Coronavirus Pandemic Accelerates KYC and Onboarding Strategies – A Team

The coronavirus pandemic has been an eye-opener for capital markets firms hit by market volatility, systems unable to cope quickly with change, the need to set up work from home schemes (and security), and changing relationships with customers. Nowhere has this been more visible than in Know Your Customer (KYC) and onboarding functions that have been pushed to accelerate digitalisation, pare down document exchange (again), and reconsider optimal operating models. As well as providing a response to the pandemic, these changes are helping firms look to the future. Kevin McGuinness, client lifecycle management lead at First Derivatives, suggests capital markets participants have coped well with the pandemic, although it has raised the bar. He says: "Covid has made it clear that there is still room to reduce the friction between banks and customers. Getting data back and forth requires better solutions and the ultimate goal has to be no paper."