Faster onboarding, smarter outcomes: How fully automated onboarding can boost your operational efficiency

Customer onboarding is one of the most critical processes that financial institutions and regulated businesses undertake today.

Not only is it a vital compliance checkpoint that helps you ensure compliance and minimise the risk of regulatory fines and reputational damage – but it is also an opportunity realise revenue more quickly through faster onboarding.

More than this, it’s the first impression you make on your clients. And that’s important.

While old-school onboarding may have worked in the past, in today’s fast-paced regulatory environment – where compliance teams face mounting pressure to do more with less – a traditional approach is not enough. 

Traditional onboarding is typically time-consuming and resource-intensive, relying heavily on manual processes, which can result in delays, inefficiencies, higher costs – and increased risk.  

Moreover, high volumes during peak onboarding periods strain resources and create backlogs, while fragmented workflows increase the risk of errors or missed updates. 

There is also limited scalability to consider, since traditional processes generally cannot adapt to sudden spikes in onboarding demand.

A typical onboarding workflow involves:

• Data gathering: Necessary information usually includes identification documents and supporting data, but manual data entry and document verification can slow the process.
• Screening: Checking names against sanctions lists, PEP databases, adverse media sources – and for companies, investigating UBO structure –  is essential, but multiple checks often require separate workflows.
• Matching: Reviewing potential matches, resolving false positives and escalating true matches for further due diligence is the next crucial step, but high false positive rates are a persistent challenge.
• Generating reports: Compiling case dossiers and maintaining an audit trail for compliance purposes often involves sustained manual effort.
• Ongoing monitoring: Keeping track of changes in risk profiles over time often relies on periodic checks and manual follow-ups.

Perhaps most concerning of all is that the net result of these processes is often a poor customer experience – delays and repeated requests for information frustrate clients and impact retention. 

The good news is that automation and streamlined workflows can help. 

With the right technology and tools, you can turn onboarding into a strategic advantage – one that helps you achieve operational excellence.

Here are some innovations to consider:

One-click screening and case creation

Advanced functionality that allows you to create and screen a case in a single request can reduce onboarding time significantly. Fewer API calls and manual interventions boost operational efficiency and allow agile scaling to handle peak onboarding volumes – without additional waiting. 

Bulk actions for high-volume onboarding

Bulk actions mean that you can perform actions – for example, assigning, archiving or deleting cases – for up to 1000 records at one time. This results in substantial time savings and fewer errors. 

Real-time notifications

Event-driven push notifications allow your compliance teams to receive instant alerts when ongoing screening detects new or updated matches, or when a case is fully resolved. This leads to more proactive decision-making, faster turnaround times and more timely action on critical compliance events.

Advanced risk mitigation

Advanced capabilities in a single workflow – such as identifying adverse news linked to customers, and uncovering the ultimate beneficial owners of corporate clients – eliminate the need for separate tools and improve the accuracy and completeness of onboarding assessments.

Automated reporting

The ability to automatically generate bulk reports for hundreds of cases at one time – as well as summaries for quick analysis – supports regulatory audits and internal reviews. Reporting becomes a background process, and summaries enable quick insights for management and compliance dashboards.

In a world where speed, accuracy and customer experience define success, innovations such as these deliver substantial real-world benefits, from more speed to lower costs and much more. 

Automation also frees your compliance teams to focus on investigation and risk analysis, rather than repetitive tasks – and crucially, it lowers the risk of manual error. In addition, event-driven notifications prevent delays in addressing critical compliance events.

The result? Stronger risk management and reduced exposure to regulatory penalties or reputational damage.

Perhaps most importantly of all, faster onboarding, seamless processes and less friction improve client satisfaction, boost trust, and deliver that all-important positive first impression.