About a-team Marketing Services
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry

A-Team Insight Blogs

Operational Inefficiencies Costing Banks $3.3trn: Fenergo

Subscribe to our newsletter

New research from client lifecycle management provider Fenergo reveals that slow and manual onboarding processes could lead to commercial and business banks individually losing $4.5 billion in revenue if they don’t bring their technology and systems up to date. With onboarding times rising by an average of three weeks in the last 12 months, if the trend continues, customers could be facing a six week wait to be onboarded by 2020.

In the last year alone, the global commercial and business banking market has lost $3.3 trillion because of abandoned applications during onboarding, says the research. And with new challenger banks such as Revolut, Monzo and Apple Pay disrupting the market, institutions that rely on traditional onboarding methods are in danger of becoming obsolete.

Despite the shift to digital banking, a surprising 18% of banks still rely on manual processes for Know Your Customer compliance (KYC) – including telephone, email, letter or in-person meetings. A further 14% say that 20 or more people are involved in the onboarding process for just one complex client, while 15% say that they had to get in touch 10 or more times for data or documents to onboard new clients.

“With more and more digital-first challenger banks entering the business banking market, customers now have the ability to sign up to a new bank within minutes. Business and commercial customers are naturally going to gravitate to banks that provide the same low-touch experience as the consumer digital services they are familiar with,” warns James Follette, Global Head of Commercial, Business and Retail Banking at Fenergo. “Whilst banks such as Revolut and Simple have the benefit of being digital-first, it’s not too late for more traditional commercial and business banks to bring their processes up to date and adequately compete. If they don’t make these changes, money and customer losses will be such that they’re unlikely to survive a downturn.”

So far, 78% of surveyed banks report that they have lost customers to digital-first, disruptive competitors. And they already know that things need to change – 92% of CEOs agreed that they need to transform radically in order to compete.

This becomes particularly important as institutions attempt to compete in a constantly shifting regulatory landscape. An overwhelming majority (96%) of banks confirmed that increasing and fast-evolving regulation is the reason behind longer client onboarding times. The majority (93%) of those surveyed say increasing regulatory focus as a result of rising financial crime is a challenge and keeping up with evolving regulation is a top concern for 40% of banks. This suggests that almost all banks are at risk of incurring major fines, along with all the reputational repercussions that holds.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Related content

WEBINAR

Recorded Webinar: How to simplify and modernize data architecture to unleash data value and innovation

The data needs of financial institutions are growing at pace as new formats and greater volumes of information are integrated into their systems. With this has come greater complexity in managing and governing that data, amplifying pain points along data pipelines. In response, innovative new streamlined and flexible architectures have emerged that can absorb and...

BLOG

A-Team Group Announces Winners of RegTech Insight Awards Europe 2025

A-Team Group has announced the winners of its RegTech Insight Awards Europe 2025. The awards recognise both established providers and innovative newcomers providing RegTech solutions to capital market participants that significantly improve their ability to respond effectively to evolving and ever more complex regulatory requirements. This year’s RegTech Insight Awards Europe included more than 40...

EVENT

TradingTech Summit MENA

The inaugural TradingTech Summit MENA takes place in November and examines the latest changes and innovations in trading technology and explores how technology is being deployed to create an edge in sell side and buy side capital markets financial institutions in the region.

GUIDE

AI in Capital Markets: Practical Insight for a Transforming Industry – Free Handbook

AI is no longer on the horizon – it’s embedded in the infrastructure of modern capital markets. But separating real impact from inflated promises requires a grounded, practical understanding. The AI in Capital Markets Handbook 2025 provides exactly that. Designed for data-driven professionals across the trade life-cycle, compliance, infrastructure, and strategy, this handbook goes beyond...