In the dynamic realm of banking and finance, staying ahead of the curve is paramount. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has emerged as a game-changer, offering transformative solutions to streamline operations, enhance compliance, and elevate customer experiences. From automating repetitive tasks to improving accuracy and agility, RPA has become integral to the success of financial institutions worldwide. In this blog, we’ll explore the top 10 benefits that RPA brings to the banking and financial industries, illustrating how this innovative technology is reshaping processes and driving unprecedented efficiency and effectiveness.
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has become integral to the operations of the banking and financial industry, allowing for the automation of repetitive and mundane tasks through the use of software robots. By freeing up employees from these tasks, RPA enables them to focus on more value-adding and customer-centric activities. This technology plays a crucial role in increasing efficiency and helping banks remain competitive in an ever-expanding market.
Here are several key ways in which RPA is utilized in the banking and financial industry:
Also read, “RPA Use Cases For Major Industries“
Source: GrandViewResearch
RPA finds extensive applications across various functions within the BFSI sector, including payable accounts, credit card processing, customer service, account closure processes, account opening, receivables, and mortgage processing. Its versatility in addressing both back-end and front-end processes makes it an invaluable asset for enhancing operational efficiency.
In 2022, the North American region emerged as the frontrunner in the RPA market within the BFSI sector, capturing a significant market share of 37.2%. This dominance is expected to persist over the forecast period, reflecting the region’s proactive adoption of advanced technologies to drive innovation and efficiency in banking and financial operations.
The escalating costs associated with Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance, Customer Due Diligence (CDD), and onboarding processes are compelling financial institutions, particularly in the United States, to explore RPA solutions. It’s estimated that a U.S. bank with assets exceeding USD 10 billion spends an average of USD 50 million annually on KYC compliance alone. The pressing need to mitigate these costs while ensuring stringent regulatory compliance is propelling the uptake of automation technologies like RPA.
Here are the top 10 benefits of RPA in the banking and finance industry,
RPA technology in financial services offers remarkable scalability, enabling banks to automate tasks with minimal effort and cost. As workloads fluctuate or change, RPA robots seamlessly adapt, ensuring that operations remain agile and responsive to evolving needs. Designed to scale seamlessly, RPA bots are ideal for banking and finance institutions to manage huge volumes of transactions during peak business hours. In addition to scalability, RPA provides increased flexibility to quickly adapt and meet changing business demands without compromising efficiency.
OCBC leverages RPA extensively, leading to a remarkable reduction in the time taken to re-price home loans from 45 minutes to just one minute. This substantial enhancement in operational efficiency has not only streamlined internal processes but also significantly improved customer service.
The Japanese financial powerhouse, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG), embarked on a journey to enhance productivity and operational efficiency by embracing RPA in 2017. The implementation of RPA has enabled them to automate numerous repetitive tasks, resulting in increased productivity and reduced operational costs.
RPA eliminates the need for manual handling of routine processes such as data entry, document verification, and transaction processing. This automation accelerates task completion, reduces processing times, and minimizes the risk of delays, leading to enhanced operational efficiency. The implementation of RPA in banking and finance has transformed industry operations, increasing efficiency, and boosting customer engagement. RPA can help banks and financial institutions save time and resources by automating tedious tasks, minimizing mistakes, and boosting productivity.
As one of the largest banks globally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. has implemented RPA across several major processes, including account reconciliation, invoice processing, and automating manual data entry tasks. The adoption of RPA at JPMorgan Chase has resulted in a significant reduction in processing time, improved accuracy, and a critical minimization of manual errors.
Radius Financial Group has leveraged RPA in banking to expedite mortgage processing. Before implementing RPA, loan processors often felt overwhelmed managing 30 loans in their pipeline. However, with the assistance of robotic automation, they now comfortably handle up to 50 loans without experiencing undue stress. This demonstrates how RPA can alleviate workload pressures and improve productivity within financial institutions.
While initial investment in infrastructure, training, and management for RPA may be substantial, it delivers significant savings in the long run. Studies reveal that most RPA deployments have a return on investment (ROI) of fewer than 14 months.
According to Gartner, complete implementation of RPA can save up to 25,000 hours and $878,000 every year. Furthermore, due to RPA’s low-code approach, it’s an ideal choice for banking and financial institutions. Utilizing this technology in the financial system can save approximately 20-25% of costs due to increased efficiency, low energy use, and reduced time. RPA can facilitate compliance reporting, helping to meet regulatory requirements.
