UK businesses more likely to join a digital-friendly bank

A recent study has shown that 73% of businesses are more likely to join a bank that features a digital onboarding process.

The research, conducted by Censuswide for Encompass Corporation, also found that 64% of businesses agreed that the Covid-19 pandemic exposed the digital weaknesses of traditional banks. It makes clear that some banks are not capable of keeping up with paper-based communication and documentation.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has permanently altered the way that businesses interact with their banking and financial services providers, increasing the need for online services and resulting in expectations of a much faster approach to onboarding and compliance checks,” said Wayne Johnson, CEO and co-founder of Encompass Corporation.

“Sticking with slow, paper-based processes for critical tasks such as Know Your Customer (KYC) checks will, in many cases, no longer be tolerated, especially with customers clearly expecting the highest standards of digital services from their provider.”

From this, over one-third of businesses admitted that their current bank’s onboarding process appears too slow and not fit for purpose and 44% believe that the process of opening a business bank account is no longer what they expect.

This highlights the lack of innovation and digitisation from some banks, despite the need to use other methods of onboarding to communicate with customers during the pandemic.

“The time has come for banks to fully embrace automated, smart decision-making, enabling seamless compliance with changing regulation, which will reduce costs and improve customer service for the long-term,” Johnson said.