Digitalisation is the new era: Are industries keeping up to transform corporate client onboarding?

In a world where digital touchpoints define the client journey, onboarding remains the first true test of innovation.

Opening a personal account with a neo bank has been revolutionised with the smartphone and all we need is our passport, proof of address and the camera on our phone. Based on this input, various checks are carried out in the background and 10 minutes later you can start using your account and a digital bank card.

How different this is for corporate onboarding; papers are sent via email, post and sometimes still even fax, endless requests for clarification leading it to take on average 4-5 weeks before the ok is given. It is a far cry from the retail sector account opening.

Equally, technologies like AI are undermining the traditional ways of manual checking documentation and fake data such as a complete set of fake company structures and documentation can be created in no time undermining the trust in documents[1].

Change is nevertheless on its way due to technological advancements e.g. AI, cloud computing, API’s, detection and zero trust document technology, OCR (Optical Character Recognition and LLM (Large Language Models).

Regulators also pinch in and are pushing for change and moving towards perpetual compliance. The enhanced EU AMLR regulation – aiming to harmonize compliance obligations for banks, crypto-asset service providers, real estate agents, legal professionals, and other obliged entities, Regulation 2024/1624[2] – is just around the corner with implementation by July 2027. Whereas the EU Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA, the first centralised EU authority for direct EU wide supervision of AML/CFT compliance) has just set up a shop in Frankfurt.

Market expectations are shifting, and the need for speed to benefit from market opportunities in investment management, industry trading and corporate banking, to name a few, should not be upheld by paper based processes.

Last but not least, the consistent increase in the cost of AML/CFT compliance can only be mitigated if we address the current outdated way of working.

To move away from the manual checks of documents, we need to shift to a technology driven verification of corporate data and information (not stale documents), to create real-time insights in corporate structures, activities, decision makers and (ultimate) beneficiaries.

The road to change is mired with obstacles of legacy infrastructure, risk averse organisations, current over engineered processes (to be replaced instead of replicated), interoperability of systems and platforms while remaining within the boundaries of legislation like GDPR.

At Reseo, we understand these challenges and we believe that digital onboarding is not just a process but a client experience differentiator whereby the Reseo modular, technology driven, secure and client centric e-ID is a digital wallet that can be shared with any counterparty on the platform. To transform corporate client onboarding, we blend technology and investor-centric services, ensuring continued financial trust while future-proofing the industries for the digital generation. AML/KYC is just our starting point.

[1] Xavier Hamori, KYC in 2025: The Collapse of Document Trust, June 1, 2025

[2] Europa.eu. (2024). Regulation – EU – 2024/1624 – EN – EUR-Lex. [online] Available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1624/oj/eng.