Build best account opening — are you engineering a journey that converts, or just collecting forms?
European brokerage and private banking require an account-opening capability that is both rigorous and humane. The journey must collect the right information once, reuse it across all forms, and present decisions in language a client can understand without sacrificing regulatory precision.
The practical objective is to design a progressive series of short, comprehensible steps that feel natural on mobile, tablet, and desktop. Each step should contribute evidence for compliance while keeping momentum, with clear progress indicators, save-and-resume, and predictable timing. Aligning onboarding steps and deadlines with the end of the business day is essential to ensure predictable service and timely processing for clients.
InvestGlass operates as the orchestration layer that makes this possible. InvestGlass is a financial technology company, partnering with regulated institutions to deliver compliant onboarding rather than acting as a bank itself. The platform coordinates multilingual content, cross-border eligibility, identity verification, e-signature ceremonies, suitability and appropriateness questionnaires, controlled document delivery, approvals, and analytics. It keeps everything versioned and auditable so that a new account can be opened online with confidence, or completed in a banker-assisted hybrid mode when the case demands more guidance. InvestGlass supports the opening of new accounts for both traditional and online bank models, providing flexibility for digital-first institutions.
A European-first approach also means baking MiFID II and LSFin duties into the design from the outset. Country policies, booking centres, and product eligibility should be enforced through configuration rather than memory. This prevents mis-selling, reduces abandonment, and produces a reliable audit trail.
Below, each keyword-led heading opens a focused discussion in plain terms, followed by concrete ways in which InvestGlass addresses the requirement. Additional sections then expand on MiFID II, LSFin, cross-border onboarding, digital banks, and the InvestGlass KLEBER open-source project, including best practices for new accounts in both traditional and digital banking contexts.
Introduction — why account opening is your brand’s first impression
Opening a savings account or checking account is often the very first interaction a customer has with a bank or credit union. This initial experience is more than just a formality—it’s a defining moment that shapes the customer’s perception of your brand and sets the tone for the entire relationship. Whether a client is drawn by the promise of a high yield savings account with a competitive annual percentage yield (APY) or simply looking for a reliable day-to-day account, the ease and clarity of the account opening process can make or break their decision to stay. Financial institutions that prioritize a seamless, intuitive onboarding process not only increase the likelihood of converting prospects but also lay the groundwork for long-term loyalty. In a market where high yield savings and attractive annual percentage yields are widely advertised, it’s the quality of the first interaction that often distinguishes leading banks and credit unions from the rest.
Checking account — does your day-to-day cash hub truly match private-bank standards?
In the European context, a checking account typically maps to a current account, while in brokerage and private banking the operational analogue is often a settlement or cash account used for securities settlement, income, fees, and foreign exchange. Clients expect frictionless payments, card provisioning where applicable, and an accurate view of account balance at all times.
The onboarding should state which channels are available, how quickly transfers settle, whether standing orders and instant payments are supported, and what limitations apply by booking centre and country. If a debit card is issued—which is common for checking accounts to provide convenient access to funds—limits, activation steps, travel usage, and card controls in the mobile app should be explained plainly. Where the account is a settlement account rather than a retail current account, the language should avoid retail banking promises to prevent confusion.
InvestGlass adapts labels and disclosures by segment and jurisdiction. Product eligibility is enforced through a rules engine so that a client sees only eligible accounts for their country and status. Once approved, the platform synchronises entitlements to downstream systems and logs all acknowledgements to the client record.
Clients often compare personal checking account features, including whether a monthly fee applies, whether overdraft protection is offered, details of the overdraft fee policy (such as how fees are assessed, any available fee waivers, or protection services), and whether direct deposit equivalents are available. Even when those terms originate elsewhere, the interface can bridge them to European conventions so the meaning remains clear.
Monthly maintenance fee — will you justify it clearly or lose clients to ambiguity?
Periodic account fees are acceptable when they are transparent, predictable, and proportionate to services delivered. If a monthly maintenance fee or monthly service fee applies, the onboarding should show the amount, the statement cycle, the basis of calculation, and all waiver conditions in a single, concise summary.
