Client onboarding, a common pain point for private banks globally, is an inordinately complex and expensive process that not only presents significant regulatory risks for banks but sets the tone for the client relationship. At the same time, those banks that have done more to streamline and digitalise KYC and account opening derive a significant competitive advantage over those peers that have yet to make headway on this front.

Appway has led the revolution in digitalised KYC and onboarding for the better part of a decade, making significant inroads in Asia’s wealth management industry where there is a genuine sense of urgency among private banks to sort out account opening once and for all.

Launched in 2017, its flagship solution, ‘Onboarding for Wealth’, is a standout offering in an increasingly crowded space, by virtue of its ability to guide RMs through the onboarding process. This includes assisting bankers in terms of the types of information they are required to collect to satisfy the KYC requirements of specific regulators, such as details on the sources of wealth, risk levels, and nationalities. The solution not only creates an automatic audit trail and keeps track of both online and offline interactions but effectively shortens the overall time needed to successfully onboard clients via a ‘pre-acceptance’ function, which enables RMs to reach out to a ‘Compliance Concierge’ to clarify questions, co-browse, and screen out inappropriate prospects before they reach the approval phase. Remarkably, Appway’s solution reduces the time to new account activation to just one-to-two days on average.

Indeed, in 2018, Appway assisted three top-tier Asia-based private banks to streamline onboarding and facilitate their efforts across prospecting and servicing through the entire client lifecycle. In each case, Appway’s solution produced a measurable increase in productivity and operational efficiency, and for one bank, resulted in the wholesale eradication of bottlenecks within five months.

Moreover, Appway capped off a successful year by rolling out its ‘Regulatory Reviews for Wealth’ — a preconfigured solution that helps banks enhance their efficiency in conducting compliance checks for existing clients, thereby increasing KYC/AML efficiency and productivity and reducing overall business risk.

Appway’s track record of helping solve one of the most intractable and pressing problems facing private banks today, its dedication to forge new ground in what it means to provide a seamless client-friendly onboarding experience, and its exemplary support services make it the deserved winner of Asian Private Banker’s Best KYC and Client Onboarding Solution award for 2018.