Pioneering the Next Era of Trust: Intelligent Agreement Management for Financial Services

Speed, trust, personalisation and security are no longer differentiators – they’re baseline expectations for financial services firms. Legacy, fragmented systems and manual agreement processes can create friction at critical moments, such as customer onboarding, credit applications and account servicing. The result? Increased error rates, delayed revenue and overworked staff. To remain competitive, banks, credit unions and wealth management firms must move beyond incremental digitisation toward a high-trust, end-to-end agreement ecosystem that embeds compliance, security and intelligence into every interaction.

Intelligent Agreement Management (IAM) represents a strategic response to these pressures by reimagining how financial agreements are created, executed and managed across the customer lifecycle. By unifying digital forms, identity verification, workflow automation, compliance controls and secure electronic signatures into a single platform, IAM helps eliminate redundant data entry, reduce document not-in-good-order (NIGO) rates and accelerate time to revenue. For retail banking, IAM streamlines account opening, lending and servicing; for wealth management, it helps transform complex, multi-party onboarding into a cohesive, seamless experience, enabling advisors to focus more time on building relationships rather than paperwork.

The Docusign IAM platform delivers this transformation at scale, combining category-leading trust opens in a new tab, in-depth financial services expertise and an open ecosystem that integrates seamlessly with CRMs, core banking and loan operating systems. Docusign enables financial institutions to future-proof their business, build compliance into every process and unlock the full value of agreement data – driving growth, resilience and long-term trust.

A mandate for financial services

In financial services, the race to modernise is over. The era of intelligent financial services has arrived, and consumers expect seamless, convenient, digitally enabled ways to engage with their preferred financial providers. To remain competitive, financial institutions must move beyond incremental digitisation towards enabling a high-trust agreement ecosystem.

We’re helping financial institutions achieve these goals by making agreements easy to create, sign and manage. A simplified agreement process builds and strengthens consumer trust, driving higher conversion and cross-sell rates.

A promising and challenging landscape 

Modern technology has drastically changed the financial services environment. Across all areas of banking and wealth management, customer expectations have shifted significantly to favour tools that simplify and expedite all interactions. This new generation of technology solutions has significantly democratised onboarding and maintenance processes. 

Here’s a summary of some of the biggest headwinds across today’s financial services landscape:

Rising costs impact operational efficiency

Disparate legacy systems and manual processes may inflate costs and inhibit straight-through processing. Lacking a central ecosystem, financial services institutions often struggle with disparate systems that don’t necessarily communicate effectively with one another.

In recent research from BAI opens in a new tab, banking leaders identified operational efficiency as a top-three business challenge. Too much time is being spent on non-value-added activities like account maintenance and data entry, as compared with client support and growth initiatives, especially in areas like wealth management.

Customers demand mobile-first experiences 

Today’s financial consumers expect access to mobile-first, "know-me" experiences, making outdated user interfaces and redundant data entry liabilities for providers.

And the ability to meet these customers’ demands has been shown to generate bottom-line results. According to research from Accenture opens in a new tab, those banks with the highest advocacy scores (top 20%) have grown their revenues 1.7x faster than those with the lowest scores. For the average bank, a 10% increase in advocacy scores would increase growth by 1%, with even higher growth (2.6x) in North America.

Increasing compliance and regulatory scrutiny

When manual systems don’t communicate effectively, it becomes challenging to keep up with a rapidly changing regulatory environment. Financial institutions are burdened by myriad mandates depending on jurisdiction, such as the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and the Graham-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) in the U.S. and eIDAS (Electronic Identification, Authentication and Trust Services) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the EU.

Organisations that fail to focus on maintaining compliance risk heavy fines and sanctions. Financial companies as diverse as GVA Capital, Barclays, Robinhood and JPMorgan were assessed fines in the tens (or even hundreds) of millions of dollars (USD) in 2025 alone opens in a new tab. To effectively manage risk, organisations must embed compliance into every step of the process.

Fraud mitigation takes centre stage

According to the Federal Trade Commission in 2024, U.S. consumers lost over $12.5 billion USD to fraud schemes opens in a new tab, representing a 25% increase over the prior year. The rise of AI is disrupting traditional fraud mitigation strategies, making it increasingly difficult and costly for institutions to combat criminal schemes effectively.

Fraud prevention is an increasing focus of financial services organisations, with 41% of executives planning to prioritise digital onboarding and application processes opens in a new tab.

