Digital Transformation
— 5 min read
Automating KYC (Know Your Customer)
All banks and financial institutions have to collect a new client’s critical data like their name, address, social security number, and date of birth. But, how they process, check, and respond to that data is up to each business. The multi-layered process of vetting your client, verifying their identity, and understanding their needs has made KYC (Know Your Customer) automation extremely desirable as the modern world continues to find ways to boost productivity.
Using and investing in the right tools to automate KYC has tremendous upside for the average financial institution, too. A recent McKinsey article reports that “banks that increased end-to-end KYC-process automation by 20% percent saw a triple benefit effect. They increased their quality-assurance scores by 13% on an absolute basis, improved their client experience by reducing the number of client outreaches per case by 18%, and they enhanced productivity by increasing the number of cases processed per month by 48%.”
Banks have quite a different onboarding process than your average startup. That’s because the stakes are quite high in the financial world. Given those stakes, banks and other financial institutions have to take more precautions when welcoming new clients.
While KYC is a necessary step in the process of onboarding a new client, it’s far from simply procedural. KYC plays a vital role in ensuring banks can protect their clients’ trust, comply with governmental regulations, and consistently improve their clients’ experiences.
Some banks rely on more antiquated KYC software systems that require a series of manual interventions when there’s any issue or flag raised. Others rely on more finely tuned digital platforms, like Airkit, that help automate and streamline KYC, while giving banks the contextual insight they need to serve clients on a more personal level.
Balancing KYC and Customer Experience
Banks have millions and millions of clients to serve each day. When a new client wants to open an account, or apply for a home loan, banks can’t exactly grab a cup of coffee with each of them. There’s simply too many clients, only so many bank staff, and only so much time.
To save time, cost, and accommodate for scale, financial institutions use technology like Airkit’s digital platform to automate key aspects of their KYC process without sacrificing security or the client experience.
A few decades ago KYC was looked at as a primarily regulatory process. It was something banks had to do, and as long as it worked, there was no reason to change things. Now, KYC is seen for what it is: an extension of a financial institution’s brand and an essential part of the client experience. It has to be adaptable and in lockstep with expectations.
Clients nowadays are shopping for financial institutions that are more modern, and friendly. They’re looking for the same type of experiences they have doing anything from making a reservation at their favorite restaurant, to ordering something from Amazon.
An automated KYC approach streamlines the experience and ensures that clients aren’t waiting on a staff member to review information manually. That means they get faster and more accurate responses. Instead of waiting weeks for a reply, a client might have a response to the first stages of their home loan application in a few days. That’s the power of automation and of Airkit.
KYC With Airkit
Airkit gives financial institutions a platform that’s flexible and powerful enough to automate KYC. Using Airkit, bank clients can input the vital information banks need to identify, verify, and approve new clients in a self-serve flow. Airkit will then ferry that information wherever it needs to go, whether that’s a backend bank database, or a frontend CRM system. On top of that, this is all done in a secure and compliant manner.
With Airkit, financial institutions can save time trying to fix manual errors and instead look at the rich context of their client’s history with their business to serve them better. For example, instead of simply getting notified if a client’s address doesn’t match up with the one on file, a bank could receive notifications when their client starts making purchases in a new state, and follow up to see if that client may have moved and offer them a meeting with a local branch of their bank in their new town. Your needs and wants can all be developed into an app or web journey that’s fully customizable and just the way you like it.
Now, financial institutions don’t have to choose between flexibility and security when they manage KYC. Airkit lets leading financial institutions serve their clients the way they want to.
