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Key Takeaways: Customer Onboarding Software in Singapore

  • Customer onboarding software helps regulated entities in Singapore automate and manage KYC, KYB, UBO mapping, screening and risk assessment during onboarding.
  • It helps replace manual checks for Singapore-regulated entities, ensuring faster and more accurate onboarding.
  • Citadel365 customer onboarding software securely automates customer verification, ownership checks, screening, risk scoring and record-keeping in one structured workflow, ensuring compliance with AML/CFT/CPF obligations.

What is Customer Onboarding Software?

Customer onboarding software is a digital platform that helps regulated entities in Singapore collect, identify, and verify customer information in line with the AML/CFT requirements. The software automates the customer due diligence process, including capturing identity documents, verifying customer identities and their beneficial ownership, name screening, and assessing risk, so onboarding is faster and more consistent.

In Singapore, financial institutions and DNFBPs are required to comply with onboarding obligations under their sector-specific rules. This includes banks, payment service providers, capital markets intermediaries, DPT (crypto) service providers, corporate service providers, trust companies, accountants, and precious metals dealers.

Why Customer Onboarding Software Matters in Singapore?

Customer onboarding software helps apply a risk-based approach to the CDD process while establishing a business relationship and throughout. Supervisory authorities in Singapore expect entities to apply controls based on a customer’s risk profile. This means applying standard controls for low-risk customers and enhanced due diligence for high-risk customers.

Further, customer onboarding software ensures faster, accurate and more reliable onboarding than manual document collection. Government platforms such as Myinfo and regulators such as ACRA also support regulated entities with digital systems to help verify customer information and carry out KYC/KYB more efficiently.

Moreover, customer onboarding software reduces the time, burden, and friction needed to identify counterparties, trustees, settlors, and beneficial ownership. It does this by automating tracing through opaque or complex corporate structures or relationships.

In addition, the customer onboarding software helps capture customer details through structured workflows and maintain proper records of customer information and onboarding decisions.

How Does Customer Onboarding Software Work in Singapore?

The step-by-step process through the customer onboarding software is as follows:

Identity Capture

The platform captures customer information, including their name, nationality, date of birth, and other relevant details. It also collects corporate entity customer information, including trade license, UBOs, and other details.

Identity Verification

Customer onboarding software checks customer documents against verified sources to ensure customer legitimacy, using OCR and expiry validation.   

Corporate KYB and UBO Mapping

For corporate clients, the onboarding software maps through complex ownership structures to identify the true individuals who control or own the corporate customer.

Screening Integration

Customer onboarding platform that integrates with screening software, checks customers against relevant sanctions watchlists, PEP databases, and adverse media sources.

Risk Scoring

The software assigns a risk level at onboarding, including low, medium and high, based on customer type, geography, and business activity.

Source of Funds and Source of Wealth Checks

For customers with high-risk, the platform helps collect source of funds and source of wealth details and supporting documents.

Audit Trail

Customer onboarding software also secures customer information, with clear audit trails that record timestamped onboarding activities.

Key Features of Customer Onboarding Software for Singapore

Effective customer onboarding software for Singapore regulated entities facilitates liveness checks, automates risk scoring, provides a self-KYC feature and helps maintain secure customer records.

Liveness Verification

Customer onboarding software should confirm that the person completing remote onboarding is legitimate and present through effective liveness checks, essential for DPT service providers and entities facilitating remote onboarding.

Automated Risk Scoring at Onboarding

The onboarding software should automate risk scoring at onboarding and link it directly into the customer risk assessment module. It helps regulated entities apply the right level of controls based on customer profile.

Self-Service KYC Portal

Customer onboarding software should let customers submit documents directly through a self-KYC facility. It makes the onboarding process faster and reduces manual work.

Audit Trail Per Customer

The onboarding platform should record customer information securely and maintain time-stamped records of every check and decision, making compliance reviews and inspections easier.

Still Managing Onboarding Manually?

Replace repetitive checks with a connected customer onboarding workflow.

How Citadel365 Supports Customer Onboarding in Singapore

Citadel365 helps regulated entities in Singapore manage customer onboarding with risk-based CDD workflows aligned to MAS and other supervisory authorities’ requirements. The customer onboarding software automates onboarding and allows flexibility to capture customer information through Excel import, form-based entry, and email-based KYC.

The onboarding software also supports identity verification of individual customers and corporate entities, including the mapping of UBOs and trust-relevant parties. Citadel365 also supports source of funds checks for high-risk customers.

For instance, for DPT service providers, Citadel365 supports source-of-funds checks for crypto-origin deposits and required counterparty information for transfers above the SGD 1,500 threshold.

Citadel365 integrates with name screening software and customer risk assessment software, helping check customers against relevant sanctions, PEP and negative news sources and conduct risk scoring. Citadel365 also stores customer information in secure Amazon Cloud and records onboarding activities with a time-stamped audit trail, ensuring compliance during regulatory inspections.

FAQs About Customer Onboarding Software in Singapore

Picture of Vasantha Mohan
Vasantha Mohan

Vasantha holds a Master’s in Law specialising in Banking Laws and Anti-Money Laundering and is CAMS and CGSS certified. With over 35 years of experience, she has worked closely with regulators and international financial institutions, building financial crime risk frameworks, sanctions monitoring programmes, and compliance systems across multiple jurisdictions.