Anyway, it wasn’t actually the KYC thing that got me all riled up, and in hindsight I wish I’d not used the example of it being an obstacle to financial inclusion. A quick scan of the room told me the audience was made up of dudes in swanky suits, likely more concerned with taking their investment portfolios to the moon than solving the struggles of the unbanked. As such, my decision to refer to an edge case to prove a point about KYC’s failings served only to underscore that the only people with a good reason to avoid it must be marginalized, oppressed or persecuted in some way. Conversely, if you’re an upstanding citizen with a government-issued ID and a bank account who lives in a politically and economically stable, democratic country, privacy needn’t be your top priority.