One example of a company utilizing RPA technology is Kofax, which offers intelligent automation software across various industries including banking, healthcare, insurance, and government. Kofax RPA is adept at handling large volumes of data, extracting information from multiple sources, and seamlessly integrating with other applications. Some of the key benefits that Kofax RPA provides include:
Also read, “A Guide To RPA as a Service “
The financial industry inherently generates a large volume of tasks and processes, making banking an ideal environment for intelligent automation. RPA in banking can automate numerous time-consuming, repetitive processes such as account opening, Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures, and customer services. Managing such extensive data and compiling financial statements accurately presents a significant challenge for banks. With RPA deployment, banks can swiftly gather, update, and validate large volumes of information from multiple systems, enhancing efficiency and accuracy.
This Japanese financial institution has effectively employed automation in banking to eliminate 400,000 hours of manual labor for its employees. By embracing automation technologies, SMFG has streamlined processes and significantly enhanced operational efficiency, exemplifying the transformative impact of RPA in the banking sector.
DBS collaborated with IBM to establish an enterprise-wide Centre of Excellence (COE) in RPA, underscoring the increasing trend among financial institutions to extend RPA initiatives beyond back-end operations. This strategic partnership highlights DBS’s commitment to harnessing RPA technology to drive innovation, efficiency, and competitiveness across its business operations.
Also read, “How Much Does RPA Implementation Cost?“
RPA systems possess the capability to understand and process multiple languages, rendering them versatile for global operations.
For instance, advanced multilingual AI chatbots like Amy, deployed in customer service platforms such as HSBC Hong Kong, can communicate fluently in Chinese (both Mandarin and Cantonese) and English. This multilingual capability enables RPA systems to effectively handle customer interactions in diverse languages, thereby enhancing customer service and experience.
RPA streamlines the credit card application processing workflow, from data input to credit scoring. It can interact with multiple systems simultaneously, validate various types of data including background and credit checks, and make application decisions based on predefined rules. This automation ensures a faster and more accurate evaluation of creditworthiness, expediting the approval or rejection process and enhancing overall efficiency.
This Turkish bank utilized RPA to automate credit card operations, resulting in a significant reduction in customer feedback handling time, from 10 minutes to a fraction of it. Additionally, RPA facilitated overnight reconciliations, flagged suspicious transactions, and more. Automation empowered employees to focus on value-added activities instead of manual, menial work. Furthermore, coordination with RPA enhanced work efficiency, showcasing the transformative impact of automation within the banking sector.
As one of the leading banks in Bulgaria, Postbank has embraced RPA to streamline 20 loan administration processes. Even seemingly simple tasks, such as distributing received payments for credit card debts to correct customers, required multiple checks across different systems. RPA implementation has enhanced efficiency and accuracy in these processes, demonstrating the significant benefits of automation in optimizing banking operations.
RPA systems are engineered for high accuracy, effectively eliminating mistakes common in manual processes. RPA bots execute tasks with remarkable precision and consistency. By reducing human errors in data input and processing, RPA safeguards data integrity for banks, minimizing the risk of costly mistakes that could tarnish reputation and financial stability. This accuracy is particularly valuable in industries like insurance, where RPA has mitigated paperwork errors leading to delayed or denied payouts.
Cyclone Robotics implemented RPA at the Shanghai branch of the Postal Savings Bank to create “intelligent assistants” for each employee. These new assistants effectively took over many repetitive tasks that previously led to employee errors, resulting in significant time savings for the bank. This implementation has helped the bank save nearly 450 human hours each month, showcasing the efficiency and effectiveness of RPA in banking operations.
Walmart utilizes approximately 500 bots to automate various processes, such as answering simple employee questions and extracting information from audit documents. This implementation of RPA has enabled Walmart to streamline operations, improve accuracy, and enhance productivity across its business functions, underscoring the versatility and effectiveness of RPA across different industries.
RPA excels at managing multiple tasks simultaneously, thereby enhancing productivity. The financial industry’s prolific production of tasks and processes makes it an ideal environment for intelligent automation. RPA implementation in banking involves leveraging advanced business process automation tools to automate mundane and repetitive tasks, allowing employees to dedicate their time to more value-adding and customer-centric activities. In essence, RPA replicates human actions interacting with software, exponentially boosting efficiency.
