Onboarding for SMB Prop Firms - A bureaucratic masterpiece or a necessary evil?
Anyone else finding the onboarding process for new prop firm accounts increasingly... challenging? Not talking about the big boys with dedicated enterprise teams, but rather the mid-tier shops or those focusing on niche strategies. It feels like every year the KYB requirements get a fresh coat of regulatory paint, making the process akin to applying for a small business loan, complete with requests for my great-aunt's medical history and a notarized blood sample.
I get the need for diligence, especially in this climate, but the sheer variation in documentation and verification processes between different platforms is staggering. One asks for a single utility bill, another wants three months of bank statements, audited financials from 2008, and a photo of me holding today's newspaper with a unicorn in the background. It's not just the volume, but the lack of standardization and the often glacial pace of approval. You finally get everything submitted, then crickets for a week, only to be asked for one more 'critical' document they forgot to mention initially. It just ties up valuable time and resources, particularly for lean operations. Is anyone finding certain PSPs or brokers are genuinely streamlining this, or are we all just collectively gritting our teeth and playing the compliance lottery?
It's less about a 'masterpiece' and more about the increasing regulatory burden trickling down. The cost of non-compliance has gone up, so firms are simply pushing that due diligence onto the client. Not exactly fun, but understandable.