Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in Banks

How do Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solutions come up to increase efficiency in banking processes?

The banking and financial sectors face tremendous competition in today’s world. Due to this, Customers’ expectations for efficient, accurate, and faster processes are shooting up for Banking Services. To deliver the best service to customers banking companies across the globe are embracing new cutting-edge technologies. The best technological solution to all these problems is delivered by Robotic Process Automation along with Artificial Intelligence.

RPA bank performs repetitive and sequential processes thus increasing the efficiency of Human-Intensive, low-value processes. Also, it ensures high precision in data handling along with the overall reduction in price.

Robotic process automation (RPA) enters the Banking Sector

With current digital scenarios, most banking companies have already got aligned to intelligent software to perform all their front-end systems and other customer-oriented systems. But is that all that is needed for a bank to function effectively? Major data management does not lie with the front-end systems but with the back-office applications. Also, the processes demand very accurate and fast-paced workflows to meet the demands. But, the most important factor would be to maintain a consistent quality of services with minimal or zero errors in the process. Robotic Process Automation in the banking sector fits exactly into the back–end services puzzle. The entire process relies on a rule-based repetitive workflow that can imitate the majority of the human-intensive back-end activities. Also, such a process ensures an overall reduction in cost and increases efficiency instantly. With Robots in the picture, there is complete assurance of consistency in the data processing with 100% accuracy.

Having talked about RPA processes, the Banking sector should also be aware of the pre-requisites that need to be met before initiating the implementation process:

1. All the processes must be standardized before getting Robots into the picture.
2. There should be a lot of concern shown towards legal regulations and proper instructions should be framed.
3. Lastly, an integrated approach needs to be analyzed before bringing the RPA into the game. Integrated process workflows generate the maximum reduction in the overall cost of the company.

Advantages of using robotics in banking

Robotic Process Automation in banking systems is booming in the market as Banking companies can exploit the technology to the fullest. Some of the benefits that the Banking Institutions look forward to are:

1. Scalability: A significant quality improvement has been achieved, eliminating errors.

2. User-friendly Integration: Bots can switch between multiple systems and data can be transferred throughout. With the help of Attended and Unattended Robots, Integration can take place smoothly without intervening with the existing workflows.

3. Reusability: Bots can be modified and reused by multiple processes quickly and efficiently saving a lot of time and effort.

4. Quick ROI: Even though the initial installation cost is high, with an integrated framework and data handling techniques of RPA in banking operations, a company can expect an overall reduction in cost and save plenty of money.

5. Error-free Processing: Bots work on rule-based repetitive methodology. This ensures that the processes run with 100% accuracy with little to no human error. Also, Bots run the process much faster than a manual workforce thus reducing the overall processing time and increasing the efficiency of the system.

Some applications in banking where RPA solutions can be implemented

Credit card statements

The process of acquiring a credit card was always a cumbersome and time-consuming job. Due to its complexity, customers were not satisfied to accept the wait time before owning a credit card. Hence, before the complete process was carried out, numerous customers cancelled the applications. Credit Card Applications and Statements can be easily implemented using robotic process automation in the banking industry. With Robots in the picture, the entire process can become fast, easy to implement, and reduce human errors. Also, robots can verify customer documents, credit inquiries and credit check swiftly to make a final rule-based decision about issuing the credit card. The best part of RPA in the banking sector process lies in the transparency it offers to the customers.

Fraud prevention

Every Banking customer would want their data to be protected by all means. Hence, a bank has to be very careful to prevent any fraud that can take place. Also, with all the banking services going digital, companies have to be excessively aware of any data leakage or malpractices. But, for a bank, it is very challenging to review all the transactions and identify the fraud patterns manually. To overcome this challenge, banks can implement the RPA process to handle Fraud practices in the workplace. The robots can easily recognize potential fraud cases and send them to the respective team to look for the cases manually. Say, for example, a robot can run through a large volume of transactions that are being initiated. They can then check and classify whether the transactions possess any potential risk within a short period. Each risk-bearing transaction can then be transferred to the respective department for further processes. Hence, RPA solutions in banking can minimize fraudulent practices in the banking sector.

KYC process

The Know-Your-Customer Process (KYC), which is becoming a mandatory process in many banking systems, is a perfect scenario to implement Robotics in banking operations. The process is known to handle a few hundred full-time equivalents (FTEs) through manual control which entails high financial expenses. A robot can easily replace this manual process and increase the overall efficiency of the process. The software robots have to collect, analyze and verify the customer data in a highly rule-based, sequential process. Also, this process ensures easy implementation, faster results, and high accuracy in handling the data which optimizes the KYC process overall.

Account closure process

Account opening and closing is the most common process in any banking institution. Account closing is as important a process as account opening and a bank has to handle a large amount of account closing applications in a month. Banks have to not only delete customer-initiated closing accounts but also erase the data related to incomplete registration. Handling all these processes manually increases the time and cost of the company and also leads to a lot of manual errors. The account closing process can be integrated with Robotics in the banking sector. It is a rule-based repetitive process with a large number of transactions that need to be processed daily. Also, bots can remind customers to complete their application process time and again which reduces incomplete applications in the database. Robots can identify faulty accounts and close them immediately. This way, RPA in the banking industry can optimize the closing process easily and efficiently reducing the overall cost and allowing the manual workforce to work on other decision-making processes.