01 — Process landscape
Where the first processes sit
A bank's landscape has the same three bands as any organisation, but the management band is heavier: risk management, compliance and anti-money-laundering, regulatory reporting and internal audit shape almost every core process from above. The core is the customer relationship: an account is opened, a loan is applied for and decided, payments run, a complaint is answered.
Two core processes are typically captured first: customer onboarding with its KYC and AML checks, and credit approval. Both are dense with controls, both are described in organisational guidelines, and in both the gap between the written guideline and the daily routine is largest. A diagram drawn with the people who perform the checks shows that gap and gives compliance, audit and the front office one picture to agree on.
HIGHLIGHTED: TYPICALLY CAPTURED FIRST
02 — Example processes
Two processes to start with
Both diagrams are fictional example models, drawn the way patchley draws them: one lane per role, systems and documents at the step that uses them, every check a marked control step. The .bpmn file of each example is available on request.
KYC/AML customer onboarding
A new customer applies for an account. The front office collects the identification documents, the customer is identified, the documents are checked, the name is screened against sanctions and politically exposed persons lists, a risk classification is assigned, and compliance approves or declines. Each check leaves evidence; the file is complete only when every piece is in place.
- Every check is a marked control step with its evidence: identification, document check, screening, classification.
- Which lane owns the approval and where the decision gateway sits; the front office prepares, compliance decides.
- Where the process waits for the customer to provide a missing document, and how long cases sit there.
Credit approval
A customer applies for a loan. The relationship manager records the application and collects the documents, the back office checks creditworthiness and values the collateral, and the decision is taken at the competence level the amount requires. Then the contract is prepared and signed and the loan is paid out.
- The functional separation between front office and back office: which steps belong to which lane, and the second vote.
- The decision gateway and its competence levels: who may decide which case.
- Where cases wait for documents or for the collateral valuation, and where the file leaves the core system.
03 — What matters here
Control steps, roles and documents
In banking the diagram has to show the checks as steps with an owner and evidence, the separation of functions as lanes, and the document trail from application to decision. This is general orientation on what to capture, not legal advice.
Control steps with evidence
Identification and document check, sanctions and PEP screening, risk classification, creditworthiness check, collateral valuation, the four-eyes principle, the second vote on risk-relevant credit decisions. Each is a marked step that names the checker, the input and the evidence that stays in the file.
Roles and functional separation
Customer, front office, back office, compliance and AML officer, credit risk, internal audit, process owner. The separation of front office and back office is the reason the diagram has two lanes where a flowchart would have one.
Documents and systems
Identification documents, account and loan applications, financial statements, collateral documents, credit decision, contract; the core banking system, the screening tool and the credit system behind them. Each document is attached to the step that creates or needs it.
Exceptions and escalations
A hit in the screening, an incomplete file, a case above the competence level, a customer who does not respond. The exceptions are where the written guideline is thin and the routine is rich; capturing them is most of the value of the first diagram.
04 — How a first process is captured
From the onboarding team's own words to a diagram, analyses and a deck
A first process in a bank is captured with the people who perform the checks: a front-office colleague and a compliance officer walk through a real case in a workshop, patchley listens live or joins the Microsoft Teams call, or it reads the organisational guideline as a PDF or DOCX. They correct the draft diagram on the screen in their own words.
EXPORTS: BPMN 2.0 XML, SVG, PNG, XLSX, POWERPOINT · APP HOSTED IN GERMANY · AI MODELS FROM A EUROPEAN PROVIDER, HOSTED IN THE EU
05 — The industry report
Process capture in banking, as a document
The report describes the typical core processes, where process knowledge gets lost, the regulatory context in general terms (MaRisk, GwG and AML, KYC, DORA), where AI agents can help and which guardrails they need, and how to start. Fictional examples, no client data.