Professional Services · Governance, Risk & Compliance · Customer Lifecycle Management · Regulatory Compliance
KYC and AML Case Management Platform for a UK Compliance Practice
- Client
- Risk and compliance practice · United Kingdom · KYC and AML reviews for financial-services and other UK organisations
- Industry
- Professional Services
- Department
- Risk, Compliance & Audit
- Region
- United Kingdom · UK & Ireland
A KYC file is only as good as its weakest step: a director missed in Companies House, a news hit nobody screened, an ID never checked. For a UK compliance practice we built a case management platform from the ground up that walks every case through 13 steps, with registers, screening, ID checks, evidence and QA in one place. It was meant as an internal accelerator; it was later sold as a product.
A working model of the approach on sample data. It plays on its own and pauses when scrolled away; nothing here touches a live system.
The results
- 13
- steps in every KYC case workflow
- Sequential by default, with controlled deviation. Scope figure, not a saving.
- 3
- roles with segregation of duties
- Project manager, analyst and QA; whoever prepares a step does not validate it.
- 2
- UK public registers built into every case
- Companies House and the Charity Commission, alongside KYC information portals.
The challenge
Our client is a UK risk and compliance practice delivering KYC (know your customer) and AML (anti-money laundering) reviews for financial-services and other UK organisations, following its own methodology.
KYC and AML reviews are high-volume, evidence-heavy and audited. Run on spreadsheets, shared drives and email, every case depends on the analyst remembering every step.
What it was costing them
- Missed parties. A director, partner or connected company not pulled from the register is a gap a regulator will find.
- Unverified identities. Personal details not checked against the ID documents provided.
- Scattered evidence. Screenshots, register extracts and screening results in different places, so a reviewer cannot see the whole case.
- No control of who did what. Without roles, the same person prepares and approves a case.
- No view across the portfolio. Managers cannot see which cases are stuck, late or incomplete.
- Spreadsheets → One KYC case
- Shared drives → One KYC case
- Email → One KYC case
The approach
We designed and built a case management platform from the ground up, on the practice's own methodology. It structures every KYC case into 13 steps, brings data and automation into each step, and keeps all evidence and decisions in one place. It also became the practice's project management tool for its KYC and AML engagements.
Thirteen steps, in sequence by default
Each case moves through 13 steps in order. When a case needs a step out of order, the deviation is controlled, so nothing is skipped silently.
- Client intake
- Public registers
- Connected parties
- Identity checks
- Screening & evidence
- QA & completion
- KYC report
What happens inside a case
- Client information intake. Information provided by the company under review is collected and entered into the case, with automation filling the inputs.
- Public registers. Data sourced from UK public registers, Companies House and the Charity Commission, and from KYC information portals.
- Connected parties. Organisations and people connected to the subject are mapped in the case, including managing partners and officers sourced from Companies House.
- Identity verification. ID documents are collected and checked for validity, and the personal details of related parties are validated against them.
- Screening. Screening against publicly available information, search engines and news sources, with the results attached to the case.
- Evidence in one place. All evidence is uploaded and managed inside the case.
- QA and completion. Automatic and manual QA, and monitoring of whether each case is complete.
- The KYC report. A full KYC output for every case.
Roles and segregation of duties
Project manager, analyst and QA roles. The person who prepares a step is not the one who validates it.
Built for automation and oversight
- Room for automation. Each step is designed so automations can take over the repetitive work and support the analyst.
- Reporting across cases. In-platform BI and custom metrics give managers a project management view across the whole portfolio of cases.
Technology
| Layer | What we built |
|---|---|
| Application | Custom case management platform, built from the ground up |
| Workflow | 13-step, role-based workflow engine with controlled deviation |
| Data sources | UK public registers (Companies House, Charity Commission), KYC information portals |
| Screening | Search engines and news sources |
| Evidence and identity | Document and evidence management, ID document verification |
| Reporting | In-platform BI and custom metrics |
The outcome
KYC case execution became structured, easy to follow and consistent across analysts.
| Before | After | |
|---|---|---|
| Case steps | Whatever the analyst remembered | 13 steps, in sequence, with controlled deviation |
| Connected parties | Pulled by hand, easy to miss | Mapped in the case, officers sourced from Companies House |
| Identity checks | Details not always checked against the IDs | Related parties validated against the IDs provided |
| Evidence | Spread across drives and inboxes | Inside the case |
| Who prepares, who approves | Could be the same person | Separate roles, QA built in |
| Portfolio view | None | In-platform BI and metrics across cases |
- Structured, consistent case execution across analysts.
- Segregation of duties enforced by role, with automatic and manual QA built in.
- Used in production as the case and project management tool for KYC and AML engagements for financial-services and other UK organisations.
- From accelerator to product. Planned as an internal accelerator, the platform was later sold as a separate product and became a winning factor in the KYC and AML bids it was part of.
- Scope, not savings. Time per case and case volumes were not measured; the figures on this page describe the platform.
The risk most teams miss
KYC tools fail on the exceptions, not the happy path: the trust with no Companies House record, the director with two spellings, the case where step 7 has to happen before step 5. A rigid workflow forces analysts back into spreadsheets; no workflow lets steps get skipped. The platform keeps the sequence as the default, allows controlled deviation, and makes QA and completeness checks visible, so flexibility never means a missing step.
Built with
The tools this ran on, by the layer each one carried.
- Apps & integration
- Automation
- Data & cloud
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