk.
- Strategic Outcome: Encompass plans to build a comprehensive KYC profile and CDI, eliminating unnecessary outreach by combining authoritative public and private sources of information.
- Deal Details: Encompass acquires 100% of both ING companies for an undisclosed sum; ING retains a position as a stakeholder and development partner.
- Leaders’ Perspectives: Wayne Johnson, Encompass CEO, sees the acquisitions as a “huge step forward” in realizing their vision to transform KYC. Ivar Lammers, ING’s global head of financial crime wholesale banking, expects smart, tailored offerings for clients and industry challenges to emerge from the acquisitions.
