As a compliance officer, the prospect of completing a compliance audit only to discover hundreds of expired, previously verified documents in your archive is a nightmare scenario. The process of now having to reach out to customers en masse to request new documentation and updates is laborious, and you will likely be playing catch-up as more and more items expire.

For large companies like banks, casinos, and insurance firms dealing with thousands of customers, this can be a very real problem for your compliance team, the wider company, and, of course, the customer.

In regulated industries, the consequences of having an archive full of expired documents can be even more severe. Not only can this lead to reputational damage with customers if it becomes a problem for them, but it can also lead to regulatory fines and other punishments.

Overloading Compliance Teams

This problem often occurs for several reasons, with one of the biggest being how compliance teams store their data and the processes they have in place to notify them of lapses. If you are relying on spreadsheets, calendar notifications or legacy software to update you on potentially thousands of documents expiring, then you are always going to be left chasing your tail.

Likewise, volume can quickly build and outpace manual review capabilities. Asking a compliance team to review and monitor thousands of customer files and keep them up to date is impractical, resulting in inconsistent application. Some people will track religiously, while others will forget entirely, leaving hundreds of small risks to build across an organisation.

Companies can also not rely on customers to update them when details change. When people receive a new passport or driver’s license, their first instinct is not to contact their insurance company or notify their online bookmaker. This can lead to problems down the line. For example, a casino player might attempt to make a withdrawal, and the document they provide no longer matches the one you have on record. This can lead to delays for the customer and can damage their long-term relationship with you.

An Automated Solution

This is where eyeDP’s automated system comes into place. This provides businesses with automated prompts informing them that a person’s documents are due to expire. This gives businesses the time to reach out to their customers and request new documentation. To further streamline the process, eyeDP’s platform will handle document verification and ensure all data is stored correctly.

eyeDP approaches expiration tracking as an infrastructure problem rather than a people problem. When documents are uploaded and verified, the system automatically extracts expiration dates from passports, licenses, certificates, and other time-limited documentation. These dates populate a centralised tracking system that monitors expiration timelines continuously rather than periodically.

This creates a more proactive system that is built on alerts and adjustable timelines. You can receive notifications at intervals set to suit your purpose. For example, setting a 90-day reminder followed by a 30-day one gives an organisation plenty of time to respond. If it still lapses, further alerts can follow up.

Beyond just notifying companies of documents expiring, eyeDP’s platform can also validate any newly uploaded documents in real-time. When a customer uploads a replacement passport or licence, the system verifies authenticity and flags any discrepancies before extracting all relevant data and storing it.

This further frees up compliance teams and prevents a bottleneck from being created that could impact the customer experience.

Of course, this can all be part of a wider automated flow, with email notifications or tasks being created for compliance teams. Full dashboard visibility allows businesses to monitor any expiring documents in a clean, organised way.

A Preventable Problem

It is a problem that can snowball. The team fails to notice some expired dates, or dates weren’t explored properly. Before they know it, there are months’ worth of expired documents to catch up with, which leads to delays with customers and, potentially, regulatory headaches.

As with many issues, in the age of automation, these problems no longer need to exist. AI-powered tools like our platform at eyeDP are well-positioned to address them and to ensure that compliance teams never get a nasty surprise with their documents again.