Onboarding in private banking is about to change at exceptional speed, and Singapore has set the clock. The MAS has directed private banks to reduce account opening times to under one month by the end of 2026, against today’s baseline of roughly six weeks or longer. This industry target is backed by practical support from the Private Banking Industry Group (PBIG) that released a set of Process Enhancing Tips to address common onboarding bottlenecks.

Slow by design, not by accident
Onboarding delays mainly come from:

• External drivers: regulation has expanded  Source-of-wealth (SoW) narrative assessments are now mandatory, beneficial owners must be independently verified, and due diligence has become continuous rather than one time.
• Internal drivers: outdated operating model  Documentation is largely paper-based, client data sits fragmented across legacy systems, workflows run sequentially and teams lack real time visibility of case status.

None of this reflects individual inefficiency. The model was built for a regulatory era when thoroughness meant more checks completed rather than the level of risk addressed. That is exactly what MAS is changing by pushing banks towards risk-proportionality: faster onboarding while maintaining sound judgement and appropriate risk controls.

Diminishing returns of scrutiny
Adding more controls no longer delivers proportionate gains in assurance over SoW assessments. A one-size-fits-all approach holds obvious appeal from an operational perspective, but it forces even the simplest cases through the same depth of scrutiny and verification as the most complex ones. The result is additional checks that provide limited risk value while extending onboarding timelines far beyond what regulation requires.

Our approach
We help banks close the gap through a three-phased approach:

• Benchmark against the North Star – We conduct a rapid assessment to benchmark your current onboarding journey against our North Star view of client onboarding, identifying the structural hurdles and bottlenecks that add the most to cycle times. This also includes assessing current KYC, AML and SoW protocols against the latest regulations to identify redundant verification steps.  
• Accelerate results with the right enablers – We create a defensible future-state target onboarding baseline blueprint covering both technology and operational models, incorporating key enablers like Digital Forms, Smart Screening, AI-assisted SoW Corroboration, Automated Workflows and Centralised Client View for maximum efficiency gains.  
• Build the foundations for sustainable scale – We go beyond tactical fixes with a strategic implementation roadmap for a sustainable transformation, alongside a fully quantified business case with cost to achieve, faster time-to-revenue from accelerated onboarding and uplift in client experience.

The compounding advantage 
Although banks are at different stages of the journey, what matters is acting now, because every move made today builds towards the end-2026 timeline and yields more than compliance: faster time to revenue, a stronger client experience, and RMs who spend meaningful time with clients instead of chasing documents. 

When treated as a compliance exercise, onboarding transformation often results in disconnected tools, fragmented processes, and new operational risks. Approached as an operating model question, it yields explicit standards, clearly defined human roles, and governance built into the workflow. The gap between the two widens with every account opened, because the second path builds scalable judgement, resilient compliance, and a client journey that compounds into a competitive asset.

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