Automated Merchant Compliance for this Fast Growing Bank

About the Client

Since the 1700s, this London based Banking Group has been serving the people, businesses and communities of Britain.

Business Challenges

When the Banking Group prepared to launch its first-ever Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) product, the team faced a new compliance challenge: ensuring every financial promotion met strict regulatory requirements related to Financial Promotions (finpromo compliance).

The complexity grew when the bank decided to extend commissions to merchants—a move that made them directly responsible for ensuring each merchant’s marketing materials were compliant. A single oversight could lead to reputational harm or even threaten their banking license.

Manual monitoring wasn’t sustainable. With hundreds of merchant websites to oversee, the compliance team lacked the capacity to manually review content each day and identify prohibited claims or missing disclosures.

PerformLine Solutions

After evaluating several compliance monitoring providers, The Banking Group selected PerformLine based on a trusted partner’s recommendation and the platform’s proven track record with financial institutions.

PerformLine’s automated compliance monitoring gave the bank continuous visibility across all merchant web pages. The platform automatically scans, analyzes, and flags potential issues using customizable rules that reflect the bank’s specific compliance standards.

The PerformLine Rules library was a major advantage—it included pre-built compliance templates aligned with FCA regulations while allowing The Banking Group to create their own custom rules that met their requirements as a tier-one bank.

Additionally, PerformLine collaborated with the bank to develop a banner assessment capability, expanding monitoring beyond text-based content to include visual ad placements—a critical feature for the bank’s digital marketing oversight.

The Results

Within weeks of implementation, PerformLine identified compliance issues that manual reviews had missed, including violations tied to prohibited phrases such as “best pricing.”

The platform now provides end-to-end coverage for The Banking Group’s compliance priorities:

• Regulatory compliance under FCA oversight
• Branding and marketing consistency across merchants
• Privacy and consumer protection requirements
• Complaint and disclosure verification for all merchant content
  
  

Building on its success with web monitoring, The Banking Group has since added email and social media oversight, giving the compliance team complete visibility into all merchant communications that reference the bank’s brand.

By automating these processes, the bank significantly saved time and  reduced operational costs. PerformLine delivered the same oversight as 3 analysts resulting in substantial savings—not including the additional savings from reduced compliance risk exposure.

The Impact

The Banking Group transformed its compliance operations from reactive to proactive—replacing manual monitoring with a scalable, automated program that evolves with their business.

Today, the compliance team can confidently support ongoing BNPL expansion, knowing every merchant communication is monitored for accuracy, fairness, and compliance—without slowing growth.