The innovation imperative

The imperative to innovate stems from customer experience being the new competitive battleground. Speed, personalisation and security are non-negotiable for the modern financial consumer, making the agreement phase a critical moment of truth.

For example, according to McKinsey opens in a new tab, consumers would like their primary bank to offer AI tools, and nearly all say they would eventually switch to another provider if their current bank didn’t keep up with this technological shift.

Inaction comes with a cost. For too long, institutions have relied on manual, static agreements. Given that NIGO rates for paper-based applications in life and annuity average 60% opens in a new tab, this represents not only a tangible cost but also a significant threat to customer acquisition, operational scalability and brand trust. 

The Docusign advantage: Unlocking agreement intelligence

To address these challenges, financial services organisations must reimagine the entire customer agreement process. Docusign is uniquely positioned to support financial institutions through this transformation with the power of its IAM platform.

For banking leaders striving to deliver digital-first experiences but being held back by slow, paper-driven agreement workflows, the IAM platform unifies the entire agreement process. It helps transform agreements from potential sources of delay into potential catalysts for operational efficiency, regulatory compliance and customer satisfaction.

The IAM platform helps streamline the agreement process for banking, from new account openings and loan applications to account maintenance, leveraging the power of AI to help eliminate silos and accelerate critical banking operations. By modernising work without compromising security, Docusign empowers banks to deliver faster experiences and helps reduce administrative burden, enabling institutions to become smarter, more agile and more competitive every day.

For wealth management leaders determined to deliver seamless, personalised client services, but hampered by slow, manual paper-based processes, the IAM platform helps transform agreements into drivers of client engagement, advisor productivity and business growth.

The IAM platform helps streamline the agreement process, from client onboarding and portfolio updates to compliance and account maintenance, using automation and AI to connect data across teams, reduce manual effort and speed up client interactions. This approach helps elevate the investor experience, simplify compliance support and free up advisers’ time so they can focus on building trusted relationships and growing client portfolios.

Why Docusign?

Expertise and trust

• The top 25 financial companies in the Fortune 500 use Docusign

• Recognised by IDC as the No. 1 e-Signature solution for over a decade

• Named by Fortune as a Fortune 2025 Future 50 company: Global companies with the strongest potential for sustained growth (PR Newswire opens in a new tab)

• Ranked by Newsweek opens in a new tab as the No. 1 “Most Trustworthy” software and telecommunications company in America in 2024 and 2025

• Named a six-time Gartner MQ leader in Docusign CLM

• Used by over 1.7 million customers and more than 1 billion users in over 180 countries

Docusign offers the power of integrated automation by working seamlessly with the systems institutions use every day, including your core, CRM and loan origination system (LOS). Docusign optimises interoperability and value through an open ecosystem approach. The IAM platform provides modular, flexible capabilities that enable financial institutions to adapt to complex global regulatory environments. It serves as a critical bridge between operational efficiency and customer conversion, empowering organisations to unlock new value across diverse business-to-consumer use cases.

From vision to value: How IAM drives ROI in financial services

The financial services industry is weighed down by outdated systems, manual processes and increasing regulatory demands, leading to delays, errors and frustrated customers. Slow compliance reviews, inconsistent data and poor digital experiences hinder efficiency and hurt customer satisfaction. 

Docusign's powerful features – like dynamic forms, AI-powered automation, pre-built integrations and modernised compliance tools – tackle these issues head-on.

Use case No. 1: Digitising account opening and lending in retail banking

When customers need to open new accounts, the process often involves disjointed paperwork, high abandonment rates and manual data entry. Docusign replaces high-friction account opening journeys (like for personal banking, credit cards or a new loan) with a secure, automated digital experience. 

Step 1: Application and data intake

There’s never been more pressure on banks to provide customer-friendly account opening and loan application experiences, starting with the first interaction. Prospective customers and members are often frustrated by challenging, paper-intensive requirements and manual data entry.

To compete for new customers, banks need to create a frictionless, intuitive experience that fits modern digital preferences. For an increasing number of consumers, the application process begins on a mobile device. If lenders don’t have mobile-friendly account opening and loan application processes, they’re missing out on important opportunities for new business.

To address these issues, Docusign Web Forms converts complex forms into guided, mobile-responsive digital applications, allowing customers to start applications virtually to help reduce friction. Web Forms uses conditional logic to dynamically adapt application questions based on the information provided. When applicants no longer need to re-enter information or provide unnecessary data, it can lead to a higher completion rate and improved customer satisfaction.

