Amesto Global’s Journey to Streamlined KYC and Client Risk Assessment

Meet Amesto Global

Amesto Global is a boutique firm that helps companies expand across North America and Europe without getting lost in the complexity of cross-border operations. From accounting and payroll to governance and compliance, their teams in Spain, the UK, Ireland, the U.S., and the Nordics keep clients moving.

Many of these clients are groups with multiple subsidiaries and complex structures, making compliance a constant priority. In this scenario, compliance can either be a bottleneck or a competitive advantage.

‍Marc Smeets, Director – Compliance & Corporate Secretarial, leads Amesto Global’s AML/KYC, corporate governance, and compliance services, making sure every client meets regulatory requirements while maintaining a seamless experience across jurisdictions. ‍

The challenge: centralizing slow and fragmented compliance

For Amesto Global, compliance isn’t just ticking boxes — it’s making sure every client, in every jurisdiction, stays fully up to date. That means monitoring different ownership structures, reviewing documents, running PEP and sanctions checks, and keeping an eye on every KYC refresh date.

Before Parallel, this work was spread across spreadsheets and long email threads with clients. It was easy for documents or details to get buried in back-and-forth exchanges, making the process slow and frustrating for both sides.

“Before Parallel, we spent a lot of time coordinating everything manually. We had to send emails with different PDFs and forms, and clients had to download, scan, fill in, and send everything back. It made follow-up difficult for both sides, and even internally it wasn’t always clear who should follow up or what stage we were in.” – Emma Stakston, Operations Associate - Growth

Risk assessment also added complexity. Amesto Global relied on a risk matrix to guide decisions, but since it wasn’t integrated into a system, it wasn’t ideal. It worked in practice, but it made it harder to apply due diligence consistently or justify decisions with clear data.

What was missing was a centralized, structured system: one place to manage data, keep oversight in real time, and ensure due diligence was clearly aligned with the actual level of risk.

The solution: centralizing KYC and automating risk scoring

Amesto Global implemented Parallel to centralize all KYC processes in a single platform — from sending KYC forms to storing client data, tracking documentation expiry dates, and monitoring sanction and PEP lists.

One of Marc’s biggest achievements was creating a multi-layered risk scoring model and working with the Parallel team to build it into the platform. He defined key risk indicators, such as geographic risk or customer profile risk, each contributing a different weight toward the total score.

When clients complete their KYC form, their answers automatically feed into these indicators. Parallel calculates the total risk score instantly, giving Marc an immediate view of the client’s risk level.

“Parallel replicated our risk model one-to-one in the system, and it worked perfectly. Risk scoring is now automated and extremely efficient. Compared to our previous Excel-based setup, it’s a major improvement. It’s a big time-saver, consistent, and fully objective.” – Marc Smeets

The results: Transparent, Faster and Controlled Compliance

Transparent — one platform for all KYC tasks

With a structured and transparent scoring system and all data centralized, Amesto Global can now justify every decision, apply the right level of due diligence to each client, and save valuable time. Parallel also uses the score to trigger automatic approval steps for high-risk clients. If a score passes a certain threshold, approvers are notified, log in to review the case, and decide — without endless email exchanges.

On top of this, every action is recorded in an audit trail, giving Marc full traceability over the entire process. This means Amesto Global is always prepared to demonstrate decisions and provide documentation in case of an internal review or external audit.

Faster — 63% of KYC refreshes completed in two weeks

Since adopting Parallel, Amesto Global’s compliance work has become faster. When Marc launched a KYC refresh campaign, 63% of the requests sent were completed within two weeks, a pace that would have been impossible before.

Clients also find the process much easier. KYC forms are pre-filled with information Amesto Global already holds, so they only need to update or confirm details instead of starting from scratch. As a result, client response time has dropped by more than 50%. Furthermore, automatic reminders keep clients on track without back-and-forth emails, making the whole process smoother for both sides.

Turnaround times have also improved dramatically, with signatures now completed in less than 24 hours on average. Once a form is submitted, Marc can complete reviews the same day (sometimes in just 20 minutes) thanks to the automated scoring system and integrated background searches.

Controlled — Dashboards showing live compliance health

Marc has maximized the value of Parallel Dashboards — its reporting and analytics feature — to get instant visibility over his compliance data.

At a glance, he tracks risk distribution across all clients, the status of every KYC (in progress, completed, or closed), and key compliance KPIs like the percentage of clients flagged as PEPs or in high-risk industries.

“The dashboards give me everything I need in a split second. “They show the right statistics, reveal discrepancies, and flag important alerts. It’s become a very powerful tool for us.” – Marc Smeets

This real-time visibility means Marc isn’t just keeping up with compliance, he’s anticipating risks, prioritizing reviews, and allocating resources where they’re needed most.

A Stronger, More Scalable Compliance Framework

With Parallel, Amesto Global has turned compliance into a faster, more consistent, and fully centralized process. Automation, integrated risk scoring, and real-time data have replaced manual coordination, giving Marc the visibility he needs to handle compliance proactively and at scale.

The change is equally noticeable for clients. What once felt like a burden is now a smoother and more guided experience, supported by pre-filled forms and automatic reminders.

“Clients saw compliance procedures as a painful process. “Now that they’ve experienced it through Parallel, they no longer see it as a pain — it’s a huge advantage.” – Marc Smeets

For Amesto Global, this marks a stronger foundation for long-term risk management.

“The first step to manage risk is to control the risk. Parallel gives us that control, and that’s extremely powerful.” – Marc Smeets

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