How to Transform Commercial Onboarding from a Cost Center to Your Competitive Advantage

According to new global research from Celent, banks spend an average of $15.9 million annually on commercial onboarding processes, with each client costing approximately $14,700 to onboard. Even more concerning, 67% of banks report that onboarding costs more this year than last. For an industry under constant pressure to reduce operational expenses, these numbers demand attention.

But here's what the data reveals: The banks winning in commercial banking aren't treating onboarding as just another operational expense. They're flipping the script entirely by turning what used to be a painful cost center into a growth engine that drives revenue and sets them apart from the competition.

The Hidden Revenue Leakage Problem

When most banking executives think about onboarding inefficiencies, they focus on operational costs and compliance headaches. What they often miss is the massive revenue leakage happening right under their noses.

Consider these eye-opening statistics from Celent's global survey of 409 banking professionals:

• 7.7% of customers abandon the onboarding process—climbing above 10% for Tier 1 banks

• At an average cost of $14,600 per customer, abandonment represents over $1 million in wasted investment for banks onboarding 1,000 customers annually

• Banks take an average of 49 days to complete onboarding, delaying revenue generation by nearly two months

Let's break down what this means in real dollars: a A bank bringing in $100 million in new sales annually could unlock $3 million in faster revenue just by trimming 10 days off their onboarding timeline. That same bank? They'd pick up 77 more client relationships every year simply by fixing the friction points that cause customers to walk away.

This isn't about penny-pinching operational costs. It's about how fast you can turn a signed deal into active, revenue-generating relationships, and maximizing what each client is worth over their lifetime.

Why Onboarding Remains Stuck in the Past

Despite years of digital transformation investments, commercial onboarding remains surprisingly manual and fragmented across most financial institutions. The research reveals that 31% of banks report their workflows are mostly to fully manual, with some critical steps showing even higher rates:

• 51% of banks rely on mostly manual processes for related party identification and ongoing monitoring

• Document collection ranks as the #1 point of customer abandonment (79% of respondents)

• KYC/KYB processes create the #2 frustration point for both customers and relationship managers (65%)

Why does this persist? Banks cite three primary barriers:

1. Budget constraints (65% rank this as a top 3 impediment)

2. Fragmented, siloed data (47% identify this as a major obstacle)

3. Legacy system limitations that make integration and modernization challenging

The result is an onboarding experience that reflects the bank's internal operational structure rather than the customer journey. Different teams handle different steps on separate systems, creating redundancies, inconsistent requests, limited transparency, and endless back-and-forth with relationship managers.

The Strategic Reframe: From Necessity to Advantage

Here's what forward-thinking banks understand: the difficulty of transforming onboarding is what makes it such a powerful competitive differentiator. If it were easy, everyone would have already done it.

Leading institutions are reframing commercial onboarding around five strategic pillars:

1. Best Foot Forward: Speed and Accuracy Matter

The first impression sets the tone for the entire banking relationship. Banks that nail onboarding demonstrate competence, efficiency, and customer-centricity from day one. Those that fumble it signal operational dysfunction that clients will remember throughout the relationship.

2. Immediate Revenue Growth: Time is Money

Faster onboarding doesn't just improve customer satisfaction—it directly accelerates revenue recognition. Every day saved in the onboarding process is a day sooner that deposits are made, loans are drawn, and fee-generating services begin.

3. Stellar Compliance: Getting it Right from the Start

Manual processes create regulatory risk through human errors, gaps in audit trails, and inconsistent application of controls. Automated, well-designed onboarding reduces compliance risk while accelerating the process—a rare win-win.

4. Greater Lifetime Value: The Foundation for Expansion

Banks that deliver exceptional onboarding experiences see higher first-year revenue and greater customer lifetime value. When you demonstrate competence and efficiency upfront, customers are more likely to consolidate additional relationships with your institution. In fact, 85% of survey respondents agree that positive onboarding leads to higher lifetime revenue per customer.

5. Stronger Business Case: Virtuous Cycle of Investment

Success breeds success. As improved onboarding drives revenue growth and reduces risk, it strengthens the business case for further investment, creating a virtuous cycle of continuous improvement.

Where Banks Are Investing to Drive Change

Celent's research reveals clear priorities among financial institutions modernizing their onboarding processes. The top investment areas for the next 18 months are:

#1: Self-Service Digital Portals (43% rank this as their top priority)

Large corporate clients especially demand transparency and control over the onboarding process. Self-service portals allow them to track progress, submit documentation proactively, and reduce the back-and-forth with relationship managers.

#2: Centralizing Data Assets (16% rank #1, 33% rank #2)

Banks recognize that fragmented data is the enemy of both efficiency and AI effectiveness. Centralizing customer data creates a single source of truth that supports faster decision-making and better customer experiences.

#3: Improving Document Collection and Management (8% rank #1, 12% rank #2)

As the primary point of customer abandonment and relationship manager frustration, document management represents a critical opportunity for improvement through automation and intelligent document processing.

Looking ahead 3-5 years, two AI-related priorities surge up the rankings:

• Using AI to accelerate data ingestion jumps from #5 to #3

• Using AI in AML/KYC processes rises from #6 to #4

This shift reflects growing confidence in AI capabilities and recognition that addressing underlying data infrastructure issues unlocks AI's full potential.

The Time to Act is Now

The window to get ahead is closing fast. Right now, most financial institutions are still figuring this out, which creates a real opportunity for early movers. But as more institutions modernize their onboarding, what feels cutting-edge today will become table stakes tomorrow. Move now and you can lead the pack. Wait, and you'll spend years trying to catch up.

The AI piece makes this even more urgent. Banks that don't build the right data foundation and governance frameworks now won't just miss out on AI's benefits—they'll watch AI-powered competitors pull further ahead every quarter. That gap gets harder to close the longer you wait.

To transformation commercial onboarding from a cost center to your competitive advantage, you need:

• Executive commitment to onboarding as a strategic priority, not just an operational function

• Customer-centric redesign of processes from the outside in, rather than reflecting internal organizational structures

• Strategic technology investments in self-service portals, data centralization, and AI-powered automation

• Cross-functional collaboration to break down the silos that create friction in the current experience

The good news? Research shows that financial institutions recognize these imperatives and that they're eager to invest in driving change. The question now translating that recognition into action that delivers measurable results.

Learn More: Download the Full Research Report

This article only scratches the surface of Celent's comprehensive research on commercial banking onboarding. The full report, "Transform Commercial Onboarding into Your Competitive Advantage," includes:

• Detailed benchmarking data across regions, bank sizes, and process stages

• Specific use cases for AI and automation across the onboarding value chain

• Implementation frameworks for prioritizing investments

• Case studies of leading banks driving onboarding transformation

• Practical recommendations for overcoming common barriers

Download the complete Celent research report to access the insights, data, and strategic frameworks that will help your institution transform onboarding from operational necessity to competitive advantage.

Read the full report.

This analysis is based on Celent's Global Commercial Banking Onboarding Survey 2025, surveying 409 banking professionals across North America, EMEA, and Asia-Pacific, representing financial institutions ranging from $10 billion to $500 billion+ in assets.