Case study
Deploying Data Architecture for a KYC Program in a Fintech Company
Client
A growing fintech company focused on offering digital banking, investment, and financial marketing services.
Challenge
The fintech company needed a robust Know Your Customer program to comply with regulatory requirements, reduce fraud, and enhance customer trust. The existing data systems lacked the integration, scalability, and real-time processing capabilities required to handle the influx of customer data and regulatory checks.
Solution
Requirements Gathering and Analysis
- Regulatory Compliance: Ensure that the system adheres to AML regulations and GDPR for data privacy.
- Real-Time Processing: Develop capabilities for near real-time identity verification and risk scoring.
- Scalability: Plan for handling large volumes of customer data as the customer list grows.
- Data Security: Implement encryption and strict access controls to safeguard sensitive customer data.
- Audit Process: Systematic and ongoing review of customer data to ensure compliance and AML regulatory requirements.
Architecture Design
- Central Data Hub: A cloud-based data lake was set up to store structured and unstructured customer data from various sources.
- ETL Pipelines: Automated ETL pipelines were built using Fivetran and DBT to aggregate and process data from multiple sources.
- Real-Time Data Processing: Real-time streaming with Apache Kafka allowed immediate validation and risk scoring to improve the customer experience.
- Identity Verification API: Third-party APIs allowed seamless identity checks during customer onboarding.
- Risk Engine: A machine-learning-based risk engine analyzed historical data and flagged high-risk customers automatically.
Deployment
- CI/CD Pipeline: A continuous integration and deployment pipeline allowed seamless program updates without downtime.
- Cloud Infrastructure: AWS services including S3, Redshift, Lambda, and RDS supported scalable storage, processing, and database management.
- Monitoring and Logging: ELK Stack provided real-time monitoring and auditing of KYC processes.
- Manual Review Process: Archway helped establish a manual review team for outlier cases, digitizing the process in HubSpot so reviewers could clear cases within 48 hours.
Results
- Improved Compliance: The new architecture ensured compliance with KYC and AML regulations through automated and real-time checks.
- Enhanced Customer Experience: Real-time data processing enabled instant feedback, reducing onboarding time from days to, in most cases, minutes.
- Scalability: The cloud-native architecture provided the scalability needed to support rapid user growth.
- Operational Efficiency: Automation reduced the need for manual intervention in risk assessments and compliance reporting.
Conclusion
This deployment resulted in a streamlined KYC process that was both compliant with regulations and scalable to meet future demands as the fintech company grew. In addition, the company was able to harvest application data for informing potential new product prospecting and market targeting activities.