
Legado and Amiqus Partner to Streamline Regulated Client Onboarding Across the UK Financial Services Industry
Two of Scotland’s leading financial technology companies, Legado and Amiqus, have announced a strategic technology partnership aimed at transforming how regulated financial services firms onboard clients and customers. By combining their complementary digital capabilities, the companies seek to simplify compliance-driven onboarding processes while helping financial institutions meet increasingly stringent regulatory requirements and rising customer expectations for seamless digital experiences.
The collaboration integrates Amiqus’ reusable digital identity verification and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) technology with Legado’s secure regulated communications and electronic signature platform. Together, the integrated solution enables financial organizations to manage identity verification, compliance checks, document collection, electronic signatures, and audit-ready recordkeeping within a single connected workflow.
As financial institutions continue investing in digital infrastructure to comply with evolving regulatory standards, the partnership is expected to provide firms with a more efficient and secure approach to managing regulated customer interactions across a wide range of financial services activities.
Responding to Increasing Regulatory Expectations
The financial services industry continues to experience significant regulatory change as governments and regulators place greater emphasis on consumer protection, operational resilience, financial crime prevention, and digital governance.
Organizations are increasingly expected to demonstrate:
- Robust customer identification procedures
- Comprehensive anti-money laundering controls
- Secure digital communications
- Transparent audit trails
- Strong governance frameworks
- Efficient customer onboarding
- Ongoing compliance monitoring
Meeting these expectations often requires firms to coordinate multiple technology platforms throughout the customer lifecycle.
Traditional onboarding processes frequently involve separate systems for identity verification, document management, customer communications, compliance reviews, and electronic signatures.
Managing these disconnected systems can create inefficiencies, increase administrative costs, and introduce operational complexity.
The new partnership between Legado and Amiqus seeks to address these challenges by creating a more unified digital experience.
Combining Complementary Technologies
The collaboration brings together two specialized fintech platforms with complementary areas of expertise.
Amiqus contributes advanced capabilities involving:
- Digital identity verification
- Biometric authentication
- Reusable digital identities
- Anti-Money Laundering (AML) compliance
- Know Your Customer (KYC) processes
- Identity assurance
Legado contributes technologies supporting:
- Secure regulated communications
- Digital document management
- Electronic signatures
- Compliance workflows
- Audit-ready documentation
- Customer engagement
Together, the integrated platform enables organizations to manage multiple stages of regulated customer interactions within one connected environment.
Rather than moving customers between different applications throughout the onboarding process, firms can provide a more streamlined digital journey.
A Connected Compliance Workflow
One of the partnership’s primary objectives is eliminating fragmentation throughout regulated onboarding processes.
The integrated workflow allows organizations to complete several critical compliance functions in sequence, including:
- Identity verification
- Biometric authentication
- AML screening
- Secure document collection
- Electronic signature execution
- Compliance evidence generation
- Permanent audit record creation
Each stage becomes part of a continuous digital process, reducing manual intervention while improving consistency across customer interactions.
This connected approach also simplifies compliance reporting by automatically documenting each step within an auditable record.
Supporting a Wide Range of Financial Services Processes
Although client onboarding remains the partnership’s primary focus, the integrated platform supports numerous regulated workflows used throughout the financial services industry.
Among the anticipated applications are:
Investor Onboarding
Investment firms frequently require extensive identity verification and documentation before accepting new investors.
The integrated solution simplifies these procedures while maintaining regulatory compliance.
Customer Account Opening
Banks, wealth managers, and financial institutions can streamline account opening by combining identity verification, document completion, and electronic signatures into one digital experience.
Financial Adviser Onboarding
Organizations recruiting financial advisers often require significant documentation and regulatory verification before advisers begin serving clients.
The integrated workflow helps simplify these administrative processes.
Trust and Beneficiary Documentation
Managing trust-related documentation frequently involves multiple legal documents and identity verification requirements.
The platform supports secure collection and execution of these materials while maintaining comprehensive audit records.
Pension and Investment Instructions
Customers submitting pension or investment instructions often require regulated communications alongside authenticated document execution.
The combined solution provides both capabilities within one workflow.
Consent Forms
Financial institutions regularly collect customer consent for various regulated activities.
Electronic signatures combined with secure communications help organizations document consent efficiently while maintaining compliance records.
Integrated Electronic Signature Functionality
As part of the collaboration, LegadoSign, Legado’s electronic signature solution, will become fully integrated into the Amiqus platform.
Electronic signatures have become an increasingly important component of financial services operations as organizations continue transitioning toward paperless workflows.
Embedding signature functionality directly within onboarding processes offers several benefits, including:
- Faster document completion
- Reduced administrative effort
- Improved customer experience
- Stronger compliance documentation
- Shorter onboarding times
- Lower operational costs
The integration removes the need for organizations to transfer customers between separate document signing applications, helping create a smoother digital experience.