Waivers may depend on a minimum balance requirement, relationship tier, package subscription, or inflows that are analogous to qualifying direct deposits. Certain fee waivers or account activities may be assessed based on balances or transactions as of the end of the business day. If the institution uses terms such as eligible direct deposit, minimum eligible direct deposit, monthly direct deposits, or eligible direct deposit requirements for search interoperability, the interface should briefly clarify the European equivalent and then proceed with local phrasing.
InvestGlass constructs a real-time fees and charges panel that reflects the selected package. Conditions for a monthly maintenance fee waiver are computed by the rules engine and displayed with worked examples. The platform also generates the required MiFID II ex-ante costs and charges snapshot where relevant, stores client acknowledgements, and pins the exact version used during onboarding for later reference.
Annual percentage yield apy — do clients really grasp compounding, or are you hiding the fine print?
Annual percentage yield appears frequently in global search behaviour. In the United Kingdom, AER is the standardised measure; in continental Europe, institutions often present a nominal rate with an illustrative annual percentage yield that reflects compounding assumptions. The concept is straightforward when expressed with a concrete example. A regular savings account or traditional savings account typically earns interest at a lower rate compared to high-yield savings accounts, so the amount your savings account earns over time can vary significantly depending on the account type.
During onboarding for a savings account or a notice deposit, the interface should show the nominal interest rate, the compounding convention, the resulting annual percentage yield apy, and whether the rate is tiered or promotional. Where comparisons reference a national average or best savings account rates, the source and date should be stated to preserve trust.
InvestGlass includes an interest simulator that projects savings account yields given an initial deposit and optional scheduled top-ups. It helps clients see how much their savings account earns over time, and how different account types earn interest at varying rates. It supports multiple currencies, rate tiers, and tiered balances, and it can output a one-page PDF that becomes part of the client’s advice record.
Bank account — is your relationship model crystal clear from booking centre to mobile app?
The phrase bank account encompasses settlement accounts, current accounts, savings products, and in some cases cash-management solutions. Bank accounts, including deposit accounts such as savings accounts and money market accounts, are sometimes subject to practices like bank account churning, which can carry risks and implications for both clients and institutions. Clarity on the legal entity, booking centre, and available channels prevents misunderstandings later. The onboarding should therefore show where the account is booked, how the client will operate it through online banking and a mobile app, highlighting the importance of online access for clients to manage their accounts remotely and securely, and how service will be delivered in cross-border situations.
The flow should present a clear arc: eligibility, identity verification, data capture, document delivery, e-signatures, approvals, and activation. Clients should know whether their new account will be fully operational immediately upon signing or whether additional reviews are required. A status view helps reduce support calls, because clients can see which step is in progress.
InvestGlass orchestrates these steps with save-and-resume, co-pilot features for banker assistance, and strict versioning so that the documents delivered and acknowledged are exactly those that applied when the client started. Where clients ask about bank or credit union, banks and credit unions, credit unions, national credit union administration, member fdic as part of their research, a short neutral sentence can position those as external institutional contexts while confirming that the present onboarding is European and Swiss in focus. The interface then returns to the local framework and protections without dwelling on the comparison.
Minimum balance requirement — smart incentive or silent churn machine?
Minimum balance thresholds can be useful to align service levels with cost to serve, yet they can also drive quiet attrition when clients discover them late. The onboarding should state whether the minimum balance required is assessed as of the end of the business day or on an average basis, whether it is applied per deposit account or across a relationship, and what happens when it is not met.
Where thresholds also govern eligibility for certain instruments or mandates, the rules engine should prevent ineligible options from appearing. If the threshold is advisory, the wording should neither be ambiguous nor pressuring. Worked examples are more effective than general statements because they show how fees interact with the statement cycle.
InvestGlass enforces thresholds as configuration rather than after-the-fact checks. It feeds the thresholds into the fees panel so that any monthly fee impact is visible before the client proceeds, and it stores the client’s acknowledgement with the exact logic and versions in force.
Money market account — deposit convenience or fund complexity, which story are you telling?
