For years, compliance was seen as a necessary evil – a regulatory obligation that slows down innovation. That mindset is changing fast. When designed intelligently, KYC and KYB processes can deliver both speed and security at the same time.
In the Sinpex webinar “Between Speed & Security” (German language), Georg Hauer (former General Manager at N26) and Camillo Werdich (Founder & CEO of Sinpex) joined Morten Höher to discuss how banks and financial institutions can strike that balance. Their conclusion was clear: the supposed trade-off between regulatory precision and customer experience is solvable – through technology, evidence-based data, and end-to-end process thinking.
Most institutions struggle with fragmented workflows. Onboarding, document verification, and ongoing monitoring often run on separate systems that don’t communicate.
Initially this might work, but as customer volumes increase, so do inefficiencies. Manual handovers, duplicate reviews, and inconsistent decisions create friction. Data gets lost between systems, and the audit trail becomes unreliable.
External data sources are helpful for reference but cannot replace original documents. In an audit, it’s not enough to know that a piece of information exists — it must be backed by verifiable evidence. As one auditor famously asks: “You have the data — but where’s the proof?”
Many compliance teams also lack visibility into which customer data is current or complete. Without a clear process history, they end up spending valuable time cleaning data instead of managing risk.
As Camillo Werdich put it: “Speed is only as good as the evidence behind it. Without evidence, every efficiency gain becomes a liability in an audit.”
Determining the Ultimate Beneficial Owners (UBOs) remains the most time-consuming part of KYC. It requires deep legal understanding, access to reliable registries, and precise documentation.
Every jurisdiction defines ownership and control differently. Some rely on shareholdings; others on voting rights or indirect influence. This makes automation not just helpful — but essential.
A common misconception is that the Transparency Register alone is sufficient. In reality, BaFin and other regulators expect institutions to determine and document UBOs actively, using original and verifiable sources.
This is where technology changes the game. Automated systems can read trade registers and shareholder lists, extract data points, visualize ownership structures, and validate them against customer input. Machine learning models detect inconsistencies and highlight control relationships that need review.
According to Werdich, up to 80% of standard cases can now be handled automatically, leaving experts free to focus on the complex ones. That shift saves time, reduces human error, and strengthens audit readiness.
Drawing on his time at N26, Georg Hauer shared how compliance challenges evolve as organizations grow. Processes that work with 100,000 customers often break at a million.
When KYC, fraud prevention, and AML monitoring operate in silos, decisions become inconsistent and slow. Integration is no longer optional — it’s the foundation of scalable compliance.
Hauer noted that many institutions still rely on legacy systems built over a decade ago, while both customer expectations and criminal tactics have advanced dramatically. Implementations that take two years are effectively outdated by the time they go live.
He argued that KYC should be treated as part of the product experience. A fast, transparent onboarding process is the first proof of a bank’s credibility and professionalism. As Hauer said: “Compliance isn’t a nice-to-have — it’s the foundation of a bank and a decisive part of the customer experience.”
Automation fundamentally transforms how compliance teams work. Documents are no longer reviewed manually but recognized, structured, and converted into data points automatically.
These are cross-checked against customer submissions, and any discrepancies are flagged transparently. Ownership structures are displayed as dynamic graphs, making control relationships clear at a glance.
Analysts no longer sift through unstructured PDFs. They work with complete, auditable data, focusing their expertise where it’s truly needed. The result is fewer errors, shorter processing times, and stronger evidence for every decision.
As Werdich summarized: “Around 80 to 90% of cases can be automated — the rest require expert judgment. The goal isn’t to replace humans, but to let them focus where their insight adds the most value.”
Throughout the webinar, Sinpex conducted several live polls to gauge the maturity of compliance operations among participants – and the results were revealing.
Roughly 74% of respondents said their KYC processes are still largely manual. About 60% admitted they do not have end-to-end evidence documentation and instead piece together information from multiple systems. An overwhelming 82% said they expect regulatory pressure to increase significantly with the upcoming EU Anti-Money Laundering Regulation.
Perhaps most striking: almost 70% view automation as their top compliance priority for the next 24 months — but fewer than one in three have already launched an implementation project. These results highlight how far most institutions still have to go and how much untapped potential remains in smarter process automation.
The new EU AML Package and its accompanying Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) will raise the bar for documentation, transparency, and ongoing monitoring. Many institutions fear this will create additional workload. But applying new rules to outdated workflows only compounds the complexity.
Those who use this moment to redesign their KYC architecture will come out ahead. Event-driven reviews are a key step forward: instead of reviewing every three years, systems automatically flag relevant changes such as new directors, ownership updates, or unusual transaction patterns. This creates continuous, intelligent monitoring that is both efficient and compliant.
As Hauer put it: “If you just add new regulation to old processes, everything becomes harder. If you use regulation to rethink how you work, everything gets better.”
Future-ready compliance treats KYC as an end-to-end product, not as a chain of isolated tasks. Data extraction, verification, and documentation need to work seamlessly together to achieve transparency and consistency.
At the same time, onboarding has become the first touchpoint of customer experience. A fast, traceable, and audit-proof process builds trust immediately and improves conversion rates. Institutions that recognize this are turning compliance from a defensive necessity into a competitive differentiator.
Progress should be measurable. Metrics such as Time-to-Yes, First-Pass-Yield, or Audit-Finding Rate show clearly whether technology and human expertise are working in balance. Those that track and optimize these indicators can continuously raise both efficiency and quality.
Not every technology is built for regulatory depth. What matters is the ability to combine automation with full auditability. The best partners don’t just provide tools — they provide explainability. Every decision must be transparent, every document verifiable, and every rule open to scrutiny.
As Werdich emphasized: “It’s not about building everything in-house. It’s about working with specialists who operate at the technological frontier every day.”
When done right, this partnership transforms compliance from a cost center into a strategic asset — one that strengthens customer trust and supports growth.
The tension between customer expectations and regulatory scrutiny will always exist — but it can be managed intelligently. With evidence-based workflows, automated UBO identification, and event-driven reviews, institutions can achieve both agility and control.
Sinpex helps banks, fintechs, and financial institutions digitize their KYC and KYB processes, automate UBO validation, and maintain real-time, audit-proof documentation. Those who invest now are building compliance frameworks that not only protect but also enable sustainable growth.
Curious what future-proof KYC could look like for your organization?
Get in touch for a tailored process analysis or live demo.