Creating a Single Auditable Journey
One of the partnership’s distinguishing features is its emphasis on maintaining complete auditability throughout regulated customer interactions.
Financial regulators increasingly require organizations to demonstrate:
- When customer verification occurred
- How identities were confirmed
- Which documents were signed
- What communications were exchanged
- Who approved transactions
- When consent was obtained
The combined platform captures these activities within a unified audit trail.
Maintaining a complete digital record supports regulatory compliance while simplifying internal governance, risk management, and future compliance reviews.
Edinburgh Fintech Collaboration
The partnership also reflects the strength of Scotland’s growing financial technology ecosystem.
Both Legado and Amiqus were founded in Edinburgh, where the city has developed into one of the United Kingdom’s leading fintech innovation hubs.
The companies have maintained close connections through Fintech Scotland, an industry organization supporting collaboration among financial technology businesses, financial institutions, regulators, and academic organizations.
Their longstanding relationship within Edinburgh’s fintech community contributed to the development of the new strategic partnership.
Shared Client Relationships
Another factor supporting the collaboration is the significant overlap between the companies’ customer bases.
Both organizations already work with several major financial services firms, including:
- Virgin Money
- FNZ
- Quilter
- Scottish Building Society
- Moneyhub
- Co-op Legal Services
Serving common clients provides opportunities to integrate complementary technologies while delivering additional value without requiring organizations to establish entirely new vendor relationships.
The companies have also expanded beyond the United Kingdom into international markets, creating additional opportunities for future collaboration.
Amiqus Highlights Regulatory Evolution
Callum Murray, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Amiqus, noted that financial institutions increasingly view regulated client communications as essential components of governance and operational resilience rather than simply administrative functions.
According to Murray, boards and executive leadership teams now recognize that evolving consumer protection requirements have fundamentally changed how organizations approach compliance.
He highlighted Legado’s early recognition of these regulatory changes and emphasized the strong alignment between Amiqus’ reusable identity technology and Legado’s embedded digital signature capabilities.
Murray also pointed to the companies’ shared relationship with FNZ as creating additional opportunities to deliver integrated onboarding solutions for investment platforms and financial institutions.
Legado Sees Long-Term Strategic Opportunity
Josif Grace, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Legado, described Amiqus as a longstanding peer within Edinburgh’s fintech community.
He noted that both organizations have participated in Scotland’s growing technology ecosystem for more than a decade while maintaining connections through Fintech Scotland.
Grace also highlighted Amiqus’ leadership in areas such as anti-money laundering technology and expressed enthusiasm about pursuing strategic opportunities together.
According to Grace, combining the companies’ capabilities will create meaningful value for shared clients while expanding the solutions available to regulated financial organizations.
FNZ Supports the Collaboration
The partnership has also received support from FNZ, one of the companies’ shared technology partners.
Niall Monteith, Head of UK Proposition at FNZ, emphasized the importance of customer onboarding within financial services.
According to Monteith, organizations must carefully balance two priorities that are often difficult to achieve simultaneously:
- Delivering a frictionless customer experience
- Maintaining rigorous regulatory compliance
Having worked with both companies through FNZ’s venture partnership program, Monteith noted that each organization contributes distinct strengths involving identity verification, anti-money laundering controls, regulated communications, and electronic signatures.
He believes integrating these capabilities creates an attractive solution capable of improving onboarding, verification, and document completion processes for regulated firms throughout the United Kingdom.
Supporting Digital Transformation
The collaboration reflects broader digital transformation trends reshaping financial services.
Customers increasingly expect:
- Fully digital onboarding
- Faster account opening
- Secure mobile interactions
- Minimal paperwork
- Simplified document completion
- Immediate identity verification
At the same time, regulators continue expanding expectations regarding financial crime prevention, customer protection, and operational resilience.
Technology providers increasingly play a critical role in helping financial institutions satisfy both objectives simultaneously.
Rather than treating compliance as an obstacle to customer experience, modern platforms seek to embed regulatory controls naturally within digital customer journeys.
The Legado-Amiqus partnership aligns closely with this industry direction.
The strategic partnership between Legado and Amiqus represents an important step toward modernizing regulated onboarding processes within the UK financial services sector. By combining reusable digital identity verification, anti-money laundering capabilities, secure communications, electronic signatures, and comprehensive audit trails into a unified workflow, the companies aim to reduce operational complexity while strengthening regulatory compliance.
As financial institutions continue investing in digital infrastructure to meet evolving governance, consumer protection, and financial crime prevention requirements, integrated solutions that streamline customer interactions while maintaining robust compliance controls are becoming increasingly valuable. With strong roots in Scotland’s growing fintech ecosystem, an expanding international presence, and an established client base that includes major financial institutions, Legado and Amiqus are positioning themselves to help regulated organizations deliver faster, more secure, and more efficient onboarding experiences in an increasingly digital financial landscape.
Source link: https://www.businesswire.com











