Data collection for this benchmark has only just opened. There are no findings or statistics to report, and none will be published until enough genuine responses have been collected. This page sets out what we are studying and how, and hosts the questionnaire.
Agora is conducting a practitioner research programme on how UK regulated firms actually operate customer due diligence. The first report is the UK CDD Automation Benchmark 2026.
UK CDD Automation Benchmark 2026
Published commentary on due diligence automation tends to describe capability rather than operating reality. We want to document what firms currently do: where effort is spent, which steps remain manual, how review models are structured, and how control assurance is resourced. The intention is a benchmark practitioners can use to situate their own operation, not a marketing exercise.
What the benchmark examines
Manual intervention
How much of a standard onboarding or review case is touched by a person, and at which steps that intervention occurs.
Remediation effort
The scale of open remediation and backlog work, and the effort firms apply per file to clear it.
Review models
The mix of periodic, event-driven and hybrid review in use, and the intervals firms apply by risk band.
Screening workload
Alert volumes relative to the customer book, disposition effort, and how firms measure screening performance.
Control assurance
How quality control, independent assurance and testing are structured, resourced and reported.
Technology maturity
How integrated and automated the CDD technology estate is, the use of AI, and the barriers firms report to further automation.
Methodology
- A structured questionnaire of 28 mostly banded questions for financial crime, compliance and transformation practitioners at UK regulated firms. The full question set is shown below and will be published alongside any results.
- No names or firm names are collected. Responses are analysed at the level of firm type and size band only, and no firm or individual is identified. No customer or confidential client data is requested.
- Results reported with the response count, the composition of respondents and the limitations of the sample stated plainly, including where a figure is not robust enough to generalise.
- No inference presented as measurement. Where we interpret a pattern, the interpretation will be labelled as such, consistent with how we separate guidance from opinion across the Knowledge Hub.
- Participation is voluntary and free, and taking part does not require any commercial relationship with Agora. An optional email for report notification is stored separately, with no link to the answers.
Current status
The questionnaire is open. No response count is shown here while collection is under way; when results are published they will state the number and composition of respondents and the limits of the sample.
Take part
28 questions · about 8 to 10 minutes
For financial crime, compliance and transformation practitioners at UK regulated firms. Please do not include customer data or confidential client information. Your progress is saved on this device only.
Questions about the research
If you have a question about the benchmark, get in touch through the contact section and mention Agora Research. In the meantime the Financial Crime Knowledge Hub and the regulatory answers set out our current practitioner guidance.
Next step
Contribute to the benchmark
Complete the anonymous questionnaire above, or see the platform the research is informed by.