RegTech is the future of banking: Deloitte and Finform automate the process of opening customer bank accounts

The Swiss fintech pioneer and automation specialist Finform and the compliance experts from professional services firm Deloitte Switzerland are joining forces to simplify financial service providers’ compliance processes. The integration of the range of regtech services offered by Deloitte Managed Services and Finform makes it possible to almost completely automate the process of opening customer bank accounts (KYC).

Compliance is a bigger challenge than ever for Swiss financial service providers. The high costs and increasing complexity of the market-specific regulatory processes represent a major challenge for banks. This in addition to the cost and innovation pressure which they are already subjected to. Regulatory compliance is mandatory, but it is also non-differentiating and is very costly. This is the reason why financial service providers are increasingly investing in smart solutions that draw on today’s technology and that spread the costs of regulatory compliance across industry players – regtech.

Automating the process of opening customer bank accounts

Fintech companies such as pioneer Finform have begun to successfully offer automated solutions for the process of opening customer bank accounts (“know your client”, KYC). Previously, the potential applications of such digitalised solutions have been focussed on certain customer groups – in particular standard customers without complex structures. Although it is possible to handle a relatively high proportion of customers and transactions with these solutions (about 80%), there is still potential in terms of the associated time-savings involved (about 20%). To automate the process for more complex KYC cases and thus all client groups, all regulatory requirements must also be integrated into the process in addition to the technical know-how and an efficient processing.

This is where Deloitte comes into play. Deloitte Managed Services (DMS) integrates the regulatory know-how of the worldwide Deloitte network and expands the existing Finform solution using applications from different software partners. Through the DMS platform, Deloitte can ensure compliance with regulatory requirements in different countries and for more complex KYC cases. Customer relationships with increased risks can be identified reliably and the additional investigations carried out effectively.

“Integrating the comprehensive regulatory guidelines into the automated process makes life easier for both the relationship managers and the compliance officers who manage the control activities. And since the process of opening an account is more streamlined, this also increases customer satisfaction”, says Micha Bitterli, Head of Deloitte Managed Services in Switzerland. He adds, “Deloitte and Finform complement each other perfectly. With Finform our customers benefit from a partner which is completely dedicated to automating the KYC process. In turn, as part of this partnership Deloitte Managed Services focuses on automating the more complex client relationships, which take up about 80% of the total time needed for handling the process manually.

René Oppliger, CEO of Finform, is convinced, “The partnership with Deloitte enables us to go one step further in terms of standardising and automating the compliance regulations for banks. The service offered by Deloitte is also now available for wherever we can’t assume responsibility for the regulations being adhered to. This is further proof that the days are gone when every change to the regulations entailed a lot of effort and costs for financial institutions in adopting them.”

Finform was founded with the participation of one of the biggest retail banks in Switzerland with the task of significantly minimising the effort associated with opening a customer account. Finform concentrates on taking the burden posed by the compliance formalities away from the banks as much as possible.

Deloitte Managed Services is a compliance platform whereby all the relevant impacts of worldwide regulatory requirements on financial service providers are identified and solutions to them can be developed. Information on essential compliance processes and functions can be obtained from this platform and the desired cost advantages therefore achieved. Regulatory compliance is mandatory, but it is also non-differentiating and is becoming costlier. Deloitte believes that the solution to this challenge for banks is in sharing these increasing costs among various market participants.