KYC Costs vs. Risk Mitigation in Emerging Markets

Been pondering the balancing act between aggressive customer acquisition in high-growth, emerging markets and the escalating costs of robust KYC/AML. Specifically, for smaller fintechs or those entering markets like LATAM or parts of Southeast Asia, where identity infrastructure might be less mature and fraud attempts more sophisticated. It feels like a catch-22: you need efficient onboarding to scale, but a breach or regulatory slap would be crippling.

How are others in this space approaching vendor selection for identity verification? Are you seeing bespoke solutions for specific regions performing significantly better than global players, or is it more about the configuration and layered approach with existing tools? The false positive rate, especially for names common in certain regions, is a constant headache. It just feels like we're constantly playing whack-a-mole with new fraud vectors, and the costs keep climbing without a clear ROI metric beyond 'not getting fined.' Thoughts on practical ways to optimize without compromising too much on risk?