Zurich, the world’s largest insurance firm, has achieved notable success in finance automation through its partnership with RPA provider Capgemini. This collaboration has enabled Zurich Insurance to optimize finance-related processes, enhance efficiency, and improve overall operational effectiveness.
Bancolombia, Colombia’s largest bank, harnesses robotic process automation (RPA) tools to empower customers in managing investment portfolios. This initiative underscores the adaptability of RPA across diverse sectors, showcasing how automation technology can revolutionize customer service and enhance user experience in the banking industry.
RPA systems operate continuously without breaks, ensuring seamless operations around the clock. This uninterrupted availability guarantees task completion without any downtime, thereby enhancing overall efficiency. RPA software bots function incessantly, delivering uninterrupted service. Consequently, critical functions such as transaction monitoring and customer support can proceed seamlessly during weekends, holidays, or beyond regular business hours, meeting customers’ needs without interruption.
As the largest financial institution in Canada, the Royal Bank of Canada has implemented smart chatbots for over a year to enhance customer service. This strategic adoption of chatbot technology showcases the bank’s commitment to leveraging innovative solutions to improve customer experience and streamline interactions.
During the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, BP3 collaborated with a healthcare organization to optimize the dose registration process. Utilizing RPA, BP3 automated and uploaded dose registrations, alleviating the burden on medical staff. This initiative demonstrates the transformative impact of RPA in streamlining critical processes and enhancing efficiency, particularly in times of crisis.
RPA technology in financial services is remarkable, enabling banks to automate tasks with minimal effort and cost. As workloads fluctuate or change, RPA robots seamlessly adapt, ensuring that operations remain agile and responsive to evolving needs. This adaptability is particularly beneficial in the banking and financial industry, where the volume and nature of transactions can vary significantly.
For instance, during peak business hours or seasonal fluctuations, the demand for certain banking services may increase. In such scenarios, RPA systems can easily scale up to handle the increased workload. Moreover, RPA systems can quickly adapt to changes in regulatory requirements or business processes, ensuring compliance and efficiency.
ANZ Bank has been at the forefront of adopting RPA technology. The bank has deployed over 200 bots capable of handling tasks ranging from basic data entry to intricate mortgage processing. This strategic implementation has led to substantial cost savings, enhanced accuracy, and elevated levels of customer satisfaction.
American Express (Amex) has leveraged RPA to automate its dispute handling process. The bots are equipped to extract unstructured data from emails, input relevant information into systems, and make rule-based decisions. This innovative approach has significantly reduced the time required to resolve disputes, streamlining operations and improving efficiency within the organization.
Deploying Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in banking and finance involves several key steps:
Also read, “RPA In Finance: Benefits And Use Cases“
Here are the top 10 RPA Apps for banking and finance platforms,
AirSlate SignNow is a global SaaS technology company offering no-code business process automation and document management solutions. It provides features such as PDF editing, e-signature workflows, and business process automation solutions.
AirSlate has experienced significant growth, with over 20 million users worldwide collaborating on workflows.
IBM Robotic Process Automation (RPA), also known as software robotics, utilizes automation technologies to mimic back-office tasks performed by human workers. It integrates APIs and user interface interactions to automate repetitive tasks between enterprise and productivity applications.
The RPA market size was estimated to achieve $2.2 billion in revenue in 2021, with a projected CAGR of 18.8%, reaching $5.07 billion by 2026.
Pega is a low-code platform for AI-powered decisioning and workflow automation. It helps businesses automate various business and IT tasks at scale, offering features such as AI-powered decisioning and workflow automation.
Pega reported double-digit ACV growth and record cash flow in Q4 2013, indicating positive business growth. The total backlog increased by 23% year over year.
Microsoft Power Automate, previously known as Microsoft Flow until November 2019, is a SaaS platform by Microsoft for optimizing and automating workflows and business processes. It is part of the Microsoft Power Platform line of products, which includes Power Apps and Power BI.
Microsoft Power Automate is driving real-world impact, with over 10,000 organizations already utilizing Microsoft Copilot Studio to craft tailored copilots. The platform has been utilized by more than 230,000 organizations for AI capabilities within the Microsoft Power Platform.
Automation Anywhere is a leading provider of RPA solutions, allowing organizations to configure computer software or “robots” to emulate human interactions within digital systems to execute business processes.
Automation Anywhere has experienced significant growth, with the company valued at $6.8 billion as of its Series B in November 2019.
