In today’s fast-paced and competitive business landscape, banks and financial institutions are facing a pressing challenge: how to stay relevant and efficient in the digital age.
Steve Hadaway, chief revenue officer at Encompass is an experienced general manager and sales leader, with 15 years in senior management positions at analytics software company FICO.
Here, Hadaway explores how banks can maximise value by adopting dynamic KYC process automation, driving growth, and achieving operational efficiency.
Embracing digital transformation is paramount for banks and financial institutions striving to stay competitive in today’s digital age. One area ripe for transformation, which holds significant potential when it comes to enhancing customer experience, revenue and cost efficiency, is the know your customer (KYC) process.
As operational costs continue to rise, banks looking to stay ahead of the competition must view the implementation of technology across their business as an imperative.
With regtech spending projected to reach $207billion globally by 2028, the time is now for banks to direct their investments towards innovative solutions that directly impact the bottom line – such as dynamic KYC process automation.
So, how can this bring value, drive growth and ensure institutions continue to keep up – and even forge ahead – in an increasingly crowded and competitive market?
Maximising efficiency to power the path to revenue
Manual KYC processes are plagued by challenges, such as accessing scores of trusted and accurate data sources, managing jurisdictional nuances, and navigating the workload faced by analysts.
By embracing automation, banks can address these effectively, reduce their overall KYC spend, and streamline activities.
This technology also allows KYC analysts to refocus their efforts on more value-centred tasks. This not only benefits the business when it comes to overall productivity, but it also enhances job satisfaction and staff retention by allowing individuals to utilise their skills and experience where most needed, bringing maximum returns.
Getting KYC right is undoubtedly more important than ever before, and one benefit found through automation comes in the delivery of operational time savings. For example, with Encompass’ dynamic KYC process automation, each analyst can save up to 13 hours per KYC investigation.
To remain competitive within a pressured environment, financial institutions must also look to automation to bring effective output across operations and enhance customer experience, which is critical to securing revenue in the current landscape.
Lengthy onboarding times are often a pain point for customers, who demand a slick and stress-free service. Whereas traditional KYC tasks require extensive documentation, verification and often repeated outreach, resulting in a cumbersome onboarding process that brings frustration for the customer, with KYC automation, banks can deliver a faster and more seamless journey. This positively impacts relationships and presents further revenue opportunities. Automation can reduce time to trade by over 40 per cent.
Demonstrating consistent compliance with fewer errors
For compliance, relying on manual processes impacts business efficiency by allowing inconsistencies human errors, and non-adherence to policy. With automation, real-time and ongoing compliance is achieved through access to critical data for investigations, monitoring regulatory changes, and updating customer profiles. This saves time and ensures a robust and consistent level of compliance while mitigating risks.
Additionally, by demonstrating systemised compliance with fewer errors, banks not only build trust with their customers, but also avoid costly penalties and reputational damage.
Access to high-quality, accurate, and timely data is crucial for effective onboarding procedures, with Encompass providing real-time digital KYC profiles. Manual management of fragmented data impedes the development of a single customer view and understanding of complex ownership structures. By contrast, with automation banks can integrate and analyse diverse data sources through a single platform, improving data quality and providing comprehensive insights faster.
The value of quality data cannot be overstated, as it enables banks to make informed decisions that will shape how they conduct business, ensure compliance and protect their organisation from risks in the most efficient and robust manner.
Scalability is a driver of success
Banks that can onboard and refresh customers at scale will have a competitive advantage and be best placed to capitalise on the projected growth in global banking revenues. Automation, in conjunction with client lifecycle management (CLM) solutions, streamlines the KYC process, laying the foundation for an improved customer journey. Enhanced scalability is a key driver of business impact and, by embracing the solutions at their disposal, banks can position themselves for long-term growth and profitability.
Building – and maintaining – a truly competitive business model today requires banks to embrace digital transformation, and solutions including KYC process automation. Against the background of today’s high-pressure landscape, investing in technology that can automate and digitise legacy processes and unlock potential gains is no longer a luxury, but an essential component of a strategy that will lead to continued growth and success.
