Forward-thinking banking organizations effectively balance personalization with identity validation by leveraging advanced technologies, such as AI-enhanced authentication and data analytics, to create seamless, secure experiences that are tailored to customer needs and robust against identity threats.
By focusing on personalization and security, retail banks can develop Know Your Customer (KYC) practices that meet regulatory requirements and provide a friction-free customer experience. KYC requires customer identity verification to prevent financial crimes like money laundering and terrorist financing.
New opportunities in personalization in the year ahead are among the highlights explored in TTEC’s newly released CX Trends 2026: Fast Forward report.
The time is now: The future of KYC and fraud prevention is converging toward a more integrated and technologically advanced approach, leveraging real-time identity verification and AI-powered early warning systems to create a robust defense against financial crimes while enhancing customer onboarding experiences.
First, seek to understand
Here at TTEC, we have seven values that guide our day-to-day decision-making, how we collaborate with and support our teammates, and how we serve our clients. One of those values, “First, seek to understand,” really resonates with me when I think about Know Your Customer and the opportunity it presents to all financial services institutions, and retail banks in particular, committed to an exemplary customer experience.
Effective KYC practices require a clear and nuanced understanding of the subject — our customers — to extract the most value.
This is not a nice-to-have. It’s a non-negotiable. In the past year, anti-money laundering (AML) fines topped $3 billion for U.S. institutions, a dramatic rise from the prior year’s $186 million. The market gets it: Some $53 billion is the projected global spend — by 2029 —on third-party KYC/KYB systems, a 70% increase from $30.8 billion in 2024, according to Juniper Research.
AML-related fines are on the increase as more countries come under pressure to impose fines and for fines to be ever larger, according to Financial Crime News. Sanctions enforcement is up outside of the United States, with the European Union, United Kingdom, and Switzerland becoming more active.
Retail banks can operationalize their understanding of customers by leveraging a combination of skilled personnel, streamlined processes, and advanced technologies, such as AI-enhanced customer risk assessment tools and digital identity verification systems, to gather and analyze customer data, monitor transactions, and stay compliant with evolving KYC regulations.
- Streamline onboarding: Simplify and expedite the customer onboarding process through digital identity verification and document collection, reducing friction and wait times.
- Personalize services: Use KYC data to create targeted marketing campaigns and offer tailored financial products that meet individual customer needs.
- Enhance security and trust: Demonstrate a commitment to security and compliance, fostering trust with customers and differentiating the institution from competitors.
- Improve customer insights: Leverage KYC data to gain a deeper understanding of customer behavior and preferences, enabling more effective customer segmentation and service delivery.
Are you satisfied with how your organization balances robust KYC controls and risk management with the mandate to deliver a seamless customer onboarding experience? Are you prepared to evolve and adapt to changing KYC regulations? Our teams at TTEC follow developments closely every day.
Talk to us about new tools and tactics for verifying customer identity, due diligence, monitoring, and risk assessment to reduce risk of financial crimes, ensure compliance, and preserve reputational integrity of your brand.
Check out TTEC’s just-published CX Trends 2026: Fast Forward to explore five approaches that will win in the coming year because old-school thinking won’t cut it.
