KYC (Know Your Customer) has become a key topic for financial institutions in light of ongoing efforts to strengthen the regulatory framework. CACEIS has committed itself to digitising the process of collecting identification documents from its clients and their investors, with a view to making the user experience seamless and secure.
The KYC process begins at the onboarding stage and continues throughout the business relationship. It is built on a system for regularly reviewing and updating client data. For CACEIS, KYC concerns not only its clients but also their investors.
This third-party identification duty gives rise to rigorous processes for collecting documents, checking the relevance of the data reported, and analysing all of the information received. This involves several CACEIS teams (sales, compliance, KYC, etc.) and leads to extensive dialogue with stakeholders. It is difficult for our clients to get to grips with which documents are needed because the requirements are based on multiple criteria that are hard to understand and therefore may create irritants.
Digitising the KYC process simplifies the user experience and offers a range of benefits, including time savings, seamless communication, enhanced authentication, compliance, and faster service provision at the onboarding or investor subscription stage. End-to-end optimisation of document management allows for more in-depth, robust knowledge of clients and an optimised user experience.
Therefore, it was important for CACEIS to develop KYC 360, a digital platform for processing and managing the KYC function, with the aim of collecting the relevant documentation from clients and their investors, regardless of their profile and jurisdiction.
“This vast digitisation project involves automating the various stages of the KYC process. From online document collection to file validation, and from collating collected data to adding it to our KYC database, all tasks are optimised by the digitisation of documents and the creation of a dashboard,” explains Françoise Seive, Group Head of KYC at CACEIS. “It also makes it easier to trace the steps taken at every stage of the process.”
Many of CACEIS’ teams are involved in the KYC 360 project: Operations and IT contribute in addition to the usual KYC stakeholders. The main challenge lies in finding the right compromise between following the regulations to the letter and offering the most seamless client experience possible.
CACEIS’ clients will be gradually invited to use the KYC 360 platform during regular reviews of their files. They will be able to upload their documents once they receive a notification from the KYC team instructing them to update their records. The contents of the KYC files will then be subject to analysis and level two checks by CACEIS’ teams. A comprehensive workflow therefore facilitates exchanges between the client, analyst and supervisor. Automated management of the various status and completion levels allows for monitoring of responses, automatic reminders to send any missing documents, and approval of KYC files.
For investors specifically, KYC 360 will be rolled out in several phases. “In the first phase, retail investors in Luxembourg domiciled funds will be able to upload their KYC documents from October,” notes Dimitri Sakkis, Group Head of Operational Line - Fund Distribution Services & ETF Services at CACEIS. “This option will then be extended to funds in other jurisdictions.”
KYC 360 will be rolled out to institutional investors in a subsequent phase and also integrated with TEEPI Market Place (the collaborative fund subscription platform).
CACEIS is going the extra mile to respond to the challenges and opportunities associated with digitised KYC as part of the client journey; this also helps to speed up the onboarding process. The sales teams will keep their contacts up to date on the rollout of this pivotal project.
