Five Steps to Become a Pioneer in Digital Corporate Client Onboarding

Customer access plays a key role in the digital transformation of financial institutions’ business models. In addition to established services such as e-banking and mobile banking, there is a growing demand for digital opening processes for new customers. New banks, in particular, have recognised this trend and are using the new technological possibilities to acquire customers with efficient and fully automated services. A benchmark of less than 10 minutes has been set for a fully digital account opening for these banks.

This new competition, ever-increasing customer demands and the COVID-19 pandemic are increasing the pressure on traditional banks to digitise their account opening processes. While there is a lot of activity and progress in the retail sector, virtually no Swiss bank offers digital account opening for corporate clients. This is despite the fact that the legal and technical foundations, for example in the area of electronic signatures, have been in place for several years.

Corporate customers are still forced to make an appointment, visit a branch and sign the final contract documents by hand when opening an account. The limited range of digital opening options for corporate customers is mainly due to the higher complexity of the opening process than for retail customers, the perceived low ROI and overly ambitious goals in terms of service and customer coverage.

In the next section, we will show you how to mitigate the five most important complexity drivers, while maintaining the right focus and keeping your costs under control.

Set Special Cases Aside

Corporate customers are divided into different, multi-dimensional customer segments based on certain characteristics (e.g. legal form, turnover, number of employees). Each characteristic can place additional demands on the opening process. This leads to countless special cases and a highly complex process logic, combined with high implementation costs.

The first step is to analyse your customer portfolio to prioritise customer segments. As a first step, it is important to limit your offer to the most attractive features. In other words, focus on large segments with high returns, low costs and low complexity. Leave aside special cases for the time being. For example, sole traders, public limited companies and limited liability companies in the SME sector usually already cover more than 80% of potential new customers.

Only Involve Main Contractors in the Process

Unlike private customers, corporate customers often have more than one person involved in concluding a contract (collective signing authority).In addition, there are usually other people who need access to the account (e.g. accountants or HR managers).As a result, different documents need to be legally signed by different people during the account opening process.This can lead to longer waiting times and interruptions in the opening process.In addition, there are technical challenges to securely and easily invite and synchronise the additional people into the process.

We recommend that the process is designed for the primary contracting parties only.Do not include other contracting parties such as authorised representatives or additional e-banking users in the initial opening process.Other non-critical persons who still need to be identified can be added later via self-service access management.If several contracts are to be signed during the opening process, we recommend that you refer to the individual documents using a meta-contract.This way, the new customer only needs to digitally sign one document and can open all selected products in one step.

Linking External Data Sources

Correct and detailed customer information is an essential requirement for regulatory compliance.Opening an account for a corporate customer therefore requires extensive collection of company and personal information.In a digital process, this step can be shifted entirely to the potential new customer, but the user experience is severely compromised by the lengthy data entry process.

As a first step, we recommend that you only offer your digital account opening process to companies with a UID (Enterprise Identification Number).Experience shows that this covers between 90% and 95% of your potential new customers.By linking public and commercial databases, you can also automatically populate or validate many data fields.

Companies without a UID should be able to use your procedure to arrange a consultation for further clarification.Companies in the process of being established are a special case.For these, a separate process with a capital contribution account should be implemented.

Reducing Hurdles

At the account opening stage, the corporate customer has to choose from a wide range of complex products.In addition, a wide variety of options and combinations create an almost unmanageable web of possibilities through which the new client must navigate.Without the support of an advisor, this can quickly lead to excessive demands and frustration on the part of the customer, resulting in an increased bounce rate. In addition, intelligent rules are needed in the background to control the workflow and product selection.

In general, we recommend opening the new client’s account with a limited number of basic products to reduce the complexity of product selection. Other products should be opened subsequently via the e-banking platform.In addition, offer the customer a wide range of support options and place them prominently in the process.Use the latest technologies, such as chatbots, in combination with traditional chat and telephone solutions, to provide customers with 24/7 service for questions and uncertainties.

Instant Access to Selected Products

Once a customer has opened a digital account, they expect to be able to use their banking products immediately. Depending on the products chosen, internal and external regulations often require further risk clarification and downstream checks, delaying access to banking and clouding the customer experience.

We recommend that you give the customer access to certain products as soon as they open their account. Focus on products such as limited e-banking access or a digital debit or prepaid card. This will increase customer satisfaction without increasing risk. Wherever possible, automate the subsequent verification of the company and the persons involved by linking appropriate tools. This will reduce your workload and allow you to give the customer full access to their products within a reasonable timeframe. You may already be using such tools and just need to automate the processes.

Conclusion

With the right customer focus and an eye on the essentials, you can reduce the scope of your account opening process to targeted customer acquisition. By shortening the process time and reducing barriers, you create a positive customer experience while reducing internal system complexity. As a final step, ensure customer expectations are met with automated product opening and create a fully digital corporate account opening process.