BPO
Clearing a KYC and AML onboarding backlog across two regimes
An Irish retail bank had a growing KYC and AML onboarding backlog that was pushing new customers away. An outsourced review team cleared it and brought approval times back within target.
Results at a glance
- -75%
- Approval time
- 6,000
- Backlog cleared
- -52%
- Case rework rate
- 98.5%
- Quality-check pass rate
12 to 3 days
in one quarter
The challenge
New account applications had outrun the in-house review team, and the KYC and AML backlog had grown to several weeks. Customers were abandoning applications before a decision came back.
Because the bank serves customers on both sides of the border, every case had to satisfy EU rules and, for some customers, UK requirements too. Cutting corners was never an option, so the answer had to be more capacity and cleaner process, not looser checks.
Pain points
- Onboarding backlog of around 6,000 cases
- Average approval time near 12 days
- Rework from inconsistent document checks
- Dual EU and UK requirements on many cases
Our approach
- Stood up a trained KYC and AML review team working to the bank's risk policy and escalation rules
- Standardised the document checklist so each case is reviewed the same way, first time
- Split the queue so straightforward cases clear fast and complex ones reach a senior reviewer
- Processed all applicant data under EU GDPR and UK GDPR with full audit trails for the FCA and the Central Bank
Results at a glance
The results
- The backlog of around 6,000 cases was cleared within the first quarter.
- Average approval time fell from near 12 days to under 3.
- Rework dropped because every case followed the same checklist and evidence standard.
The backlog was costing us customers every day it sat there. The team cleared it without loosening a single check, and approvals now come back in days.
Common questions
Cases are reviewed against your risk policy with the EU rules applied to every applicant and UK requirements layered on where a customer falls under them, with a full audit trail for the FCA and the Central Bank.
These are representative engagements. Client identities are anonymised and the metrics are illustrative of the type of results this work delivers, not audited figures for a named client.
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Six-hour response. UK GDPR compliant. Named UK accountability.