In today’s cutthroat digital market, onboarding new customers feels like a high-stakes race. But it's also a tightrope walk. Fintechs and digital banks are under immense pressure to bring users on board quickly, yet they absolutely must verify identities without throwing up so many roadblocks that genuine customers simply walk away. That delicate balance between airtight compliance and seamless conversion was the hot topic at our recent "Summer of Verification" kickoff webinar.

Our expert panel – Venkat Srinivasan, Chief Analytics & Risk Officer, Bureau), Ankit Satsangi (Credit Risk Head, Wio Bank), and Arun Saktheesh (Senior Product Manager, Bureau) – broke down exactly how smart onboarding can build both trust and accelerate growth.

The big takeaway was clear: the secret sauce is understanding intent right from the get-go. Can you tell if someone's going to be a loyal, long-term customer, or a headache waiting to happen? The good news? When you approach onboarding strategically, it stops being just a checkbox exercise and actually becomes a powerful engine for growth.

Here are 5 key strategies discussed by our expert panel:

1. Adopting a graded, continuous risk management

Traditional Know Your Customer (KYC) processes often act as a static, one-time gate. However, as Ankit Satsangi highlighted, KYC is no longer just a compliance activity; it's a critical component of risk management. The shift is towards a "runway" model where checks are continuous and graded based on context.

For instance, the KYC requirements for a merchant acquisition might be lighter than for a bank account opening, and significantly different from those for a personal loan where real institutional money is at stake. This graded approach means adjusting the intensity and type of checks based on the specific use case, transaction value, and potential risk exposure.

Rather than a blanket "yes" or "no," it's about dynamic, risk-based layering of checks throughout the customer journey, ensuring that verification evolves with the customer's interaction and perceived risk level.

2. Going beyond the paperwork to analyse silent signals  

"An old handshake used to tell you if they'd repay," said Venkat Srinivasan, drawing a clever parallel to today's digital world. Forget just checking documents. What's crucial now is truly understanding user behavior. This means paying attention to a ton of "silent" or "invisible" signals that come from a customer's digital footprint.

These signals can come from the user's device itself (are they using an emulator, a VPN, or developer mode?), how they interact with your app (their typing speed, mouse movements), or even their social and email signals. Are they trying to hide their identity? Is their interaction pattern unusual?

By intelligently weighing these signals based on your risk appetite and the product they're signing up for, you can get an early read on intent and potential fraud before they even upload a single document. It’s all about being proactive and adapting the onboarding experience based on what their behavior tells you.

Related read: What’s New with Alternative Data and How It’s Revolutionizing Risk Assessment

3. Strategically gamifying and personalizing the onboarding journey

The panel unanimously agreed: excessive friction in onboarding is a direct path to losing high-value customers. As Arun Saktheesh pointed out, customers' expectations for frictionless experiences are high, with many abandoning a brand after just two negative digital interactions.

However, friction can be strategically managed.

Venkat framed friction as a "price" – a price that, if mismanaged, can lead to adverse selection, deterring good customers while welcoming fraudsters who are willing to jump through any hoop. The solution lies in "orchestrating" the journey:

• Hyper-personalization: Tailoring the onboarding flow based on segment, intent, business size, geography, and use case. The goal is to create an "audience of one" experience.
• Gamification: Incorporating elements like progress bars, virtual badges, and rewards to keep users engaged and motivated through potentially complex steps. This provides a sense of accomplishment and transparency about the journey ahead.
• Transparent communication: Clearly explaining why certain steps are necessary builds trust. A/B testing is crucial here to understand which communication styles and levels of friction resonate with different demographics (e.g., emojis might not work for older users).

By making friction a transparent, even engaging, part of the process, organizations can filter out bad actors while retaining valuable customers.

4. Uncovering fraud through connected identities and transaction patterns

Ankit Satsangi brought up a game-changing idea: it's not just about "knowing your customer" anymore; you need to "know your network." In our interconnected digital world, just looking at one person isn't enough to catch sophisticated fraud. Fraudsters often work together, using groups of fake identities, sharing devices, or quickly moving money between accounts. This ties back to how our tech teams are looking at the future of fraud prevention.

This means analyzing how people are connected – maybe they're on the same Wi-Fi, sharing IP addresses, or sending money back and forth. For example, if you see multiple accounts opened from the same IP address in a short time, or odd money transfers between new users, that could be a sign of "farming" or other network-based fraud. Adding network analysis to your onboarding flow helps your fraud risk teams spot suspicious relationships and group behaviors that individual checks might completely miss. It gives you a much bigger, clearer picture of potential threats.

5. Applying data-driven iterations through A/B testing and contextual intelligence 

A recurring theme throughout the discussion was the indispensable role of data, analytics, and continuous iteration. To effectively implement the strategies above, organizations must:

• Capture granular event data: Every keystroke, mouse movement, and time taken between steps provides valuable signals about user intent and behavior.
• Conduct rigorous A/B testing: As highlighted by all panelists, A/B testing is not just for product features; it's critical for optimizing the onboarding journey itself. Testing different levels of friction, communication styles, and signal collection methods helps determine what works best for specific customer segments and regional nuances (e.g., facial recognition sensitivities in certain cultures).
• Contextualize signals: Not all data points are equally important for every product or demographic. Assigning appropriate weights to various signals and continuously reassessing their relevance based on evolving fraud patterns is vital.

By embracing this data-driven, iterative approach, fraud risk leaders and product managers can continuously refine their onboarding flows, reduce friction for genuine users, and proactively combat emerging fraud vectors like synthetic identities.

Your onboarding journey as a strategic asset

The webinar underscored a profound shift: onboarding is no longer just a regulatory hurdle but a strategic asset. By moving to graded, continuous risk management, leveraging diverse behavioral signals, orchestrating friction thoughtfully, understanding customer networks, and committing to data-driven iteration, fraud risk leaders and product managers can transform their onboarding flows from mere compliance steps into powerful growth engines.

Are you looking to optimize your onboarding process to simultaneously boost customer acquisition and fortify your defenses against fraud? Our team at Bureau is actively working on cutting-edge solutions, including leveraging generative AI for deeper risk profiling, to help you navigate these complex challenges.

Connect with us to explore how intelligent onboarding can become your competitive advantage in the fight against fraud and a catalyst for sustainable growth.