Featured Insight

Turning KYC on its head to drive business growth and improve a company’s risk profile

August 2022

Banks and other financial institutions are under increased pressure. With heightened concerns from the U.S. treasury and other regulatory bodies regarding money transfers are helping terrorists, drug traffickers and other bad actors, companies are being held to the fire when they don’t rid their organization of non-compliant advisors. In fact, according to Forbes, financial institutions that lacked compliance and due diligence related to financial crimes were fined $2.7 billion (cumulative) in 2021.

In response, the industry has spent tens of millions of dollars to stand up Anti Money Laundering (AML) programs – but many are struggling to get their desired results. These current programs are disconnected from the business and, conversely, live within the compliance department, making Know Your Customer (KYC) more of a “check the box” activity versus an opportunity to drive business expansion and revenue growth.

At the same time, banks are continuing to digitalize at an unprecedented pace to shore up competitive differentiation and tap into omnichannel marketing strategies that attract a broader range of customers. The best companies will turn their KYC efforts from a first line of defense to a first line of offense. Reference Point explores how organizations can dovetail compliance needs with business goals in a way that fuels cultural change, creates ownership at the client facing level, and drives efficiency—all while achieving goals for more multichannel sales that reach a multitude of customers.

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