Customer success story
Investigations reduced from an average of one day to 12 minutes for data gathering
“Thanks to Xapien, enhanced due diligence on the directors of prospect companies and suppliers has gone from a resource-intensive one-day process to detailed evidence-based reports in under 12 minutes. The time savings are colossal.”
Alex Nash,
Money Laundering Reporting Officer, Griffin
Background
Griffin is creating the bank you can build on with an API-first, full-stack Banking as a Service platform that lets fintechs focus on building products for their customers, not managing back-end infrastructure and compliance operations. Since compliance is a key offering, it’s vital that Griffin’s clients and suppliers are good actors.
The challenge
Griffin couldn’t onboard a prospect or supplier without completing due diligence, as any negative information or risks discovered would waste both Griffin's and the customer's time and damage Griffin's reputation. But performing enhanced due diligence tasks like adverse media screening and sanctions list review using search engines was resource-intensive and time-consuming. It took at least a day (if not longer) per prospect, which was a significant drain on time for a rapidly scaling business.
Where Xapien steps in
Automation offers one of the clearest paths to efficiency. As soon as a prospect or supplier is mentioned, their name is run through Xapien. Inputting the search terms takes 30 seconds and the team can leave it to run while they get on with other tasks. The results are available in 12 minutes or less, and only takes half an hour to read. The best part? Direct risks are highlighted, so compliance can skip the irrelevant information.
“A day’s worth of
research takes minutes.”
Alex Nash, Money Laundering Reporting Officer, Griffin
Due diligence before Xapien
As a banking as a service (BaaS) provider where compliance is a key offering, it is vital that Griffin’s clients and suppliers are good actors. However, using search engines to carry out enhanced due diligence tasks like adverse media screening on prospects and combing sanctions lists is a resource-heavy task. This takes a minimum of one day per prospect (often longer) and is a major time drain for a rapidly scaling business, where every minute counts.
Even so, effective due diligence has to be efficiently done without holding up the first line business team and slowing down business growth. When prospects are in ‘buying mode’, they are likely considering multiple options. Due diligence is a really important step that doesn’t have to cause friction or delays for customers. Faster response times help to enhance the overall customer experience.
Griffin cannot onboard a prospect or supplier until due diligence has been concluded fully. In the event that negative information or risks that show the prospect is unsuitable are discovered, the time invested would have been wasted by both Griffin and the customer and Griffin's reputation will be damaged.
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As a rapidly scaling, VC-backed startup, Griffin has ambitious growth targets. New prospects and suppliers are being evaluated and onboarded all the time, but due diligence takes time.
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Due diligence takes at least a day, which means a limited number of prospects can be evaluated.
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There is a potential for customers to feel friction during the onboarding process as compliance need time to look into prospects and uncover tangible evidence when they have a concern that something is wrong.
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Proving that due diligence has been conducted using search engine history is time intensive and error prone.
Due diligence after Xapien
Automation offers one of the clearest paths to boosting efficiency. It takes the repetitive task of building donor profiles off fundraisers' plates. Instead, they can focus on high-impact decision making and long-term relationship building.
“In a scaling startup, the time of our expert teams is a key resource. Spending a whole day reviewing one prospect is inefficient and unsustainable.”
Alex Nash,
Money Laundering Reporting Officer, Griffin
As soon as a prospect or supplier is mentioned, their name is run through Xapien. Inputting the search terms takes 30 seconds. Compliance can leave the software to run while they get on with other tasks. The results are available in 12 minutes or less. Compliance takes half an hour to read the results. Direct risks are highlighted, so compliance can skip the irrelevant information.
“Searching the internet is a robot’s job. Our job is to mitigate risk and loss in the long term for the business. All I need to provide is a name to get the majority of the information I need about a prospect’s history, connections and reputation. I can then confidently state that there are no red flags (or there are) in a matter of minutes.”
Alex Nash,
Money Laundering Reporting Officer, Griffin
Xapien’s neural risk classifier can understand the meaning of words, allowing it to distinguish between genuine risks and non-risks and reduce the margin of error (irrelevant information) significantly. Previously, this had to be done manually, with compliance experts carefully reading through every article about the prospect to determine relevance.
Xapien provides clear evidence of a due diligence process
With Xapien, Griffin has been able to quickly understand which customers fall outside of its risk appetite. This allowed Griffin to avoid endangering its reputation and wasting the time of its teams and potential customers. Xapien also allows Griffin to download, store and periodically update results on the businesses it is reviewing. This functionality ensures that there is a clear trail of evidence available that shows due diligence has been carried out.
“I cannot overstate how much easier due diligence is with Xapien. Enhanced due diligence on a prospect used to take the better part of a day. You can sometimes go down a rabbit hole of searches and reviewing news stories to try to determine whether they are proven, hearsay or media speculation. Xapien enables us to get all of that data in 12 minutes or less. Now, I can leave Xapien running in the background while attending to other compliance needs.”
Alex Nash,
Money Laundering Reporting Officer, Griffin
Key results
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Due diligence investigations were reduced from an average of one day to 12 minutes for data gathering, allowing the compliance team to analyse and give an all clear, or not, within the hour.
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The sales team views compliance as an enabler that equips them with an in-depth understanding of prospects. Prospects are onboarded faster
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Reduced customer acquisition cost (CAC)
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23 new suppliers onboarded in one year, this may not have been possible using manual research processes.
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Griffin can be confident they are doing good business. They have a better understanding of clients and ensure their suppliers support their wider values.
Key benefits
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A day’s worth of research in 12 minutes
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No wasted time
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Onboarding more suppliers, efficiently
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Reduced customer acquisition cost
Book a demo now to see how Xapien can provide you with the assurance you need in your research.
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