Step 2: Identity verification and prefill

During account opening, manual know-your-customer (KYC) verification can be slow, unnecessarily intrusive and error-prone. In the traditional verification process, applicants often must re-enter personal information already available to the institution.

Now, institutions can streamline information collection by allowing new applicants to digitally verify their identities during account opening. Docusign identity verification allows applicants to upload images of common government-issued IDs or answer a series of personal questions to confirm their identity from almost anywhere. This provides access to instant, secure KYC compliance and pre-filled application fields featuring verified data, supporting a “know-me” customer experience.

Through Risk-Based Verification and partnerships with CLEAR and ID.me, banks can seamlessly balance a positive customer experience with robust regulatory compliance. 

Step 3: Upload supporting documents, review and sign

During the onboarding process, new customers and loan applicants may receive multiple notifications to upload documents or manually enter and re-enter personal information. Banks face a high risk of data entry errors due to manual processes, lack of data persistence and multiple entry requirements, with limited opportunities to correct errors if not flagged immediately. Missing documents can delay the closing process, and customers can grow frustrated with multiple requests for signatures and consents.

Docusign Workspaces serves as a central hub, enabling customers to review forms, upload documents and digitally sign using Docusign eSignature. Leveraging integrations from the Docusign App Centre helps institutions pre-fill information directly from the core system, helping to eliminate the need for repetitive data entry and reduce manual errors.

Step 4: Complete forms and consent to a credit check 

In the traditional process, staff manually check supporting documents and enter information into the LOS or account-opening system to conduct a credit check on the applicant. Duplicate data entry can waste time for both staff and customers and can also lead to errors. Over time, delays and mistakes can erode the customer experience, impacting trust and confidence.

Data Verification helps to minimise typos and inaccurate information entered into both internal and external databases, verifying data accuracy in real time to reduce NIGO issues.

Step 5: Secure approval and prepare documents

Disconnected LOS platforms require staff to manually re-enter data, potentially leading to errors. Slow, manual underwriting reviews can delay time to revenue.

Docusign Workflow Builder leverages LOS extension apps to support the flow of data and documents, helping to enable straight-through processing, reduce manual steps and accelerate transactions.

Step 6: Sign and open the account

Delays between final signature collection and writing to the core banking system increase the time to funding and account creation. Meanwhile, fragmented and unreliable audit trails heighten compliance risk.

But when the transaction is finalised with eSignature, followed by App Centre integrations, the core system is automatically updated, and customers can gain access to their account or loan without unnecessary delay. Workflow Builder routes the artefacts into the system of record or core repositories. Lastly, a unified audit trail and ID evidence provide visibility into the end-to-end process, enhancing controls, transparency and compliance.

Docusign supports digital account onboarding without forcing an organisation to compromise on quality, security or customer experience. As a result, financial institutions are better positioned to scale efficiently.

Use case No. #2: Client onboarding in wealth management

When clients need to open new accounts with their wealth management firm, the process often involves paperwork, manual document assembly and verification. Docusign replaces often high-friction onboarding journeys (like for new custodial accounts or retirement accounts) with a more engaging, client-first experience.

Step 1: Client intake and staging

The typical onboarding process for a new wealth management client can be disorganised and frustrating for all involved. Advisors must handle the significant administrative setup and keep track of multiple documents. They are often confronted with outdated, inaccurate data due to poor integration with systems of record and repetitive, manual data entry. This is particularly cumbersome when the advisor meets with a client in person or by phone and has to upload data into forms afterwards. 

To address these challenges, the advisor can simply create a Workspace, a personalised digital hub accessible to the client and managed by the advisor, with predefined steps, templates and full visibility into client progress. The advisor can use Web Forms to prefill documents in the Workspace, eliminating the need to send the client multiple email notifications requesting information. 

Step 2: Document assembly and forms

Advisors often deal with complicated, multi-party agreements involving third-party custodian and transfer forms. The complexity and manual nature of these documents can lead to high NIGO rates and require significant rework by the adviser.

Step 3: Identity verification 

Compliance checks are often manual and can create significant processing delays.

Docusign identity verification solutions provide instant, secure KYC compliance and pre-fill application fields with verified data, supporting a “know-me” customer experience. Through Risk-Based Verification and partnership with CLEAR and ID.me, advisors can effectively balance the client experience with regulatory compliance.

Step 4: Execution and archival

Due to manual handling of client documents, wealth management advisors can struggle with securing, storing and accessing their clients’ complete records and evidence required for SEC/FINRA audits.

