What are the best tips I can think of to reduce frustration and time spent sharing KYC with your banks?

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A corporate treasurer or legal counsel knows how painful sharing KYC (Know Your Customer) with the banks is. Often, outsiders confuse their private situation with that of a corporate treasurer or legal counsel.

A private person may have 1 or 2 banks and would think: “How hard can it be to share KYC once every 3 years with them?”.

However, a larger corporate company quickly has 10 banks and sometimes up to 100 banks. Add to this all the law firms they use, the auditor, the leasing companies, their vendors and corporate customers, and you get multiple KYC requests every week - often simultaneously. The mere volume is a pain in itself.

Therefore, reducing time spent and frustration is critical for the persons involved. They need to spend their time on something more core to their job, and as most people hate KYC, they need it to get over with faster.

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So here are the 5 best tips on how you can improve your process:

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1. Have your data ready in a structured format.

This could be as simple as having a record of previous replies across banks that you can reuse. It also involves having a central repository where the team can collaborate to ensure the legal entity structure and corporate documents are current. A KYC Hub, if you will.

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2. Spend time on answers the first time to avoid the bank coming back and asking for more details.

Replying “Mickey Mouse” to a question you find silly is a short-sighted strategy, as you can be sure the compliance person on the other end will reach out and ask for a better reply. As you send a signal that you don't take it seriously, the rest of your replies will suffer from more scrutiny.

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3. Create your own “golden standard” package, which may include more information than a single bank requires.

This way, you signal that your company is transparent, but you also push part of the burden back to the bank regarding matching your package with what they want. You can also say, “I have given you what all the other banks got, so think twice before asking me for more.”

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4. Have a secure location to collect Personal Identifiable Information (PII) such as passports and proof of address of your executives and board members.

Have them sign a GDPR and privacy statement that allows you to share the PII within the scope of your KYC tasks. This way, you only need to collect the data and documents once and can share them multiple times without having to ask again and again. This also makes you GDPR compliant (big bonus points).

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5. Deploy technology wherever you can, especially platforms that can facilitate collaboration (e.g., delegate tasks to colleagues) and deliver AI securely simultaneously.

This will eliminate more tedious tasks and leave you with approving and sharing the package. The faster you can get back to your real job, the better.

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All in all, sharing KYC with banks doesn’t have to be a constant headache. By structuring your data, creating a golden-standard package, securely managing PII, and leveraging technology, you can streamline the process and reduce frustration.

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The goal is simple: spend less time on KYC and more time on what truly matters to your business.

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