Global banking revenues are projected to increase by 9% annually through 2025, with corporate clients driving this growth. The corporate journey in banking encompasses managing customer (re-)onboarding, relationships, and delivering seamless, compliant services. Corporate business, being quality-driven, demands a different customer journey approach than retail. 

Onboarding is a crucial aspect of the corporate journey. Poor onboarding experiences are the leading cause of customer churn, with over 90% of customers dissatisfied with current processes and 56% experiencing repeated requests for identical information. Digitizing customer onboarding can drastically reduce the time required for corporate clients, allowing online onboarding for simple companies within 48 hours and semi-complex companies within 120 hours. This efficiency increases customer satisfaction and volume due to the flexibility of remote onboarding. It also reduces the workload for CR managers and KYC specialists, streamlining and harmonizing the process internally.

Once a corporate customer is onboarded, maintaining the relationship is vital. Banks must continuously monitor and review associated risks using various internal and external data sources. Automated monitoring can cover up to 50% of the bank’s risk-relevant portfolio, ensuring ongoing compliance and risk management.

 

Developing a Corporate Journey

The process is highly individualized and cannot adhere to a one-size-fits-all approach. However, certain steps can provide a structured framework.  The following outlines a general process step-by-step for creating a Corporate Journey:

 1. Definition of Goals and Client Profiles

Identify the objectives and target profiles by de-compositioning of the domain goals and determining whether designing a single journey can achieve the goals or whether multiple journeys are necessary. Analyzing target profiles is instrumental for identifying which customer segment generates the most revenue, and then starting the journey design by targeting the most significant segment.

2. Conducting Competitor Analysis

Examine what competitors are doing in relation to the Corporate Journey and determine benchmarks.

 3. Process Analysis

Analyze the current Corporate Journey processes („as-is“) and identify opportunities for improvement („to-be“).

 4. Designing the Corporate Journey “Master”

Develop the overarching journey from the decision-making entity (such as the head office), which will encompass the vital components like overall UX, definition of the roles & responsibilities and incorporated channels of servicing, establishing the overall extent of automation aimed for. Define and execute a pilot case for the initial rollout.

5. Performing GAP Analysis on a Country/Network Unit Level

Identify discrepancies between the journey “Master” and local peculiarities in terms of KYC laws and regulations, as well as organizational structures.  

 6. Local Tech Design and Evaluation

Assess the local technology landscape to determine whether to develop custom solutions or purchase existing ones and design the tech infrastructure accordingly.

7. Implementation and go-live

A step-by-step implementation using an agile approach is advisable, as this is a good practice which effectively reduces complexity. 

 

Customer Onboarding as a critical component of a corporate journey

The Corporate Journey is a multifaceted concept encompassing various processes, each with its own framework and considerations. Onboarding is a critical component, serving as the customer’s first interaction with the bank and playing a pivotal role in their decision to stay or leave.

Applying the aforementioned step-by-step process, for an effective onboarding, PwC suggests the following applied framework:

 1. Definition of Goals and Client Profiles. Define the onboarding objectives and analyze target customer profiles. Develop a comprehensive journey for the most profitable segments first, then extend the approach to other segments. Various customer segments involved may require different treatment in the onboarding:

– For banks with a significant number of international clients, varying KYC regulations may necessitate specialized teams for different regions or countries. Consequently, depending on the customer, onboarding might require manual checks to ensure compliance.

– Correspondent banking customers. If applicable, this involves stricter anti-money laundering regulations, which will impact the overall solution.

– The regulations on freelancers. Freelancer regulations vary by location and may be classified as corporate or retail customers depending on local rules. 

 

2. Conducting Competitor Analysis. Review competitor onboarding journeys and use them as benchmarks for developing your own.

 3. Process Analysis. Analyze current onboarding processes to identify opportunities for improvement.

4. Designing the Corporate Journey “Master”. Develop the overarching onboarding journey by defining:

 

Roles & Responsibilities. Customer Relationship (CR) managers and centralized KYC specialists are the key roles in onboarding. Typically, a CR manager initiates the process and may then transfer it to a specialized team or back office. Here, defining standard versus complex use cases and assigning respective responsibilities, involvement levels, and streamlined communication channels is essential. Several edge cases should be taken into account, based on happy and unhappy flows. 

 

Channels of Servicing and Onboarding. The choice of channels (self-service, online, branch, or a combination of these) should align with the bank’s strategy, whether it aims for an omnichannel (unified onboarding process across channels) or multi-channel approach (specific process for each channel). Additionally, identifying the preferred servicing points for the bank’s major customer segments is crucial. Based on the bank’s strategic goals, it is often effective to start with one, most important channel and gradually expand to others. 

 

Ambition for Automation. Analyze the specific requirements of each use case to determine whether it should be automated or routed to manual processing. This means that banks must decide whether to maintain direct communication with clients or to automate specific processes. Some considerations might be:

– Banks with many low-risk customers will benefit from automation, which can free capacity to focus on more intricate cases, enhancing efficiency.

– Automation can be advantageous when workforce costs need to be reconsidered, and resource allocation optimized. With automated processes, operations, branches, and relationship managers can focus on cross-selling opportunities.

– If numerous edge cases require manual processing, developing a specialized IT solution may not be practical.

Target Products. In any corporate journey, connecting the onboarding process with the target product, whether it be accounts, credit/loans, or trade (stocks), is important. This connection ensures a seamless transition and better customer experience. Depending on strategic objectives and operational efficiencies, onboarding can either be directly integrated with product-specific onboarding processes or handled separately as a standalone process. Unified onboarding process, independent from the type of product, usually leads to higher IT and process efficiency.

5. Performing GAP Analysis on a Country/Network Unit Level. Adapt the onboarding journey to local KYC laws and regulations, as well as organizational structures. Assess market specifics to decide whether a localized approach for corporate onboarding journey in each country or a standardized approach across multiple countries better resonates with customers.

 6. Local Tech Design and Evaluation. Before initiating a digital transformation, evaluate the local technology landscape to decide whether to develop custom onboarding solutions (“MAKE”) or purchase existing ones (“BUY”) and design the tech infrastructure accordingly. Here, involving an expert might be beneficial.

– A „BUY“ solution involves integrating external information, data, or workflow solutions into existing systems, leveraging specialized external expertise. Key players in this space include Information/Data Providers and Workflow-driven Solution Providers, with newer systems often using SaaS components for seamless integration.

– In contrast, a „MAKE“ solution involves developing tailored solutions that ensure better integration and customization, though it requires significant IT resources and investment. This approach is ideal for older systems and complex integrations, offering a comprehensive digital ecosystem and long-term competitive advantages.

Regardless of the chosen strategy, any new solution must integrate smoothly with the bank’s existing IT infrastructure.

 7. Implementation and go-live

This PwC framework leverages our extensive experience to streamline corporate journey processes by analyzing current („as-is“) and future („to-be“) states, defining roles and customer segments, optimizing service channels, and integrating IT solutions. We are ready to support clients in designing, developing, or consulting on their corporate journey to ensure a seamless and compliant process.

Did this sound interesting? Contact Enzo Orsi to learn more about how PwC Austria can support in creating or transforming your corporate journey procedures.

Authors: Efraim Biffi, Andreas Herzig, Dariya Sharafan