Financial Institutions Spend $1,500 to $3,000 to Complete One Client KYC Review

Financial institutions are spending millions of dollars every year inefficiently onboarding and maintaining clients, according to research from Fenergo, a provider of Know Your Customer (KYC) and Client Lifecycle Management (CLM) software solutions. A global study of over 1,000 C-level executives across corporate and institutional banks found that, on average, over half are spending between $1,500 and $3,000 to complete just one client KYC review.

The findings also show over half of financial institutions spending between 61 and 150 days on KYC reviews for clients, much of which is spent gathering and inputting data across multiple systems. Overall, more than 80% of respondents have between 1,000 and 2,500 employees working on KYC tasks. Some 90% said labour-intensive KYC impacts their ability to make better risk decisions. However, the data also shows financial institutions now focusing investment on automation with 62% prioritising spend for technology.

ESMA Makes ESG Data and Markets a Priority

Europe’s markets overseer has placed improving the quality and access to ESG data and financial markets among its priorities for the next five years. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) said also in its 2023-2028 Strategy report that it was ready to put the European Union’s sustainability regulations in place and act as supervisor of them.

SmartStream Launches AI-enabled Exceptions Management

SmartStream, the financial Transaction Lifecycle Management solutions provider, has launched SmartStream Air version 7, which uses cloud-native AI technology to control exceptions management by learning from user behaviours.

The AI populates fields automatically, sets labels, and runs automations based on the processes it has learned. In addition, it aims to improve STP rates by providing suggestions to the user or fully automating the exceptions management process.

Capgemini Acquires Capital Markets Post-Trade Consultancy Quorsus

Capgemini has acquired Quorsus, a UK-based firm consultancy firm specialising in post-trade technologies, operations, regulatory solutions, and market infrastructure. The acquisition will allow Capgemini to further support its capital markets clients in addressing not only increasing regulatory requirements, but the need for strategic yet efficient operations across the trading lifecycle.

Know Your Customer and HAWK AI Partner to Strengthen Defence Against Financial Crime

Know Your Customer, a provider of modular digital client onboarding solutions, and Hawk AI, a provider of anti-money laundering surveillance technology for financial institutions, payment firms and fintechs, have made a strategic partnership that will build a stronger defence against financial crime.

The partnership combines Know Your Customer’s digital onboarding and business KYC solutions with Hawk AI’s transaction monitoring capabilities, giving clients access to an integrated offering that will help them centralise and harmonise multiple and often complex elements of their AML programmes. As well as a stronger defence against financial crime, the partnership should provide an improved end customer experience, and gains in operational efficiency.

Snowflake Opens Operations in Mexico to Drive Latin America Customer Growth

Snowflake has opened operations in Mexico with a view to expanding its local and multinational customer base in the country and across Latin America. Sergio Sanchez Polo, country manager for Mexico and LATAM sales lead, heads up the operation and will be by hiring across Latin America with a focus on sales. Snowflake now has offices and operations in 23 countries.

Singapore’s MAS Launches Hub to Promote ESG Innovations

Singapore’s financial regulator has created a facility in which FinTechs, startups and financial institutions can co-locate and collaborate to develop sustainable finance products and services. The Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Hub also will help startups scale and deploy new initiatives and source help and advice from established financial leaders.

DBS Deploys Nasdaq Surveillance Technology to Support Market Integrity

DBS, Southeast Asia’s largest bank, announced that it will leverage Nasdaq Trade Surveillance technology to advance its surveillance and market integrity efforts. Nasdaq’s solutions will improve DBS’s ability to analyse market abuse surveillance scenarios and detect trading anomalies across equities and derivatives markets as well as OTC FX markets.

The technology will provide DBS with a consolidated view to manage and monitor market conduct, while enabling DBS’ trade surveillance team to detect, investigate, and document a wide array of market abuse through tailored alerts.

SS&C Partners with Coinbase to Offer Front-to-Back Crypto Management Solution

SS&C Eze has partnered with Coinbase to offer clients access to Coinbase Prime, an institutional platform for digital assets. Through the partnership, traders using Eze Investment Suite can manage their crypto trading processes in one place, from pre-trade compliance to custody.

Coinbase Prime is an institutional platform providing secure custody, smart order routing, data & analytics, trade settlement, and reporting. With the integration, Eze Investment Suite users can access a diverse liquidity pool of digital assets, and gain a holistic view of their crypto investments alongside traditional securities holdings.

IPC Becomes Approved Application Service Provider for SIX Swiss Exchange

Communications and networking solutions vendor IPC has become an approved Application Service Provider (ASP) for SIX Swiss Exchange with Connexus Extranet, the company’s performance-engineered financial extranet for electronic trading, which leverages IPC’s Connexus Cloud to provide connectivity to a global community of capital market participants.

The collaboration between IPC and SIX Swiss Exchange builds on IPC’s global financial ecosystem, which interconnects over 7,000 diverse capital market participants across 750 cities in more than 60 countries.