KYC, which stands for “Know Your Customer”, is a legal requirement for financial institutions to establish the identity and risk factors associated with prospective customers. It’s typically implemented as questions that are part of the signup & onboarding flow.
Since KYC forms need to collect sensitive information like SSNs and government IDs, they’re typically one of the biggest reasons prospective customers drop off. Thus, the way KYC forms are built has a large impact on business success. Phrasing, ordering, and design all impact their conversion rates.
Below, we’ve assembled a list of the 5 best KYC forms for 2023—from companies of different sizes and serving different customers—so you can draw inspiration for building or improving your own.
1. Robinhood
Robinhood is a commission-free stock trading and investment app known for their sleek UI.
Their mobile KYC form is integrated directly into their post-signup onboarding flow. In total, it collects 10 pieces of information across 13 steps (including the initial signup flow).
- Email address
- Password
- First name
- Last name
- Phone number
- Phone verification code
- Date of birth
- Residential address
- Nationality
- SSN
Robinhood takes care to provide plenty of context for every piece of information they request. For example, they include “We’re legally required to collect this information” on almost every step of the KYC form to assure the user that their personal information is used to fulfill governmental compliance rather than something malicious.
The SSN is by far the most sensitive piece of information that is legally required to be collected in the KYC form, which is why Robinhood saves it for last, when the user is most committed to finishing the flow. By this point, the user has already provided their email, verified their phone number, and a number of other tasks. Robinhood also dedicates a full step before the SSN question to explaining why they need it and why there’s no risk to the user in providing it.
By integrating the signup flow with their KYC form, Robinhood unifies the burden of activation into one motion for the user. Yet even if the user drops off the KYC form or fails to be approved, they still get limited access to the app itself since they’ve completed the initial signup process.
Looking to build a KYC form similar to this? Get started for free with our Signup & Onboarding (Robinhood) template.
2. Coinbase
Coinbase is a secure online platform for buying, selling, transferring, and storing cryptocurrency.
Their web KYC form is also integrated directly into their post-signup onboarding flow, similar to Robinhood. In total, it collects 15 pieces of information across 8 steps (including the initial signup flow).
- Individual or business
- Email address
- Password
- First name
- Last name
- 18+ verification
- Phone number
- Phone verification code
- Nationality
- Date of birth
- Residential address
- What will you use Coinbase for?
- What is your source of funds?
- Employment status
- Last 4 digits of SSN
Immediately you may notice that, compared to the Robinhood mobile KYC form, they ask for more information across fewer steps. A major reason they’re able to condense the steps is because they put their entire KYC form onto one step, which is possible given the larger size of a browser screen.
This can have a positive impact on conversion rate, since the user may feel encouraged knowing that there are fewer steps they need to complete in order to reach the product.
The size of the KYC form step is likely also a reason why Coinbase features a “skip” option prominently. It allows the user to enter a limited Coinbase experience and come back to the KYC form once they’re ready to.
Although Coinbase only needs to collect the last 4 digits of their users’ SSN, they provide a banner explaining that it’s a legal requirement and that they handle the data in a secure manner.
3. Chime
Chime is a financial technology company that provides fee-free mobile banking services.
Their web signup + KYC form collects 11 pieces of information across 8 steps.
- First name
- Last name
- Email address
- Date of birth
- Phone number
- Residential address
- Password
- Social security number
- What is your income source?
- How did you hear about us?
- Terms of service agreements
Despite being a web form, Chime’s flow minimizes the number of questions per step, unlike Coinbase’s single form step that includes the majority of their KYC questions. They also don’t allow skipping steps, which is likely because there’s no limited banking experience to offer users who have not verified their identity.
Most of their flow is fairly standard, including email & phone verification, basic personal information, and the big question – social security number. Chime asks for the full social security number and explains its purpose and no impact on credit scores. It’s fairly minimal context compared to Robinhood’s entire step dedicated to relieving user concerns, which Chime may get away with due to its status as a neobank rather than a brokerage.
They group their post-KYC form legalese, marketing, and supplementary data collection into the final two steps of the flow. This ties up the onboarding flow nicely before entering the user into the product.
4. Venmo
Venmo is a digital wallet that makes money easy to send and receive for everyone from students to small businesses.
Their web signup + KYC form collects 8 pieces of information across 4 steps.
- Personal or business
- Phone number
- Phone verification code
- First name
- Last name
- Password
- At least 18 years old?
Given Venmo is a tool for exchanging limited sums of money rather than serious financial investments, they built a relatively simple flow that doesn’t collect sensitive information like a SSN, income, etc.
Venmo is primarily used as a mobile app for exchanging money on the go, so they choose to prioritize mobile phone verification – they don’t accept VoIP or landline numbers. It’s the second piece of information they ask for, and the majority of the KYC form is presented to the user only after they’ve verified the phone number.
The rest of the KYC form is combined into a single step on their web experience. Even though they collect an email address, they don’t bother verifying and likely just use it to automatically notify users of account activity and marketing communications.
5. SoFi
SoFi is an online bank and lender that provides financial products including banking, loan refinancing, mortgages, and personal loans.
Unlike the previous flows, SoFi’s signup flow and KYC form are separated into different parts of the user journey. Their signup flow is quite simple—a single step that collects 5 pieces of information.
- First name
- Last name
- State
- Password
After signing up, you’re taken to a dashboard where you can apply for a loan, insurance, credit card, and more. Based on which product you choose to apply for, the KYC form presented to you can look dramatically different. Since SoFi offers a variety of products with different requirements, it made the most sense to customize the KYC form based on the product their users choose rather than merge it into the signup flow.
For this analysis, we went with the personal loan application, which collects 9 pieces of information across 9 steps.
- Amount looking to borrow
- Use of funds
- Date of birth
- Citizenship status
- Residential address
- Own or rent
- Annual income
- Apply with a co-borrower?
- Credit consent
Much of this information is used specifically for qualifying the loan, but key pieces of information like date of birth and residential address are used for KYC checks. None of the steps are skippable since this is all necessary information for either KYC or loan qualification.
Given the number of steps in the loan flow, SoFi includes a step indicator on the left-hand side, which gives the user a sense of how much progress they’ve made and the types of questions remaining.
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