Fintech founders love a clean signup flow. Three fields, one tap, welcome aboard. It looks great in a product demo and makes the conversion chart feel healthy.
Then identity checks arrive.
KYC changes the mood because the user suddenly has work to do. They may need to confirm personal details, upload a document, approve access, or wait while information is checked. Product teams often treat those moments as obstacles that should be stripped away. Regulated gambling offers a better lesson: friction is not automatically bad. Confusing friction is bad.
Recent research reported in September 2026 found that 47% of users abandon digital onboarding when verification becomes too long or cumbersome. That is not an argument for removing checks. It is an argument for designing them properly.
The real problem isn’t friction. It’s unexplained friction
Users will tolerate a surprising amount of effort when they understand why it is happening.
Think about airport security. Nobody enjoys taking a laptop out of a bag, but the purpose is obvious. Digital onboarding works in a similar way. A request for an ID document feels heavier when it appears without context. Add one short sentence explaining why the information is needed, and the same step feels more reasonable.
Ontario’s regulated gambling market makes this tension easy to see. Account creation involves personal information and identity verification before regulated services can be used. Betinia Ontario offers a useful example of the product challenge: verification has to sit inside an experience that still feels clear, familiar, and consumer-friendly rather than bureaucratic.
For fintech founders, that’s the takeaway. Don’t hide necessary friction. Explain it.
A line of microcopy can do a lot of work. “We need this to verify your identity” is better than a blank upload screen with a camera icon and no explanation. Tiny detail? Sure. Tiny details are where onboarding lives or dies.
Ask for information when it makes sense
Many onboarding flows fail because they behave like forms created by departments rather than journeys designed for people.
Compliance needs one field. Marketing adds three more. Product wants a referral code. Someone asks for employment details “just in case”. Suddenly the customer is filling out what feels like a mortgage application before seeing the product.
The better approach is sequencing. Ask for the minimum information required at each stage. Then move.
This reduces cognitive load and makes progress visible. A user who completes one clear task is more likely to continue than someone staring at a wall of twelve fields.
There’s a broader product lesson here too: short doesn’t always mean simple. A five-screen flow with one obvious task per screen may feel quicker than a single page packed with boxes.
Recovery paths deserve more attention
Founders spend hours debating the perfect happy path. Real users rarely behave that neatly.
A document photo is blurry. A connection drops. Someone gets a text halfway through signup and closes the app. Another person starts on a laptop and wants to finish on a phone.
What happens next?
Canadian fintech onboarding research published in 2026 has highlighted resume functionality and alternate verification routes as areas where flows can improve. People don’t always abandon because they changed their mind. Sometimes the process simply lost them.
Good onboarding should remember progress where possible, explain what went wrong in plain language, and provide a clear next action.
“Try again” is not a strategy. Tell the user what needs fixing.
Measure the awkward moments, not just completion
A founder looking only at total signup conversion misses half the story.
Break onboarding into stages. Track where users pause, retry, leave, return, or contact support. If one identity screen takes three times longer than the others, there’s your clue. If users repeatedly quit after being redirected to a verification partner, inspect the handoff.
The goal isn’t zero friction. That’s a fantasy for regulated products.
The goal is justified friction: steps that have a purpose, arrive at the right moment, and explain themselves clearly.
Regulated gambling has had to live with that reality for years. Fintech founders can learn a lot from it. Trust isn’t created by removing every gate. Sometimes trust comes from making the gate feel sensible.
19+ in Ontario. Responsible gambling support: ConnexOntario, 1-866-531-2600.
