Luminor Bank, the third-largest bank in the Baltic region, and Ondato, the leading provider of compliance as a service, are partnering to allow companies the opening of Luminor business accounts remotely in Latvia. To meet the rising demand for digitization, Luminor business customers will now be able to open a new account remotely, from anywhere in the world, using Ondato’s identification platforms.

In a survey conducted by Luminor in September 2021*, 34% of small and medium-sized enterprises indicated that they plan to develop and expand their businesses in the coming year. At the same time, 13% stressed that they would also need to raise additional funds to further develop their operations, and that opening a new account might also be necessary. Ondato will allow Luminor to offer businesses the possibility of opening a new account without visiting a bank branch, something previously only offered to existing customers. 

“The pandemic has contributed significantly to the digitisation of many services and the transition to online operations, which is a major time-saver for our customers. Small and medium-sized enterprises are the most frequent openers of new accounts, accounting for almost 85% of all Luminor current accounts opened for legal entities. Switching to remote account opening is an obvious modern digital solution that will create additional convenience and save time for our clients, as all necessary actions can be performed completely remotely from anywhere in the world,” said Jekaterina Ziniča, Luminor Business Development Manager for the Baltics.

“Digitization is one of the main steps a financial institution can take to make itself more competitive and convenient for its clients. While Know Your Business (KYB) procedures are often regarded as something forced on businesses due to regulations, this can also be an opportunity to make your day-to-day processes more effective. We're happy to provide Luminor with modern tools that will increase the safety and quality of their remote procedures,” said Liudas Kanapienis, CEO and co-founder of Ondato.

The new solution enables remote customer identification through several levels of checks, including automated verification of customer data and documents in databases and registers. Customer biometric data is also processed as required by the laws and regulations. Remote account opening with Luminor will be available for companies registered in Latvia, the signatories of which have access to authentication with a Smart-ID Qualified or eID electronic [KE1] signature. If the signatory is not yet a customer of Luminor, additional remote identification is carried out via a video call. Upon receipt of an application, a representative of the company will be contacted by the bank’s staff to tailor a range of services to suit the needs of each customer. Signing of the contract will be done after submission of the documents and identification of the customer with an electronic signature.

Also, if the business grows and additional products are needed, the customer will be able to request the services they need remotely and will no longer need to visit a branch in person. In May 2020 Luminor Bank, together with Ondato, introduced a similar innovative solution for individuals, offering the possibility to become a customer of the bank by performing identification procedures and all necessary activities completely remotely.