Compliance by Design: How to Stop "False Positives" from Rejecting Good Customers 

In an effort to tighten compliance, are you accidentally slamming the door on good customers? 

In consumer banking, absolute regulatory consistency is non-negotiable, covering everything from KYC and AML to FATCA and GDPR. The traditional approach of manually maintaining disclosure templates across different regions is not only slow but full of risk. 

The reaction to this risk has been to tighten automated rules. But this has created a new problem: new 2025 analysis shows that up to 30% of legitimate customer applications are wrongly rejected due to “false positives”. 

This isn’t just a compliance failure; it’s a massive customer experience problem. You’re driving away the very people you want to attract. 

The Solution: “Compliance by Design” 

The best approach is “Compliance by Design”. This means embedding your regulatory logic directly into your document templates within Salesforce. 

Here is how it works: 

• Rules are Centralised: Instead of having rules in a separate system, you build them into the templates themselves. 
• Updates are Automatic: When a compliance rule changes, you update it once in the central template. Every disclosure and clause updates automatically for all new documents generated. 
• Data is the Trigger: The system uses Salesforce data to ensure compliance. It can automatically add a specific disclosure based on the customer’s region or risk profile. 

This “compliance by design” approach aligns with Deloitte’s 2024 findings, which highlight rule-based document workflows as a key enabler of scale in regulated environments. 

The Payoff: Accuracy and Experience 

This method delivers two critical benefits. First, it ensures consistency and makes you audit-ready. As the booklet notes, “Regulators don’t audit intent, they audit your documents”. 

Second, it solves the “false positive” problem. By embedding the logic directly, the system is more accurate, preventing the 30% of rejections that drive away good customers. This builds trust and ensures your first interaction with a new customer is a positive one. 

Learn more about the benefits of document automation for banks: Download our E-guide on document automation in retail banking.