In European markets, the term money market account can refer either to a deposit product or to an investment product such as a UCITS money market fund. The distinction matters because an investment product requires a PRIIPs key information document, target-market checks, appropriateness or suitability assessments, and a different risk narrative.
The onboarding should detect which construct is being offered. If it is a deposit, the language should be deposit-specific, covering interest crediting, notice periods, and minimum deposit requirements. Some money market accounts also offer debit cards and check-writing capabilities, providing convenient access to funds. If it is a money market fund, the interface should deliver the KID in the client’s language, show settlement timing and any distribution policy, and collect the appropriate acknowledgements before subscription.
InvestGlass attaches product metadata that drives the correct behaviour. It ensures the right document is delivered at the right time, confirms language, and records the acknowledgement timestamp. It will also stop a transaction if the negative target-market criteria are met under MiFID II product governance.
Minimum deposit — barrier to entry or signal of premium service?
Some offerings specify a minimum opening deposit or a minimum deposit to open. The minimum deposit requirement is a key factor clients should be aware of when opening an account. These values should be displayed early, along with accepted funding methods and the timetable for funds availability. It should be clear whether the case may be approved conditionally before funds arrive or whether an initial deposit must be credited first.
InvestGlass validates the minimum deposit at runtime, guides the client to funding instructions, and can allow conditional opening where policy permits. Rules and conditions are recorded in the case record, and reminders can be sent if a case stalls at the funding step. Where minimum deposit requirements vary by package, the rules engine keeps the logic coherent across every screen.
Overdraft fees — preventing pain proactively or apologising after the fact?
Overdrafts occur when payments exceed available cash. In retail current accounts, clarity on overdraft fees and rates is essential. In a custody cash context, facilities often take the form of collateralised lombard overdrafts that rely on pledged assets. Both patterns require careful explanation and robust consents.
The onboarding should present simple alternatives. Alerts can reduce accidental overdrafts, buffers can absorb small timing mismatches, and opting out entirely can be the right choice for some clients. Where collateral is used, the risks of margin calls and forced selling should be stated in measured language rather than implied.
InvestGlass records the client’s preference, presents the appropriate risk warnings, and collects signatures in an eIDAS-compliant ceremony. Field-level masking ensures that sensitive figures are shown only to authorised signers, preserving confidentiality in multi-party cases.
Checking and savings accounts — are you choreographing cash flow or creating confusion?
Clients intuitively split money into everyday spending and reserves. A current or settlement account handles transactions; a savings account or notice deposit grows reserves and, in many cases, funds an emergency fund. The interface should recognise this mental model and present the two sides as a cohesive arrangement rather than as isolated products.
Clients may wish to open multiple savings accounts earmarked for goals. The onboarding can invite this configuration without adding friction. It can also show how transfer funds, pay bills, pay taxes, and use wire transfers to move money between accounts or fund new accounts are handled through online banking and the mobile app, and how the account balance updates in real time as transactions settle.
InvestGlass allows a package that binds checking and savings accounts together. Shared data is entered once, a single signature pack covers the arrangement, and product-specific terms are still precise. The platform will also generate the right fee summary, including any monthly fee interactions across the package.
Monthly service fee — value narrative or a line item clients will fight?
A monthly service fee should never feel like a surprise. The onboarding should place it in context, explain its rationale, and show how it can be offset through relationship balances, product holdings, or service packages. This explanation should include examples that align with the client’s expected balance patterns across the statement cycle.
InvestGlass renders a transparent calculation that updates as the client picks options. It stores the acknowledgement and, when required by MiFID II, includes the fee in the ex-ante costs and charges disclosure in both percentage and cash terms. The logic, rates, and versions are pinned to the case, eliminating uncertainty during later reviews.
High interest savings accounts — are your tiers a motivator or a maze?
Clients attracted by high yield savings or high interest savings accounts want two things: clarity and control. Clarity means precise interest rates, tier boundaries, notice periods, and whether promotional windows apply. Control means a simple way to configure scheduled top-ups or to allocate funds across several goals without losing track.
The interface should reconcile terms such as savings account apys, annual percentage yield, and AER, and it should present savings account rates with the assumptions that produce the illustrative yield. If comparisons reference a national average or best savings account rates, the source and date should be explicit.
