Antwerp, October 28, 2025. The Belgian diamond federation Antwerp World
Diamond Centre (AWDC) has launched an innovative digital customer screening
tool, based on Regulatory Technology (RegTech) and tailored to the specific
needs of the diamond industry. With this new application, the Antwerp diamond
sector takes an important step forward in the prevention of money laundering,
helping diamond companies to meet their legal Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and
Know Your Customer (KYC) obligations more quickly, efficiently and accurately.
The Antwerp diamond industry is the first sector in Belgium to introduce a
collective digital compliance solution.
The application, called KYCP (Know Your Customer Portal), automates the
screening of customers and transactions and serves as a key tool in the fight
against money laundering. It enables the rapid detection and reporting of
suspicious transactions or goods, checks sanctions lists, identifies ultimate
beneficial owners, and issues alerts when potential risks are detected. AWDC is
making this digital tool available free of charge to the 1,470 Antwerp diamond
companies it represents, investing €250,000 in its development.
“With this tool, the Antwerp diamond sector is at the forefront of
non-financial institutions when it comes to compliance and transparency,” says
Trisevgeni Stavropoulos, Head of Compliance at AWDC. “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.”
AWDC configured the tool in cooperation with the team at KYC Portal, an
IT consultancy company specialised in delivering benefit through the Client
Lifecycle Management platform they developed.
“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.” says Kristoff Zammit Ciantar,
CEO at KYC Portal.
The diamond industry is considered a high-risk sector due to the high
value of its products, the large number of international transactions and the
complexity of the trade. The sector-wide implementation of digital solutions
such as the Know Your Customer Portal helps manage these risks more effectively
and prevent money laundering.
With the launch of
this tool, the Antwerp diamond sector further strengthens its reputation as the
world’s most reliable diamond trading hub, and as an international leader in
transparency and compliance.
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