Irish FIs trail behind in KYC automation

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Research highlight

Only 52% of Irish financial institutions have automated some or all of their KYC

PwC carried out a survey amongst regulated Irish financial services firms in Summer 2023 covering a wide range of industries, including funds, banking, e-money, payment services and insurance firms.

According to the PwC survey, 52% of respondents have automated some or all of their KYC collection processes. However, there are notable discrepancies across industries. For instance, 80% of respondents in the E-Money & Payments sector have adopted automation, whereas only 20% of respondents in the Insurance sector have done so. The obligation to gather Know Your Customer (KYC) information during onboarding and periodic reviews poses a considerable challenge for regulated entities. In recent years, numerous FinTech firms have emerged in the Irish market, offering automated solutions to aid regulated entities in KYC document collection. These solutions primarily focus on facilitating the upload of personal identification documents for individual customers. By leveraging these solutions, firms can swiftly acquire and analyse documents in real-time, implementing various controls such as liveness checks and biometric verification.

Despite the advancements in automation, PwC’s survey reveals that ongoing KYC document review and collection remain daunting tasks for regulated entities in Ireland. There is a persistent necessity to continuously review and update customer information on file. While automation is gaining traction across the financial services sector, traditional methods of collecting KYC information remain prevalent, especially in industries like Banking and Asset & Wealth Management (AWM).

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