InvestGlass generates rate tables and projects balances over time. It handles online savings account setups with ease, and it can suggest creating multiple savings accounts for separate goals. For clients who prefer a single deposit account with sub-ledgers, the platform can reflect that structure in documents and statements.
Joint checking account — streamlined co-ownership or a compliance quagmire?
Joint accounts introduce co-applicants, signatory powers, and confidentiality boundaries. The onboarding should capture identity and KYC for each party, present the signing order, state how statements are addressed, and explain what changes when one party alters tax residency or legal status.
Where the joint account is combined with savings or money market, ownership options should be clear. Some households want joint control over everything; others prefer individual savings arrangements. The interface should present both options without resorting to dense legal text.
InvestGlass supports parallel identity verification, concurrent form completion, and role-based field masking so that each party sees only what is relevant. Powers of attorney, board resolutions, and mandate language are managed through templates that adjust for civil-law and common-law contexts, with e-signatures meeting the institution’s eIDAS policy.
MiFID II and LSFin are the regulatory spine that holds the journey together. Appropriateness for execution-only sales of complex products and suitability for advised or discretionary services require structured questions and plain explanations. Product governance and target-market checks ensure that instruments are distributed to the right investors. Costs and charges must be disclosed ex-ante in percentage and cash terms, then reported ex-post annually. In Switzerland, LSFin imposes similar conduct duties, client segmentation, delivery of key information documents to private clients, and documentation of advice. InvestGlass implements these duties through configurable questionnaires, document delivery in the client’s language, version-pinned suitability reports, and rule-driven blocking where a negative target market would be infringed.
Cross-border onboarding remains a European constant. The platform should encode your policy for permission to market and permission to onboard by country, booking centre, and service model. Identity methods must follow country-specific allowances, whether video KYC, NFC e-passport checks, or banker-witnessed face-to-face verification. Documents should be delivered in the client’s language. CRS self-certification must capture tax residencies and TINs with validation and careful exception handling. Sanctions, PEPs, and adverse media screening must be integrated into the onboarding and re-screening lifecycle. InvestGlass enforces all of these through a country-product matrix, identity provider selection, multilingual document vaults, CRS templates, and screening integrations with triage and disposition controls.
The account opening process — from first click to first transaction, what’s the real journey?
The journey to opening a new account typically starts online, where customers compare savings accounts, high yield savings accounts, traditional savings accounts, and money market accounts. They weigh factors such as annual percentage yields, minimum opening deposit, and monthly maintenance fees to find the best fit for their needs. Once a decision is made, the application process begins—usually through an online banking portal or mobile app—requiring personal and financial details, identity verification, and sometimes supporting documents. After submitting the application, customers receive confirmation and instructions for funding their new account, often via direct deposit, wire transfer, or other convenient methods. The first transaction might involve setting up recurring deposits, transferring funds, or simply exploring the features of the mobile app. Throughout this process, financial institutions must ensure that every step is clear, secure, and as frictionless as possible, providing guidance and support to help customers move confidently from initial interest to active account use.
Everyday terminology that clients will search for, mapped to the European flow
Clients read international content and will bring those words into conversations and search boxes. It is sensible to acknowledge these terms briefly and translate them into your European framework. It is also important to clarify that a financial technology company may provide banking services in partnership with regulated banks, and that online bank and online banks are digital-first institutions often referenced in international content.
When a client mentions bank or credit union, banks and credit unions, or credit unions, the interface can explain that the present onboarding applies to a European financial institution while recognising the global phrase. References to national credit union administration, member fdic, or Bank of America can be neutrally contextualised as belonging to another regulatory landscape. The flow then continues with the local structure of protections and rules without lingering on the comparison.
Phrases such as account online, new account, mobile check deposit, eligible accounts, and deposit account can be embraced and paired with local equivalents. Transfer funds, pay bills, pay taxes, online banking, mobile app, and account balance are immediately relevant and should be demonstrated with screenshots or clear copy. For savings, clients may ask about traditional savings accounts, online savings accounts, high yield savings accounts, savings account apys, best savings account rates, and savings account yields. Each can be reconciled with AER and European interest rates in one or two sentences that avoid marketing hyperbole.
