The banking industry is changing dramatically along with global digitization. With many customers using the internet in their daily lives, many banks cannot but start operating virtual banking platforms alongside adopting digital transformation systems like RPA to streamline operations and give better user experience to their customers.
While many banks across Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Canada, and across Africa yet to adopt robotic process automation in banking operations, many multinational commercial banks have already leveraged RPA to automate and simplify many banking processes. This has enabled them to increase efficiency, reduce costs and focus their staff on key result areas.
Apart from efficiency, security is a big factor in banks. With banking frauds rising astronomically in recent times, it has become incumbent on banks and financial institutions to reduce and eliminate fraudulent banking activities. RPA bots are very quick and fast in assessing internal and external databases to track any suspected fraudulent activity on a customer’s account.
RPA bots become a chief human fraud prevention system ensuring that all data is kept from a fraudster and the sinister traps of people. Since RPA bots work 24/7 without getting tired, banks can be sure that RPA bots will not only help in fraud prevention but also ensure that all clients records and database are safe from manipulations.
How RPA Works in Banking
For commercial banks to operate efficiently, many clerical and administrative tasks need to be handled by key staff. However, manual clerical process management is subject to human errors which can cost the bank hundreds, thousands and sometimes millions of dollars. By adopting robotics in banking operations, RPA bots get the job done with 100% accuracy.
Implementing robotics in banking simply involves deploying automation platforms like UiPath, or Automation Anywhere to automatically process the transfer of data that occur between environments, including, cloud-based software, core platforms applications and even desktop applications like Excel during banking operations. These activities are usually handled by the back-office employees of the bank.
For example, when a bank’s customer applies for a new operating loan, the back office staff may need to coordinate with the usual front end by manually transferring data between core application system to complete the process. This can lead to an enormous amount of pressure and workload, if not handled well, mistakes can be made during the data transfer. Apart from that, the manual transfer can take up more time.
Instead of overloading the back-office employees with many of these repetitive, mundane and manual tasks, RPA bots can be assigned these tasks. The application of robotics in banking workflows provides the capability to drastically reduce human effort in the manual transfer of data to complete all operations required for efficient banking. RPA bots will be programmed to weave core system fields and complete them in the right way to meet industry and regulatory compliance standards.
This is the reason global banks such as Axis Banks, HDFC, ICIC, Deutsche Banks and many others have already taken the lead to adopt robotics to provide excellent banking experience to their customers. RPA bots do not just ensure accuracy, they reduce the time taken using human efforts to complete core administrative tasks.
For example, the implementation of robotics in banking operations can reduce the time taken by human agents by 60%. This increases the speed of transaction and the general productivity of the bank.
Growing and emerging banks or financial services handling a large volume of customer data need to follow the trend of leading bank players to avoid errors, reduce completion time and increase efficiency
Examples of Banking Processes that Can Be Automated with RPA
Apart from back-office clerical tasks and core system integration, RPA can be implemented at many keystroke levels of the bank’s operations to increase effectiveness and efficiency. Whereas enormous time is taken in the past to do arduous programming and conventional coding, there is no need of that now.
RPA experts such as Ntansa can automate any banking process with RPA bots without any coding or knowledge of coding by the banking staff to apply the system. By analyzing the bank’s operating environment and workflows, a customized RPA program can be implemented to automate and streamline the baking operations.
With years of being in the industry, working with several clients, Ntansa have helped many emerging and leading banks to automate mundane, boring, and laborious banking tasks using robotics process automation tools. The following are some of the commercial banking operations that can be automated with RPA:
- Customer Service Operations
- Accounts Payable Processing
- Accounts Receivable Processing
- Mortgage Loan Processing
- Small Business Loan Processing
- Commercial Deposit Operations
- Banking Report Automation
- Banking Fraud Prevention
- Payment Processing of Vendors
- Credit Card Processing
- Account Closure Operations
- Compliance Management
- Payroll Application & Processing
Automating Banking Processes with RPA
The following is a three-step process to implement robotics in any banking operations. While the steps have been simplified, with the help of RPA consultants, the details of each process will be considered and the required RPA implementation will be done for the associated banking.
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Repetitive Processes Identification
While RPA can be integrated into many functions and operations, there are some places which they can be best applied. For example, if you analyze your banking operations, you will notice that there are some key workflows that involve many mundane, repetitive data transcription work to complete. These tasks should be listed as your first robotic process automation banking project.
Tasks that involve customer interactions will have to engage RPA and customer support staff, but those with a high level of decision making must be eliminated. In this way, the bank can determine where they need RPA to streamline their operation
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Workflow Standardization
Once the processes have been identified, it has to be standardized for RPA bots. While RPA has been proven to boost productivity for many banks, it is very important for banks looking to apply RPA to standardize their operations. In real-time, what RPA bots do is to get the job done for your people faster and easier without making any errors.
That means RPA bots have to be programmed with the standardized process of performing various functions. For example, your bank needs to have a standard process for opening accounts, entering data and processing new accounts. This standard process will be used by the RPA bots to perform the required task in an excellent fashion and will make it easy for outsourcing the task to RPA bots to continue the process.
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RPA Implementation
Since banking processes vary from one bank to another, RPA experts can customize the automation to ensure that it meets the required demands of each bank. RPA technology is not a one size fit all application. Through strategic consultation, information gathering and analyzing, RPA application can be customized to meet the unique needs of each bank’s operations.
Application of robotics in banking does not involve setting up of new infrastructure to accommodate the implementation. RPA technology can be programmed and integrated into any banking process regardless of the type of banking applications, core systems or programs already in use. Commercial banks with large networks and branches can get high ROI from the implementation with faster coordination between all application systems.
Is your bank tired of handling or making errors with repetitive, mundane banking process? Looking to lower cost, increase the speed of operation, get better results and wow your customers with professional banking experience? Contact our RPA consultants at www.ntansa.com today to evaluate your bank’s conditions and determine a customized solution plan for the bank and exceed the needs of your customer businesses.
