Modernizing Secure Document Collection for Banks and Credit Unions: Eliminating Risk and Friction

Collecting and managing documents remains a challenge for banks and credit unions. From tax returns and commercial loan documentation to identity verification and supporting KYC files, financial institutions often depend on manual, fragmented processes to exchange information with account holders and third parties.

These ad‑hoc exchanges, commonly handled through email, unsecured portals, or one-off file transfers, introduce unnecessary risk. They can expose personally identifiable information (PII), weaken KYC, CIP, and CDD controls, and break audit trails. As a result, institutions may struggle to demonstrate consistent identity verification, regulatory compliance, and effective governance during audits and examinations.

To better understand where these breakdowns occur and how banks and credit unions can address them, we sat down with Jenn Mitchell and Cameron Marks, Directors of Product Management. They share insights into operational and compliance gaps created by manual document collection and preview Document Portal, an upcoming enhancement to Alogent’s enterprise content management (ECM) suite.

Designed specifically for financial institutions, Document Portal provides a more secure, controlled, and auditable way to exchange documents, helping banks and credit unions improve visibility, reduce risk, and strengthen governance across the entire document collection lifecycle.

Learn more about Alogent's New Document Portal in a March 10 Webinar: Register Here

What challenges prompted the development of Document Portal?

Financial institutions often lack a secure, standardized way to collect required documents, particularly from individuals outside existing digital banking channels, such as prospective account holders, loan applicants, or third-party partners. Without a purpose-built intake solution, institutions are often forced to rely on outdated methods to gather sensitive information.

In many cases, this means tax forms, identity documents, and supporting loan files are frequently exchanged via email, traditional mail, or even physical drop boxes. These manual processes are inefficient and error-prone, requiring staff to spend excessive time chasing missing documents, answering basic procedural questions, and manually tracking document status. More importantly, they introduce significant compliance and security risks by exposing sensitive data and weakening auditability.

Document Portal was built to modernize and simplify this process. By providing a dedicated, secure environment specifically designed for document intake, it enables financial institutions to standardize how documents are collected, reduce vulnerabilities, and maintain stronger control over sensitive information. The result is a more consistent, intuitive experience for end users and improved visibility, efficiency, and governance for banks and credit unions.

How is Document Portal different from other file sharing tools?

Document Portal was purpose-built for financial institutions and is embedded within the Alogent ECM suite, ensuring document intake is managed within a secure, governed ecosystem. Its key differentiator is identity-based enrollment and access control. Every user, whether a prospect, applicant, or third party, creates a password-protected account used exclusively for securely sharing documents with the institution. This approach not only protects sensitive information but also strengthens identity verification, access management, and auditability—critical requirements for KYC, CIP, and CDD compliance.

Beyond secure access, Document Portal enables a fully digital, end-to-end workflow. Once documents are submitted, they automatically move through the institution’s defined review, approval, and indexing workflows. This eliminates the informal, manual, and untracked steps that commonly occur when documents are exchanged through email or disconnected file-sharing tools. 

By replacing fragmented document exchanges with a standardized, auditable process, the Document Portal helps banks and credit unions improve operational efficiency, reduce compliance risk, and maintain greater visibility and control across the entire document lifecycle.

What does this experience look like for institutions and submitters?

The document request and submission process is designed to be simple and intuitive for both financial institutions and submitters.

For financial institutions:

• Select the required documents
• Add due dates, notes, or instructions
• Send a secure email request to the submitter

For submitters:

• Receive an email generated by the bank or credit union
• Click a secure link and complete a quick account setup
• Upload exactly what’s requested, on any device

This intentionally frictionless experience helps banks and credit unions reduce confusion, missing documents, and unnecessary back-and-forth communication for both internal teams and external users.

Understanding the value for non-account holders, how does this feature support existing ones?

Because Document Portal operates independently of digital banking platforms, it enables secure document exchange for account holders who may not use digital banking, applicants who are not yet account holders, and third parties working with the institution.

The feature supports convenient, consistent document exchanges through a single secure interface, eliminating the need to navigate multiple systems, while standardizing document intake across the institution.

In this era of cybersecurity awareness, how does Document Portal address security and trust concerns?

In an era of heightened cybersecurity awareness, security and trust were central to the design of Document Portal. Document requests include expiration settings, ensuring that if a document is not submitted within a specified timeframe, a new request with a refreshed authentication link must be issued. 

In addition, documents are not stored in the portal long-term. Once reviewed, they are securely transferred into the ECM platform, where the institution’s retention policies, audit visibility, and governance controls apply. This approach minimizes data exposure while aligning document handling with established security and compliance standards.

What is the key value Document Portal delivers to financial institutions?

Document Portal transforms fragmented, informal, and high-risk document collection methods into a centralized, streamlined, and secure workflow. By providing a controlled environment for document intake, banks and credit unions gain:

• Greater document security and visibility
• Stronger compliance through structured, automated processes
• Faster turnaround times for processes like onboarding and lending
• Reduced manual follow‑up and delays
• A consistent, professional experience for both internal teams and external users

Document Portal ensures every document is collected securely and accurately, then efficiently routed into the ECM, eliminating the manual steps that slow teams down and introduce unnecessary risk.

Get a first look at Document Portal in action on March 10! 

Join us for a live webinar to see how simple and secure document intake can be with Alogent.

Register here for the upcoming webinar

Schedule a 1:1 demo: click here

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