For financial institutions, know your customer (KYC)-onboarding is a particularly inefficient area because it is highly manual and labor-intensive. Like many of its peers, Mizuho traditionally relied upon legacy KYC technology. The complexities of this arrangement and the need to support a fast-growing client base amidst a constantly changing regulatory environment prompted the bank to rethink its KYC operations and renovate its approach to onboarding and client data management.

In 2019, Mizuho Americas embarked on a multiyear journey to modernize and digitalize its client onboarding processes and streamline previously siloed operations onto a single platform. The bank implemented an automated KYC client onboarding solution provided by the vendor Fenergo. Mizuho first deployed the solution for Mizuho Americas’ banking business line and is now expanding it into its securities business, which is planned to go live in July 2021.

Through this project, Mizuho modernizes and digitalizes its client onboarding processes and streamlines operations with legacy systems. This solution acts as a centralized repository for data and documentation, enabling the bank to improve client servicing by streamlining the client lifecycle journey, reducing onboarding times, and expediting client due diligence while remaining compliant with regulations.

In addition to digitalizing the onboarding process and improving operational efficiency, the bank is on a journey to achieve a single group-wide platform for institutional client onboarding and information and document management. By streamlining KYC onboarding policies and procedures and completing implementation in the initial business lines, Mizuho has completed the initial part of a major organization-wide transformation initiative that can serve as a model to peer financial institutions.