Terms such as minimum opening deposit, initial deposit, minimum deposit, minimum deposit requirements, minimum deposit to open, minimum balance, and minimum balance required should be used consistently and positioned early. Qualifying direct deposits, eligible direct deposit, minimum eligible direct deposit, monthly direct deposits, monthly fee, monthly maintenance fee, monthly service fee, and monthly maintenance fee waiver can be presented where they make sense conceptually, while the on-screen explanation adopts local practice and calculation examples. This approach respects the way clients speak while keeping the European structure intact.
Identity, electronic signatures, approvals, and audit evidence
Identity should be established using methods that are permitted in the client’s country and proportionate to risk. That may include video identification, NFC e-passport reading with liveness, or banker-witnessed in-person verification. Each method must leave a traceable trail of reference IDs, timestamps, and outcomes.
Electronic signatures should follow your eIDAS policy. Advanced electronic signatures will suffice in many contexts, while qualified electronic signatures offer the highest legal certainty. The ceremony should always use two-factor authentication, device and IP logging, and tamper-evident documents. Role-based field masking keeps sensitive data compartmentalised in multi-party cases.
Approvals should mirror your operating model. Field-level approvals suit high-risk elements such as source-of-wealth narratives and screening matches. Package-level approvals suit business acceptance. Routing typically moves through compliance, tax, booking centre, and front office, with timers and escalations to maintain momentum. InvestGlass timestamps every action, pins versions, and generates a clear audit trail that reduces post-hoc investigations.
Data, CRM synchronisation, and downstream systems
Onboarding data must be reliable and reusable. Define canonical JSON schemas for person, account, knowledge and experience, needs, consents, suitability results, and risk scores. Use event-driven webhooks so that CRM, core banking, custody, portfolio management, and reporting systems receive consistent payloads. Implement schema validation and retries for resilience.
Privacy obligations demand explicit, granular consent, data minimisation, retention schedules, and appropriate data residency. InvestGlass provides consent objects with timestamps, a privacy dashboard for clients, field-level encryption at rest, role-based access controls, and hosting patterns that satisfy EU or Swiss residency expectations.
Simulators and clarity tools that reduce abandonment
Short, focused simulators educate without overwhelming. A suitability simulator helps clients see how drawdowns might feel at different risk levels. A costs and charges simulator displays ex-ante totals transparently. An interest calculator shows how interest rates, tiers, and compounding create the annual percentage yield apy or AER clients will experience. These tools reduce uncertainty and improve completion rates.
InvestGlass integrates simulators directly into the flow, stores snapshots as part of the advice record, and makes them available to bankers during follow-up discussions. Clear tooltips reduce the need for jargon while preserving formal accuracy.
Reporting and continuous improvement
Measure the entire funnel: start, identity verified, documents uploaded, questionnaires completed, signatures collected, approvals granted, account funded, and first transaction. Slice performance by country, segment, device, introducer, team, form type, approver group, and cross-border path. Catalogue not-in-good-order reasons and fix the top drivers first.
InvestGlass provides dashboards for conversion and time-to-yes and exports data for business intelligence. A weekly design authority can review metrics, decide content changes, and schedule controlled releases so the journey steadily improves.
Digital opening for digital banks and applications
Digital banks and fully digital brokerages benefit from treating onboarding as a constellation of services rather than a monolith. The mobile application should begin with eligibility, proceed to the permitted identity method, capture only necessary data in a conversational structure, present fees and benefits without euphemism, deliver controlled documents in-app, and run an e-signature ceremony that meets eIDAS standards.
A live status view reduces support calls by making the approval path visible. The app should allow a client to resume on another device and should give sensible time estimates for each stage. It should also provide simple controls for transfer funds, pay bills, and pay taxes once the account is active, with immediate visibility of account balance. Using a mobile banking app is essential for managing accounts, transferring funds, and ensuring secure, convenient access to banking services directly from a smartphone.
