KYC: documents scored before the officer opens the file

The question this file answersHow long does it really take us to onboard a new client — and where in those weeks does the file just sit?

Fits: banks, payment firms, insurers and fintechs where the onboarding file is still collected, typed and checked by hand — a continuous flow that peaks at year-end

Not for: firms whose onboarding already runs through a KYC utility or a fully digital identity flow — the assembly is not where your days go

Typical day

What the desk looks like today

Typical, from the finance playbook. A new client sends identity papers by email or through the secure portal. Somebody in compliance collects them, types the fields into the forms, runs the names against World-Check or whichever list provider you use, scores the risk and walks the file up the approval chain. The playbook gives no daily count — onboarding is continuous and peaks at year-end, when the team is thinnest. Thomson Reuters (2023) puts a manual review at 24 or more days; most of them spent waiting for a missing document, not deciding.

What changes

What Monday looks like after

A new client's documents arrive overnight. By the time the compliance officer sits down, the file has been classified, the fields extracted, the lists checked, and a pre-scored case is waiting with a log of every step the model took. The officer's morning is the decision and the handful of files still missing a document — not the collecting and the retyping. Nothing has posted to the core system; the signature is still theirs. You can see, per case, how much was assembled without a person and where the officer stepped in. Thomson Reuters (2023) puts manual assembly at 24+ days and assisted firms at 5–10 — their range, not a promise.

Typical, not a measured client result. Every figure here comes from the playbook source named below.

~60%

less time per onboarding case — McKinsey KYC (2023)

Before: a manual KYC file often takes 24+ days to assemble (Thomson Reuters, 2023). After: assisted firms report 5–10 days — and about 15% of packs still need a person to chase missing papers.

Where this number comes from

McKinsey KYC study (2023) reports 50–70% less processing time per case; Thomson Reuters (2023) puts a manual KYC review at 24+ days and AI-assisted firms at 5–10. Composite from the finance playbook mini-case, in which about 15% of files still need a person to chase missing papers. An industry range, not our measurement.

What we install

What we put in front of the systems you already run

Your core system and your list provider stay — Temenos, FIS, Finastra, SAP or the one you run; Thomson Reuters, LexisNexis or World-Check for screening. Between the inbox or portal and those systems we add a document step:

each incoming file is classified — passport, proof of address, company extract, source-of-funds letter
the required fields are extracted into your compliance forms
names and entities are checked against the lists you already subscribe to, through their APIs
a risk score is drafted from your own rules, every step logged with its reasoning
the officer receives one pre-scored file; cases with something missing go to a chase list with the gap named.

First scope: your most common client type.

What stays human — and what this will not do

The decision. Edge-case risk. Suspicious-activity investigation. Reading a new rule. Talking to the client. We will not write “the compliance team was replaced.”

What can go wrong — and what we do about it

Foreign identity documents come in layouts the model has not seen; a new one fails extraction and goes to the officer, not to a guess. If your client master holds duplicates or stale addresses, checks fail often and the chase list is long at first. Where the core system offers no API, the file is prepared and a person keys the final entry. In the composite about 15% of files still need a person to chase a paper; the McKinsey 50–70% is time per case, not cases closed without a person.

How long it takes, and what we need from you

Audit, about two weeks (€1.5–3K): we follow recent files with the compliance officer, note where each one waited, and check which systems accept a write through an API. Pilot, 5–8 weeks (€10–20K) — high complexity in the finance playbook — regulated, and every step needs an audit trail: one client type, every file signed by the officer, nothing posts to the core system on its own. Production: more client types, then periodic re-verification. From you: list-provider access, sample files under your consent rules, your written scoring rules.

The path: free 60-second estimate → free 20-minute review → paid audit of this one process (€1.5–3K, typically two weeks) → pilot with your people in the loop (€10–20K, weeks, not quarters). No transformation programme. Prices are public, on the services page →

This is about you if…

Do onboarding documents still arrive by email or portal upload and get retyped into compliance forms?
Does one officer both collect the papers and make the decision?
Are your screening lists and scoring rules already in a system, not in someone's head?

What does this mean in euros?

That depends on your volumes and wage costs — this page will not invent the number. The free 60-second estimate runs that calculation from your answers, with every multiplier sourced.

Get your free savings estimate 60 seconds · no sales call Or write first → Map a finance process like this one — free, 60 seconds →

Not a named Aperanda client. Example · Finance.

Deep-dive process file. Volumes, weeks and sources come from the industry playbook; nothing here is a named client.

All process files