The firm that specialises in areas such as client onboarding in wealth management and private banking has a new angle on how best to help customers deal with the chore of setting up an account.

People seeking to open a bank account may be able to avoid some of the more tedious processes by chatting to the institution of their choice, as onboarding specialist Appway launches a new “conversational solution”.

The Zurich-headquartered firm, which is prominent in developing solutions for firms such as private banks in onboarding clients, said its new solution allows clients to open an account with the guidance of a “chatbot” and is designed to fully meet rules laid down by Swiss regulator FINMA. (This publication is seeking to establish if this solution also fits with rules set by, for example, the US Securities & Exchange Commission, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and other prominent watchdogs.)

Onboarding is a significant challenge for the world’s wealth management industry. According to various industry sources, it takes an average of two months for a client to be taken onboard a private bank because of the various KYC and other tests required amid worries about money laundering. 

The rollout of the solution was announced at the company’s annual conference for clients and partners in Zurich; more than 400 professionals from the financial services sector attended.

With the upcoming release of Appway 7, financial firms will be able to offer onboarding processes through outside channels, including messaging applications like Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp, without extending existing business logic.

“We see conversational interfaces as a natural evolution of self-service offerings in the financial services,” Hans Peter Wolf, the firm’s chief executive, said in a statement.

“Customers have shown that they want a simplified service on channels that they frequently use. Not only will financial firms be able to engage with customers where they already are, these advancements also open the door for firms to offer onboarding via channels that will exist in the future.”

Representatives from Appway clients such as AXA Winterthur, Bank of China International, Bessemer Trust and Credit Suisse shared experiences from their firms' digital journeys. There were presentations from various Appway partners like Swisscom, Capco, Deloitte, eSignLive, ipt, GFT, Fincons and Wintech. Duncan Jones, principal analyst of Forrester Research, provided insights into delivering customer-centric software.