SAP Build is a unified low-code offering built on the SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), enabling users to create enterprise applications, automate processes, and design business sites with drag-and-drop simplicity.
SAP Build is a new offering from SAP, expected to have significant growth and impact as it enables business experts to do more, solve more, and solve faster.
Fortra’s Automate is an IT management software designed to automate business and IT processes. It helps manage repetitive tasks and centralized job scheduling through robotic process automation.
Fortra’s Automate has been adopted by many businesses to increase operational efficiency, reduce downtime, and streamline mission-critical IT and business processes.
SS&C Blue Prism Intelligent Automation combines AI and machine learning to deliver strategic business goals rapidly. It’s recognized for its ability to execute and completeness of vision.
SS&C Blue Prism intelligent automation solutions have helped deliver against strategic business goals, allowing businesses to remain agile in the face of an ever-changing socio-economic landscape.
Datamatics TruBot is a unique Robotic Process Automation technology that automates a wide range of basic and sophisticated procedures.
Datamatics shows strong growth in FY22, with revenue up 17.4% YoY to $1.4 B and PAT up 120% YoY to $1.6M.
Robocorp is a cloud platform for robotic process automation (RPA) and open-source RPA tools. Developers from hobbyists to enterprise operators use Robocorp to build and operate Python workers that run seamlessly anywhere at any scale.
Robocorp has closed a $21M Series A investment round and is poised for rapid growth into new markets. In its first 6 months, Robocorp Cloud has been adopted by over 1,000 organizations, with hundreds of thousands of bot processes deployed.
Also, read. “Using RPA & AI Together: Benefits And Use Cases“
The implementation of RPA in the banking and financial sector brings about transformative changes that lead to enhanced operational efficiency, reduced costs, and increased competitiveness. By automating routine tasks and optimizing workflow processes, RPA enables financial institutions to focus on strategic initiatives, innovation, and delivering superior customer service. As the industry continues to embrace digital transformation, RPA emerges as a critical tool for driving growth and success in the banking and financial landscape.
If you are interested in leveraging RPA technology to optimize processes and drive innovation in the banking and financial sector, Ideausher is here to help. From mobile app development to web app solutions, our experienced team specializes in creating customized RPA solutions tailored to your specific needs. Contact us today to explore how RPA can revolutionize your business operations and propel you toward greater success.
A1: Robotic Process Automation (RPA) can be extensively utilized in finance for automating various repetitive and rule-based tasks. In finance, RPA can automate processes such as data entry, reconciliation, compliance reporting, account management, and fraud detection. By deploying RPA bots, financial institutions can streamline their operations, improve accuracy, reduce processing times, and ensure compliance with regulatory standards. Additionally, RPA can facilitate the integration of disparate systems and applications, enabling seamless data exchange and workflow automation across different departments within the finance sector.
A2: Banks use RPA primarily to enhance operational efficiency, reduce costs, mitigate risks, and improve customer experiences. RPA enables banks to automate manual and time-consuming tasks, thereby freeing up human resources to focus on more value-added activities. By automating processes like data entry, account reconciliation, and compliance reporting, banks can achieve greater accuracy, faster turnaround times, and higher levels of productivity. Furthermore, RPA helps banks stay compliant with regulatory requirements, minimize errors, and enhance security by reducing the risk of fraudulent activities.
A3: RPA has a profound impact on the banking industry by revolutionizing operational processes, enhancing customer experiences, and driving innovation. With RPA, banks can automate a wide range of tasks, from back-office operations to customer-facing interactions, resulting in increased efficiency and productivity. RPA enables banks to accelerate digital transformation initiatives, improve service delivery, and remain competitive in an increasingly digitalized landscape. Moreover, RPA fosters greater agility and flexibility within banks, allowing them to adapt quickly to changing market dynamics, regulatory requirements, and customer demands.
A4: The most important benefit of AI in the banking industry is its ability to enhance customer experiences through personalized services, predictive analytics, and proactive engagement. AI-powered solutions enable banks to analyze vast amounts of customer data in real-time, identify patterns, and deliver tailored recommendations and offer to individual customers. By leveraging AI technologies such as machine learning and natural language processing, banks can provide more efficient and personalized services, anticipate customer needs, and improve overall satisfaction. Additionally, AI helps banks optimize risk management, fraud detection, and compliance processes, leading to greater operational efficiency and reduced costs.