Save the Children International

Global humanitarian leader supporting children in crisis

Save the Children International (SCI) is the world’s leading independent children’s rights organisation, transforming the lives of tens of millions of children in 110+ countries. 

With a mission to create lasting, positive change for children, SCI operates in countries where children are at greatest risk - whether due to war, disaster, hunger, disease, or extreme poverty. 

About 75% of SCI's programming takes place in hard-to-reach places and often in a context of challenging banking infrastructure – meaning that the organisation is inherently viewed as high risk, or even extremely high risk, by its banking partners. This status typically results in high numbers of KYC requests from banks, and potentially many blocked payments – potentially delaying critical aid to children. 

One of the core priorities for SCI’s UK-based Treasury Compliance Team, is to maintain positive and proactive relationships with banks, and ensure that blocked or held payments are kept to a minimum. In order to achieve this, the team must respond to KYC and compliance requests in a timely and accurate manner. 

Back in 2023, with inbound KYC requests rising, SCI’s small Treasury Team decided to adopt better practices and emerging innovative solutions, convinced that there must be a better, more efficient, way of managing KYC. We caught up with SCI’s Treasury Team: Edward Collis - Treasurer, Asha Kumari - Deputy Treasurer, and Saira Maniar - Senior Treasury Compliance and Crisis Funding Manager to find out why they decided to partner with Avallone at that time and how they continue to use Avallone’s products and services to boost their KYC output, save time, improve bank KYC relationships and reduce delayed payments.

Time-consuming manual KYC processes; delayed payments

Responding to KYC requests was taking up a significant amount of the team’s working hours. There were an unwieldy amount of KYC requests from banks on a regular basis, and with questionnaires far from standardised, Saira estimated that 50% of her week was taken up with preparing responses to KYC requests. For example, preparing SCI’s Enhanced Due Diligence pack (including 16+ questions) required regular updates and collaboration from wider SCI colleagues, so the end-to-end process took three to four months to complete. 

SCI’s small Treasury Team was caught in a cycle of increasing volumes of repetitive KYC tasks, preventing them from working on other important projects such as the development of compliance controls. 

Manual processes, dispersed data, fragmented communication

Prior to using Avallone, SCI’s Treasury Team handled KYC manually using a combination of Excel updates, shared folders, and email communications. For each request received, the team had to manually create a new KYC pack, gathering relevant documentation from shared files and emails that were dispersed (albeit in a well-documented system) across the organisation. The team then had to handle multiple communications with each bank in order to share the file, share the file’s password (sent in a separate email for extra security) and respond to additional questions. KYC packs and documentation were then stored within a shared drive for internal reporting purposes. 

Manual management of expiring documents was a further drain on resources. With no automated way to handle documents that were about to expire, the team relied on manual processes and memory – taking too much time and potentially risking missing important updates.

Although the team’s KYC processes were functional, and steps were taken to ensure data security and best practice data management as much as was feasibly possible, the team was sure that “there must be a better, more productive way”. In fact, SCI’s Treasury Team was in the process of trialing bespoke KYC software in an attempt to automate parts of the process but felt frustrated by its limitations. Additionally, they were also looking for a supplier with specific bank compliance expertise.

Partner with Avallone to optimize KYC - and elevate compliance procedures

SCI’s Treasury Team decided to take matters in their own hands. Seeking a proactive and more productive approach to KYC management, they turned to Avallone.

“I quickly realized that Avallone was potentially game-changing for us. We’d never come across anything like it - innovative, brilliant technology coupled by a team with deep bank compliance expertise. To this day, I haven’t come across any other company offering products and services to match Avallone’s.” - Edward Collis

After some initial conversations with the Avallone team and introduction to its products and services, SCI was convinced of the benefits of partnering with Avallone. Avallone held onboarding training workshops with SCI’s Treasury Team over a period of three to four months and then worked with SCI to digitise and secure all internal KYC data and documents. Once this migration process was complete, SCI’s Treasury Team was reassured that all data relating to KYC was securely stored, maintained and shared in a safe, secure and GDPR-compliant way, with full audit logs and activity reports easily available.

KYC Responder enabled streamlined data management and easy sharing with banks

SCI’s Treasury Team instantly appreciated the ways in which Avallone’s KYC Responder streamlined and automated data management, storing all relevant documents and data in a secure, accessible environment, with easy sharing capabilities. They were particularly drawn to features such as Avallone’s expiration management tool, which notifies users when a document (such as proof of ID or address) is about to expire.

“I found the KYC Responder so easy to use and navigate - it’s an excellent one-stop-shop for us. It made getting visibility on data and documents we need to share with banks so simple.” - Saira Maniar

Saira and her colleagues also found the Avallone team to be helpful partners for their KYC work, supporting the team with both practical KYC know-how and product knowledge, and strategic support informed by decades of bank compliance experience.

“I’ve always found the Avallone team very responsive and pleasant to work with. They listen carefully to our challenges and work tirelessly to find solutions for us.” - Saira Maniar

Smooth sharing of KYC packs with banking partners was a priority for the SCI team, and so Avallone was introduced to SCI’s banking partners directly to ensure that the email address sending KYC packs was whitelisted by these banks. Avallone and SCI could then be sure that important KYC information was always delivered, with banks able to receive and download it.

New critical procedure developed with Advisory Services

Through working with Avallone, SCI’s Treasury Team became aware of potential improvements to their policies and procedures - namely, the creation of a Financial Crime Procedure.