With eSignature and Workflow Builder, documents are executed seamlessly by the client, and artifacts are routed to a third-party repository and delivered immediately. Unified audit trails and ID evidence provide visibility to the end-to-end process, demonstrating enhanced controls, transparency and compliance. 

With support from Docusign, wealth management firms can deliver more engaging client experiences by ensuring that advisors have more time to focus on investor needs by reducing administrative paperwork.

Use case No. 3: Account maintenance in retail banking

When customers need to initiate high-value transactions or update their account information, the process can involve multiple, manual, in-person steps. Docusign replaces costly, high-friction servicing requests (like address changes, name changes or bank transfers) with secure digital self-service.

Step 1: Customer initiates the request

The customer typically calls the financial institution or physically visits a branch to initiate an account servicing request. The process often involves paper forms and in-branch visits or phone calls, which can frustrate the customer.

With Docusign, customers can initiate the request online via secure, dynamic, prefilled Web Forms, providing a convenient digital self-service channel. This helps reduce customer call volume and in-person branch interactions, resulting in a lower cost to serve and bottom-line savings.

Step 2: securely verify the customer and prepare forms

Identity verification carries a high risk of fraud, especially for sensitive financial transactions like wire transfers. A reliance on outdated, low-security methods such as signature card checks and manual KYC verification too often results in a poor customer and staff experience, with customers being forced to re-enter personal information already held by the institution.

Risk-Based Verification applies dynamic rules based on customer or applicant risk and authentication method. These rules are created based on pre-determined tiers established by the organisation, such as requiring a biometric check for high-value transfers. Through Docusign’s partnership with CLEAR and ID.me, lenders are well-positioned to continue balancing a positive customer experience with regulatory compliance. Identity verification provides instant, secure KYC compliance and pre-fills application fields with verified data, supporting a “know-me” customer experience that results in increased trust and improved conversion rates.

Step 3: Complete forms and collect supporting data

Previously, customers had to manually input personal information, leading to repetitive and redundant data entry and an increased risk of errors. Bankers have limited opportunities to correct errors if they’re not immediately flagged with real-time validation. Manual, paper-based processes can lead to inefficiency, wasting bank and customer time and resources.

Data Verification ensures that data entered is accurate and validated in real time to minimise NIGO. Docusign Workspaces offer customers a central hub for housing supporting documents. To reduce friction, customers receive a single notification for multiple document and information requests. 

Step 4: Review, consent and sign

Historically, staff would collect customer signatures and authorisation manually and upload them into the system of record. Changes requiring multiple signatures would result in more time spent and a heightened opportunity for human error.

Now, customers can provide their consent and signature digitally, finalising the transaction seamlessly with eSignature.

Step 5: Update core system

Disjointed systems require manual entry of customer data into core systems and manual transfer of documents into imaging storage solutions. This can result in delays to customer record updates, opening the door to errors, heightened compliance risk and an erosion of the customer experience.

Now, bankers can instantly update customer data in the core banking system through automated API integration or via integrations available from the App Centre. 

Step 6: Confirmation and storage

Previously, staff would wait for account changes to be completed via batch processing, and confirmation would be provided to the customer via post or email. Staff would have to manually upload the completed documents to the third-party repository, a time-consuming task.

With the IAM platform, post-signing tasks happen automatically. A digital Certificate of Completion is created to document the agreement and signature. Workflow Builder moves all transaction artefacts into the third-party repository, supporting Write Once, Read Many (WORM) compliance.

We understand that account maintenance tasks are a critical component of the customer journey. That’s why Docusign helps make administrative changes as seamless and frictionless as possible for your customers and team. Docusign fully supports your fraud prevention and compliance needs, without overwhelming your staff with manual data entry and endless paperwork.

Docusign helps future-proof your business

The IAM platform empowers banks, credit unions and other financial institutions to transform agreements into an opportunity to deepen customer relationships, streamline operations and prevent fraud. By leveraging a platform that streamlines account opening and maintenance workflows, institutions can create more trusted financial journeys for customers.

Docusign delivers measurable results, including faster time to revenue and better accuracy. The IAM platform reduced the time to complete new business applications by 70% for KPC Private Funds and lowered NIGO rates by 15% for Merriman Partners, improving operational efficiency. In addition, Docusign’s compliance capabilities help automate reporting and adherence to current regulatory requirements while providing flexible tools that can adapt as compliance obligations evolve.