Before starting a relationship with a prospect, regulated businesses (and some non-regulated businesses) conduct know your customer (KYC) processes. KYC helps meet regulatory requirements and builds a picture of the risk exposure brought by the new client across the risk typology accepted by the institution, particularly AML (Anti Money Laundering).
KYC asks questions like – is the customer who they claim to be? Do they pose a risk to my business? Are they too high-risk to work with? – while also providing basic information about where they live/operate, their geographical reach, the logic in the distribution channel they are engaged through, their background. All natural questions to drive a profitable and compliant business within one’s risk appetite.
When KYC is integrated as part of client lifecycle management (CLM), businesses obtain a 360-degree view of a client and their data. This holistic dataset can be leveraged to tailor product offerings, trigger marketing events, support communications, as well as monitor risk.
During onboarding, KYC data helps build a picture of the customer, including their risk profile, which may be categorized as low, medium, or high. This picture can then inform how the business relationship progresses. With a fuller understanding of each customer, fueled by KYC data, decisions can be made about specific needs and engagements, which can enhance customer satisfaction and can also direct ongoing risk monitoring to limit and manage exposure.
Once a customer is onboarded, part of relationship management is ongoing or perpetual KYC (pKYC). These pKYC checks throughout the customer lifecycle review key data to ensure it is continually refreshed, and the picture remains accurate, so it can be trusted when making decisions or planning engagements.
The process of perpetual KYC – continual review and update of customer data – allows businesses to identify material changes in circumstances or behaviors that may affect their customer risk profile. pKYC can, for example, help indicate whether a customer has become a politically exposed person (PEP); whether they are sanctioned; or if they have moved to a high-risk jurisdiction - any factors that warrant further investigation or immediate action.
Finally, in the retention stage, KYC data can support further and deeper engagement. A low-risk customer, for example, who has been loyal for years may be identified and recognized with specific product offerings or communications. And customer-related data can support upsell and cross sell opportunities that foster brand loyalty.
Know your customer (KYC) is a key component of client lifecycle management (CLM). KYC structures the understanding of a customer's past onboarding requirements and helps to monitor customer-related risk throughout the lifecycle of that relationship. KYC is the strand of CLM that establishes transparency and trust. And data is the lifeblood that connects these processes - enabling customer verification, identifying risk, supporting competitive advantage, fueling efficiencies, and much more.
CLM refers to the process of tracking and managing customer interactions and engagements throughout each customer journey, from initial contact to long-term relationships. It involves marketing, sales, customer success, and retention efforts, with the goal of maximizing value, satisfaction, and loyalty, while also managing and mitigating risk.
CLM is a continuous, cyclical, and iterative engagement with client data to meet the needs of customers and the organization through defined stages.
The need for data permeates all areas of the customer relationship, through each stage of the lifecycle, and data provides the insights that help businesses answer fundamental questions.
Understanding just how crucial data is to the life of a business, organizations need a way to unify disparate and numerous datasets that enable onboarding, customer success, ongoing decision making, sales, marketing, and operational efficiency.
Governance of all this data throughout a customer lifecycle means understanding and integrating sources, refreshing, and eliminating redundant or inconsistent data, and maintaining records to answer any question a business needs to ask.
Harnessing and bringing together different data points relating to customers – whether internal or external– throughout the lifecycle of a relationship is a vital artery in the overall body of information a company needs to thrive.
Customer Lifecycle Management (CLM) and Master Data Management (MDM) are two distinct but interconnected strategic processes in business operations. MDM is a method to define and manage the critical data an organization needs through a single point of reference, and integrated with CLM it supports the business-client relationship.
How MDM supports CLM is instrumental to business success and can be summarized in the following ways:
While master data management, customer lifecycle management, and know your customer are distinct controls and processes, they interact across an organization and are related. MDM provides the data foundation that enables effective CLM, while CLM in turn structures all control requirements to meet regulatory obligations, treats customers fairly, and supports a satisfactory customer experience. KYC is a critical process, linking first and second line of defense data needs. The feedback loop from this controls data completeness, timeliness, and integrity to support the continuous strengthening of CLM and the ongoing challenge for enrichment or simplification of MDM’s golden sources. MDM impacts the way operational processes & controls engage with data:
The feedback loop between MDM, CLM, and KYC is key to sustainable compliance with regulation and business risk appetite, placing data at the forefront of risk assessment and risk mitigation with reactive and proactive capabilities.
KYC controls, central to CLM processes, enable businesses to assess and manage customer-related risks while providing the insight needed for tailored product offerings and communication strategies. The feedback loop between MDM, CLM, and KYC is key to sustainable compliance with regulation and business risk appetite, placing data at the forefront of risk assessment and risk mitigation with reactive and proactive capabilities.
CLM, in turn, fuels each customer journey, delivering compliance, brand loyalty, and growth, while also driving operational efficiency and protecting businesses from customer-related risk through its relationship with KYC.
MDM ensures data integrity, which directly impacts the effectiveness of CLM and KYC processes. MDM ensures a consolidation and monitoring of golden sources, including customer data. It brings together various sources and provides a 360-degree view of information that informs the success of each area of an organization, mapping data to one or more controls and processes.
KYC, CLM, and MDM form a symbiotic relationship for businesses to thrive. The quality and management of data, ensured by MDM, directly impacts the ability to manage a customer relationship throughout its lifecycle, which in turn is underpinned by robust KYC. This interconnectedness highlights the importance of data management in risk mitigation, regulatory compliance, and successful customer engagement.