InvestGlass powers this by exposing APIs for product eligibility, KYC initiation, document packs, and signatures. Content blocks can be variant-tested to improve conversion without changing logic. Where a client opens an online savings account, the app can show interest rates, the illustrative annual percentage yield, and any minimum deposit to open. For a checking account, the app can show any monthly fee, overdraft protection options, and card features.
Using the InvestGlass KLEBER open-source project from GitHub
Institutions can accelerate delivery by adopting the InvestGlass KLEBER open-source project as a reference implementation. KLEBER demonstrates clean patterns for building multilingual onboarding interfaces, handling conditional forms with client-side validation aligned to server rules, structuring authentication, and managing environment configuration.
A pragmatic approach is to fork KLEBER into your Git organisation, align the architecture with internal standards, and treat KLEBER as the presentation scaffold while InvestGlass remains the orchestration source of truth. The app calls InvestGlass for rules, documents, and signatures, and InvestGlass publishes webhooks for state changes. This separation yields velocity with control: you build unique cross-border matrices, identity integrations, and core-banking connectors while avoiding boilerplate. Development proceeds in local and staging environments with anonymised data for compliance testing before controlled production releases.
Planning checklist translated into configuration
Decide whether to run one multilingual flow with runtime switching or separate flows per language; a single flow usually concentrates change control and reduces risk. Inventory which PDFs must remain pro forma and pin versions when a case starts. Choose whether documents link to contacts, accounts, or both. Build internal forms such as A, K, or T as controlled templates with pre-fill rules and sign-ready outputs.
Design packages by product family and, where necessary, vary language and mandate wording for civil-law and common-law contexts. Set your eIDAS signature policy and decide when advanced or qualified signatures apply. Define whether remote onboarding is allowed for each country and which identity methods are permitted. Determine your minimum answer sets per regulation and downstream processes. Enable sequential or parallel completion for multi-party cases. Provide JSON schemas for CRM synchronisation and specify whether PDFs must match legacy layouts or can be modernised. Outline approval workflows, KYC remediation recurrences, expiry notifications, and ownership of screening dispositions. Define analytics targets and keep a cadence for review.
InvestGlass implements each decision through configuration, templates, and workflows. It presents a coherent client experience while keeping compliance and audit at the centre.
Best practices for account opening — what separates the leaders from the laggards?
Leading financial institutions set themselves apart by making the account opening process as straightforward and transparent as possible. They provide clear, accessible information about their savings accounts, including minimum balance requirements, monthly fees, and current interest rates, so customers know exactly what to expect. User-friendly online platforms and mobile apps allow customers to open accounts, check balances, and manage their finances with minimal effort. Top performers also offer multiple support channels—phone, email, and in-person—ensuring that help is always available if questions arise. By leveraging technology to reduce paperwork and streamline steps, these institutions minimize delays and enhance the overall experience. This customer-centric approach not only builds trust and satisfaction but also encourages referrals and repeat business. Ultimately, financial institutions that focus on simplicity, transparency, and responsive support are best positioned to attract and retain customers in a competitive market.
Conclusion
A European-grade account-opening journey is precise, considerate, and governed by evidence. It integrates MiFID II and LSFin duties by design, encodes cross-border policies so that only eligible accounts and instruments appear, treats identity, signatures, and evidence as one chain, and supports banker-assisted, hybrid, and fully digital openings. It communicates interest rates, fees, minimum deposit requirements, and minimum balance required thresholds without ambiguity. It helps clients organise checking and savings accounts as part of a broader range of deposit accounts, including money market accounts and certificates of deposit (CDs), configure an emergency fund, and understand overdraft fees and protections before they commit. It respects the words clients bring to the process from international reading while maintaining European structure and law.
InvestGlass is the orchestration that enables this discipline. It translates complexity into configuration, gives bankers a console that fits the rhythm of real client work, gives compliance the audit trail it needs, and gives executives the analytics that drive improvement. For digital banks and applications, InvestGlass provides stable APIs and ceremonies, while KLEBER offers a maintainable, open-source scaffold that accelerates build-out. Taken together, these tools allow a financial institution to build best account opening that scales across countries, segments, and booking centres without losing clarity or control.