How Saldo Bank Keeps Digital Onboarding Automated and Compliance-Ready with Ondato
Saldo Bank is a Lithuania-headquartered specialized bank licensed by the European Central Bank and supervised by the Bank of Lithuania. With a strong focus on technology, automation, and responsible lending, Saldo develops its own financial systems to provide digital banking and lending services across international markets.
Saldo Bank has used Ondato for identity verification (IDV) since 2020, with Ondato’s screening solution also serving as a backup if its primary AML screening provider experiences service disruptions.
This is the story of how Ondato helped Saldo introduce compliant video identification into an automated onboarding journey, reduce manual verification work, strengthen operational resilience, and create an infrastructure capable of supporting international growth.
The Challenge
Before Saldo began working with Ondato, the key challenge was to find a solution for compliant remote video identification that would be compatible with Lithuania’s Anti-Money Laundering (AML) framework.
Lithuanian AML rules allow financial institutions to identify customers remotely through several approved methods, including electronic means that enable direct video or image transmission of the customer and their identity document.
For Saldo, it was video identification was the right approach for implementing compliant remote verification, as it fit the bank’s digital operating model best.
But meeting this regulatory requirement alone was not enough.
Saldo’s broader business model relies heavily on automation. So, introducing a verification process that required employees to manually inspect identity documents, compare customer information, or repeatedly intervene in straightforward onboarding cases would have worked against that model.
The goal was to turn identity verification into another automated part of the customer journey.
Saldo Bank wanted to make it possible for customers to complete the required identification process remotely, while document and identity checks, that would otherwise demand manual attention from Saldo Bank’s employees, would be handled within the verification flow.
That would allow Saldo to maintain the speed expected from digital financial services without compromising the controls required from a regulated institution.
Luckily, Ondato was able to meet all of these requirements.
The Selection: Why Ondato?
When Saldo evaluated identity verification and compliance solution providers, regulatory fit was one of the most important considerations.
Ondato had two advantages that stood out for Saldo Bank:
- it was a Lithuanian provider with an understanding of the local regulatory environment,
- its solution was designed to support the AML and remote-identification standards Saldo needed to meet.
Being a local market player gave Ondato relevant familiarity with the environment Saldo was operating in, while its remote identification capabilities aligned with the standards applied to secure non-face-to-face customer identification.
So, Ondato was a great practical fit and a natural partner for Saldo Bank’s increasingly automated financial services.
The Implementation
The next step was to make Ondato part of Saldo’s existing digital processes without creating unnecessary technical or operational complexity.
The implementation process was fast and efficient, with Ondato integrated into Saldo’s onboarding workflow without significant issues.
According to Mikael Modig, COO of Saldo Bank:
“Ondato’s support team played an important part in making the process straightforward, responding effectively when assistance was needed.”
Similarly, the experience was practical and positive from the compliance and operations perspective.
AML rules could be configured around Saldo’s requirements, while clear audit logs provided visibility into the checks being performed. This made it easier for the relevant teams to understand and document the process and provided a straightforward path through regulatory review and sign-off.
Alongside identity verification, Saldo also established Ondato as a backup screening solution.
Its primary AML screening system remains with another provider, but having Ondato available as a secondary option gives Saldo additional operational resilience. If the primary provider experiences technical problems or downtime, Saldo Bank has another screening capability available rather than being entirely dependent on a single system.
The Results
With Ondato embedded into its processes, Saldo was able to automate a critical part of customer onboarding while retaining the compliance controls expected of a regulated bank.
Less manual work
One of the clearest improvements has been the reduction of manual work.
Instead of employees performing routine identity and document checks themselves, verification can take place automatically as part of the digital onboarding journey. Automating those repeatable checks also reduces the opportunity for human error and allows Saldo Bank’s teams to spend less time on straightforward verification tasks.
The result is a process better aligned with the bank’s wider approach to financial services: technology handles the repetitive work while the organization can focus its resources where human judgement is genuinely required.
Better documented compliance
Compliance processes also become easier to document. Verification activity and AML screening results can create clear records for audit and review, giving teams greater visibility into how customer checks were performed.
Ondato’s screening capability adds another layer of confidence. While used as a backup rather than Saldo’s primary screening system, it provides an alternative for sanctions and Politically Exposed Persons (PEP) screening if the main service becomes unavailable. This reduces reliance on a single provider and helps Saldo maintain continuity in an area where interruptions can directly affect customer onboarding.
Automation-spurred growth
Saldo Bank’s customers can move through digital onboarding around the clock, rather than the process being limited by the availability of employees to perform routine verification tasks. This makes it possible for Saldo Bank to support higher volumes and international operations without needing to increase compliance headcount at the same rate as customer onboarding.
In practice, the partnership has helped Saldo combine three priorities that can otherwise be less easy to balance: speed, regulatory compliance, and scalability.
Supporting Growth Ambitions
More than five years after the partnership began, Ondato’s role has expanded beyond solving the original video-identification requirement.
As Saldo Bak has entered new business areas and markets, the same automated and scalable approach to identity verification has helped provide the infrastructure needed to support that growth. Saldo points to its expansion into Germany as one recent example of its wider international expansion.
And this international expansion remains part of Saldo Bank’s strategy for its future development. For Ondato and Saldo, that makes the partnership increasingly about scalability rather than simply solving an individual compliance requirement.
Summarizing the overall partnership, Mikael Modig said:
“We are pleased with our daily cooperation with Ondato, as well as our work together for future expansion. We consider Ondato to be a vital partner both today and moving forward.”
