The best defense? Know your customer compliance
October 2, 2018
October 2, 2018
Anti-money laundering (AML) regulations are a moving target, with financial firms struggling—and spending time and money—to keep complying. Know Your Customer (KYC) processes, consequently, are a priority focus for senior managers, who would prefer a more cost-efficient approach.
Large financial institutions are routinely spending between $900 million and $1.3 billion per year on compliance-related ventures.*
The answer? Transforming the KYC function to maintain AML compliance, manage costs and deliver a more effective customer experience. Accenture’s report, "The Best Defense is Good Compliance: Know Your Customer Transformation," describes our six-phase transformation process that offers benefits beyond mere compliance.
Financial institutions working to transform their KYC function can divide their effort into six phases that ensure key challenges and risks are addressed.
Here are the six steps a firm can take:
Review current-state KYC process metrics to identify areas for improvement that can guide the transformation.
Define roles and responsibilities, design processes and build a technology architecture to support the new model.
Embed proper reporting capabilities while reimagining metrics. Include dashboards for Key Performance Indicators and Service-Level Agreements.
Perform a data cleanup, then implement a Client Lifecycle Management approach to track workflow.
Use new technologies such as Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning to automate highly manual processes.
Create a client-centric, digital KYC form, with system-driven capabilities, that can function as a client self-service portal.
Together, these steps can help institutions manage rising costs, regulatory compliance and customer experience. Among the keys to an effective transformation? Employing industry disruptors, such as Machine Learning, unstructured data analysis and cloud-based KYC tools to stretch a firm’s resources and open the door to new approaches.
When firms complete their KYC transformation, what can they expect? For starters, their operations should be more streamlined and technically sound.
But that’s just the beginning. Other benefits could include:
Financial institutions embarking on this transformation process can go it alone, but Accenture can help. Our extensive experience can support firms from start to finish—or anywhere in between.
Why not seize this opportunity to take a challenging requirement and transform it—into not just a better way to comply, but a process that yields new business benefits? Contact Accenture and get your KYC transformation under way.
* "U.S., EU fines on banks' misconduct to top $400 billion by 2020: report," Reuters, September 27, 2017.