How to complete KYB verification faster and more efficiently at scale

Why it makes sense to work with a KYB provider (and how to pick the best one)

Given these challenges while scaling, the most effective way to overcome them is by automating key parts of the KYB process, like company verification, identity verification, customer due diligence (CDD), sanctions screening, and onboarding, through a single platform.

Building your own KYB tool might seem appealing, but integrating with global data sources – especially in unfamiliar markets – and tailoring journeys by entity type is incredibly complex. Doing it alone can also lock you into unwanted vendor relationships and add unnecessary complexity.

The best approach is to partner with a KYB provider that already integrates with the data sources in your target markets and lets you design a tailored onboarding flow with minimal input from customers. Ideally, they offer a unified system that brings all parts of the KYB process together.

The right provider will allow you to turn KYB compliance into a growth enabler and offer a great customer journey to your customers.

Here are a few things to look out for when picking a KYB vendor:

Choose a solution that allows you to customize the onboarding process as much as possible

Every business you onboard will have its own risk profile, depending on the sector, structure and jurisdiction. Taking a one-size-fits-all approach to completing KYB will cost more in the long run as you’ll be forced to request every company to do every check, even when they are low-risk and don’t require those checks.

This is why you want to pick a KYB vendor that allows you to customize the onboarding process yourself, and can help you design a workflow that dynamically updates based on certain attributes, such as the type of company signing up. For example, for the US, the tool should let you route requests automatically based on the type of company: for an LLC you’ll need to collect the EIN and state registration number. But for a sole proprietorship you can skip the state registration lookup and run personal KYC instead.

You also want a tool that allows you to customize at what point a human should get involved, especially regulatory compliance, e.g. if the compliance team needs more information from the customer and wants to send a tailored request. It should also allow you to easily add comments, update the status of a customer and have a checklist to ensure the tracking is going smoothly.

Enables you to set up a high degree of automation

Automation is a key part to scaling KYB cost-efficiently. This is why it’s key to find a tool that allows you to automate as much as you can.

Some examples of those automations are:

• Create risk score for profiles and segment applicants accordingly
• Automate onboarding based on risk score
• Have continuous monitoring tools to ensure continuous compliance
• Send automatic alerts if the status of a beneficial owner changes

The solution should let you create actions based on that risk score – for example, if the applicant is high risk, it’ll automatically trigger enhanced due diligence and escalate the case to a compliance officer. This allows legitimate customers to not have to go through unnecessary cumbersome tests, while still halting any fraudulent activity.

Allows you to offer a fantastic customer experience in a tech-first way

A great customer experience isn’t just about deciding how many checks someone should go through based on their risk score. It’s also about how the journey feels and the way the applicant is requested to submit documents. For example, being very clear about what documents you need, even sharing examples within the flow itself, can vastly minimize back and forth and ensure you get all the documentation necessary on the first go.

The goal is to give your onboarding user the best chance of completing onboarding in one sitting wherever possible. For any tasks that need to be divided out to another user (e.g. a UBO to complete an identity check), this should be enabled as a standard feature.

The KYB solution you pick should make it easy to design and offer a user-friendly onboarding experience with your own branding, ideally through an API to give you full control. You ideally want to be able to access questionnaires, configurations and workflow builders to understand better the copy and flows that work best.

Offers connections to key datasets in the markets you operate in

Finally, it’s not worth using a provider if they don’t have connections to the datasets and geographies you need, especially if it’s a country where it’s hard to access corporate data. Having to integrate with a new KYB provider for every new market you enter just adds complexity and makes it hard to offer a consistent experience across all the countries you are active in.