Ten of Nepal's 137 banks have signed up to the anti-terrorist 'know your customer' facility offered by SWIFT, the payments service.

The banks will be using SWIFT’s sanctions screening service to support their efforts to avoid business with people and entities that have ended up on the wrong side of the United States and other developed nations. Nearly 600 firms already use the service, which SWIFT commenced in 2012 as part of its financial crime compliance portfolio. The firm believes that the success of its offering validates its idea that compliance services are most efficiently and effectively delivered through a hosted utility model.   

Sanctions Screening is a hosted utility service that screens financial transactions in real time against more than 30 up-to-date lists of sanctioned individuals and entities from all the major regulatory bodies, including OFAC, the United Nations, and the European Union. All structured message types can be screened, including FIN, ISO 20022, SEPA, FedWire and other non-SWIFT messages. Matches, or 'hits,' are identified immediately and highlighted for further action.

The service is designed for the needs of small-to-mid-size financial institutions as well as huge corporations, high-volume payment businesses and central banks. Since its launch in 2012, SWIFT’s Sanctions Screening service has been adopted by customers in more than 140 countries, including entire banking communities in Ghana and Nigeria. There are also 20 central banks using the service. Ashoke SJB Rana, the CEO of Himalayan Bank, and Vishal Rauniyar, the head of compliance and operational risk at Kumari Bank Limited, and Pramod Dahal, the head of compliance at NMB Bank Ltd are among the customers.

The Society for Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) network facilitates more than 30 million transactions every day. The US Congressional Research Service describes SWIFT as “neither a bank nor a clearing and settlement institution” that “provides the standards enabling member banks to exchange financial information needed to make payments.” Although SWIFT is integral to America's ability to enforce sanctions around the globe (the system serves more than 200 countries and 11,000 businesses), it is not controlled by the US. It is based in Brussels and owned and managed by its shareholders.