“We hadn’t seen anything like Avallone’s Advisory Services before, so it was a big draw for us in terms of choosing to work with Avallone as we have limited bank compliance expertise internally. Working with Avallone’s Advisory Services on developing and implementing our Financial Crime Procedure has therefore been hugely beneficial for us.” - Saira Maniar

SCI decided to work with Avallone's Advisory Services on developing this procedure. In the first instance, SCI shared its multiple policies and documents developed by its Treasury and Legal teams and then worked collaboratively with Avallone to design a Financial Crime Procedure that would follow a series of steps to ensure best practice.

“It was incredibly valuable working on our Financial Crime Procedure with Avallone as we had limited in-house expertise. Avallone brings a wealth of direct experience from working in bank compliance and so a huge amount of expertise was brought to bear that we would have otherwise never seen. The result is an incredibly high-quality document that we regularly refer to and use.” - Edward Collis

“The Financial Crime Procedure is a great summary on behalf of Save the Children International that we’re able to share with our banking partners as part of our KYC pack. It not only gives our banks crucial information on our processes, but it also covers the risks involved in working with us - and the steps we’re proactively taking to mitigate these risks.” - Saira Maniar

Managed Services significantly reduced internal workload

SCI also enlisted support from Avallone’s Managed Services, to take care of incoming requests from banking partners, digitise questionnaires, and compile draft responses.  

“We have a great collaboration with Avallone’s Managed Services (MS) team. When we receive a new questionnaire from a bank, the MS team steps in to digitise it and compile responses, so all we need to do is review before sending them on to the bank. After working with us for some time, the MS team is now able to respond accurately even to our most complex questions. We’re happy that Avallone’s MS team on top of things, and that the workload for our internal Treasury Team is significantly reduced.”- Saira Maniar

Support with screening and risk scoring third parties

SCI also engaged Avallone’s Financial Crime Prevention (FCP) team to manage the process of screening third parties in the Avallone KYC Collector as and when needed, and the continuous screening and risk scoring of its key banking and FI partners. Now, the FCP team keeps a close eye on potential matches (e.g. for adverse media), regularly reporting back to SCI with recommendations for risk scoring and any further investigations required.

While SCI always had comprehensive screening processes in place, Avallone’s work complements these processes - and has even shed light on new information that would never have been uncovered using their previous tools:

“We really appreciate the insights we see from ComplyAdvantage within Avallone’s KYC Collector tool - it has found things that we would never have otherwise uncovered. Our banks also appreciate that we have this extra layer of risk mitigation in place” - Asha Kumari

50% time saved; less than 10 delayed payments per year

Using Avallone, Saira has halved her KYC workload which now only takes up 25% of her working week - giving her more time to dedicate to other key aspects of her role. In particular, with global crises increasing, SCI Treasury’s crisis funding workload is more and more demanding.

“We’re a small team, so resourcing is a constant challenge for us. We’ve seen great benefits from using Avallone to enhance, or even replace, some of our KYC processes. And working with experts at Avallone has helped us to go further with our KYC work - to identify gaps in our processes and procedures, and to further enhance the relationships with our banks.” - Saira Maniar

Enhanced relationships with banking partners

SCI’s banking partners have reacted positively to the steps SCI’s Treasury Team has taken to streamline its KYC processes, mitigate risks, and proactively share risk-related information:

“Our banks have recognized that we’re aiming to be ahead of the curve by adopting innovative KYC solutions. One banking partner commented that Avallone’s solution is ‘game changing’ ”- Edward Collis

Delayed payments reduced - critical aid reaches children faster

As a result of SCI’s work to streamline KYC, including implementation of a new Financial Crime Procedure to mitigate risk, the organisation now faces only 10 or so delayed payments per year due to Treasury compliance. This means that crucial funds reach vulnerable children in crisis with more speed and added certainty, thus directly contributing to SCI’s mission to create lasting, positive change for children.

“Our banking partners are reassured that we’re working with a dedicated KYC partner on improving our KYC processes and proactively sharing risk-related information. I think this has had a direct impact on reducing the number of delayed payments.” - Edward Collis

The future of KYC at SCI: Maintaining core processes; elevating with AI

It’s clear from SCI’s journey with Avallone that KYC success relies on three things: a forward-focused Treasury Team; the right tools to automate and streamline processes; and an expert partner to support strategic thinking. By adopting all three elements, SCI has decreased its KYC burden, saved hours each week, and significantly reduced delayed payments. This has significantly supported SCI’s mission of supporting every child wherever they are.

Nonetheless, Edward and his team recognise that KYC is never “finished”. Maintaining and developing existing processes will always remain one of their top priorities, and this work is now easier thanks to the groundwork they have put in place with Avallone.

Looking to the future, SCI aims to explore using Avallone in new ways, such as to collect carbon data from its banking partners – yet another way in which the team is focused on protecting vulnerable children now and in the future. Edward and his team are also intrigued by the possibilities afforded by AI-enabled features within the Avallone platform, and they have already benefitted from Avallone’s insights and expertise to inform internal AI processes.

“We know that AI is an area that will boost efficiency in our KYC work. Avallone’s understanding of AI is advanced, and we’re excited to try out the platform's AI-enabled tools - such as having AI draft a first response to our complex questionnaires by scanning our existing documents and data. I think Avallone’s new AI features are going to make us even more productive.” - Edward Collis