Enhancing compliance efficiency and reducing due diligence cycle time

A large Swiss bank was falling behind on its annual customer due diligence refresh, which their 350-person team was not able to close on schedule. With eClerx’s Compliance Manager platform automating data collection across more than 150 jurisdictions, the bank cut its due diligence cycle time by 30%, reduced cost per case by 35%, and held Quality Assurance above 95%, completing the annual refresh on time for the first time.

The challenge – Addressing due diligence process and compliance pressures

• The Client Lifecycle team was facing significant delays in completing the periodic refresh for their Book of Work (BoW) for the bank’s Customer Due Diligence (CDD) checks.
• With a team of 350 employees, the bank struggled to maintain production rates while adhering to tight deadlines set by the compliance department.
• The challenges stemmed from the complexity of collecting and verifying customer data, meeting varying KYC regulations across jurisdictions, and managing outdated systems with inconsistent review processes.
• The growing backlog and the pressure to meet regulatory commitments prompted the Managing Director to seek external support to address these inefficiencies and enhance the bank’s compliance capabilities.

Our strategy – Streamlining the bank’s compliance processes

eClerx implemented a solution that was tailored to the bank’s needs, with customized dashboards and business metrics to track performance and ensure smooth operations. The teams worked together to integrate the Compliance Manager platform, a solution designed to enhance the bank’s compliance processes through automation, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. This helped the team to:

• Automate the collection and digitization of customer data from public sources across more than 150 jurisdictions, reducing manual effort
• Set up a governance framework, including a jurisdiction-based Enterprise Requirement Management Tool to handle the complexity of rule sets
• Extend its knowledge management suite, providing 300+ training videos on sourcing information from various regulatory websites and third-party data sources. This training ensured that the team was equipped to manage the new systems effectively.

How automation reduces due diligence cycle time

Most delays come from repetitive work, not judgement. Teams spend time chasing documents, entering data, and checking registries across many jurisdictions.

When analysts spend their first hours gathering evidence instead of assessing it, cases take longer and backlogs grow.

Automation removes that work. It collects and digitizes customer data across 150+ jurisdictions, so each case arrives with the evidence already assembled. Analysts can focus on reviewing decisions instead of entering data.

The role of AI in due diligence and compliance

Automation manages repetitive work; AI handles variation. KYC compliance requirements shift by jurisdiction, entity type, and risk rating, which is why a single review checklist rarely survives contact with a global client book.

Machine learning models earn their keep in two ways: applying the right rule set to the right case, as the jurisdiction-based requirement management framework did here, and flagging anomalies that a fixed template would miss.

That matters most at the boundary between standard customer due diligence and enhanced due diligence. AI-assisted screening flags risk signals early, so higher-risk relationships move into deeper checks quickly rather than surfacing late in the review.

The outcome is a due diligence process that scales without diluting scrutiny. Routine cases move faster, and complex ones get the attention they warrant.

The results

The implementation of Compliance Manager led to transformative results, including: 

• 35% reduction in the cost per case, improving operational efficiency
• 95%+ score consistently in Quality Assurance
• 30% reduction in due diligence cycle time, enabling faster and more accurate checks

For the first time, the team was able to complete the annual Periodic Refresh BoW on time, preventing delays from seeping into the following year. This success ensured the bank met its regulatory commitments, mitigated risks, and contributed to the overall stability and reputation of the financial system.