See how bank automation can leverage business and how the Data Trust platform can ensure a perfect customer experience!
The Covid-19 pandemic and technological evolution boosted automation in several sectors, including banking. Before, it was necessary to go to the bank to apply for credit, open an account, ask for a loan, and the like; nowadays, all this can be done through a cell phone.
What’s more, customers are looking for an increasingly agile and more accessible service. By the way, a survey by Neoassist found that 87% of customers expect companies to offer self-service.
For institutions, this aspect is very beneficial as well. Automation reduces process latency, solves problems faster, generates savings, and even allows employees to focus on more strategic issues, which the machine cannot do.
In this guide, we will explain what bank automation is, how this process works, its benefits, services that can automate, and precautions observed in its implementation. Continue reading to find out more!
What is bank automation?
It is the application of technological tools in specific processes, partially or eliminating the need for human interaction. In this sense, the focus is on routine tasks, which can be performed by pre-programmed software.
Automation is typically implemented to reduce costs, avoid errors, and eliminate wasted operational resources. The activities are performed from “triggers” programmed by a professional. As a result, the institution can focus on more critical routines and strategies directly linked to its ability to do business.
Automation in a financial environment
In the financial environment, the main objective is to put technology in favor of customers and an institution’s internal processes. Thus, it is possible to offer agile and quality financial services to business partners and consumers.
Automation makes it possible to drastically reduce the time required to perform routines related to repetitive banking processes, creating a more innovative and competitive service portfolio.
How does the bank automation process work?
It can involve all the company operations, such as internal processes, which increase the capacity of professionals to perform their activities, and external routines, which increase the quality of resources to meet the needs of business partners and customers.
In the external environment, the most popular technologies are Internet Banking and Mobile Banking. For the business, they can reduce costs and offer more convergent services, enhancing customer attraction and loyalty.
Another technology, such as RPA (Robotic Process Automation), does not require any development on client systems, as the solution is implemented at the user layer. In addition, it offers speed and ease of implementation and provides an exciting return on investment.
Availability of services
These technologies, when applied, allow the customer to have the bank available anytime and anywhere. When using self-service, mobile banking, or internet banking services, you no longer need to rely only on the cashier to be served. In this way, the financial institution can guarantee assistance to the needs and demands of consumers with agility and efficiency.
Impacts on internal services
Internally, bank automation impacts several aspects, both in the corporate environment and in the performance of professionals. The Back Office, a system that integrates management processes, enables significant gains with the automation of administrative tasks, resource management, and data integration.
This is because they start to be executed with less probability of errors and greater agility, providing more security and efficiency. On the other hand, IT professionals gain more skills and can deliver better quality services through bank automation.
In addition, with sensors connected to data centers, IT infrastructure management is less expensive, with fewer frequent errors and faster responses to possible failures.
Benefits of bank automation
Bank automation provides several benefits, both quantitative and qualitative. This is possible thanks to technologies that streamline and increase the efficiency of internal processes and customer interaction channels.
Considering technological advances and the need to meet the demands of a much more dynamic and demanding consumer, this technology has become fundamental for the survival of companies in an increasingly competitive environment.
In this sense, banking technology offers:
- Scalability — fast, controlled response to growth events.
- Time-to-market — shorter response time to customer and market needs.
- Focus on higher added value activities — frees up time for employees to dedicate themselves to other activities enjoyable to the business.
- Quality improvement in the management and control of processes — promotes the reduction of operational errors and costs, allowing the traceability and control of information.
Convenience and practicality
This way, the customer can relate to their financial institution without going to an agency. Just install and use institution applications to get a good user experience. Thus, transactions, payment of bills, or verification of information can be carried out 24 hours a day, allowing more business integration into the consumer’s routine.
Agility in processes
The agility in the processes is one of the most significant benefits. This is because banks have always been known for huge queues at cashiers, especially at peak times, such as salary payment dates, among other situations.
Quality in service
There is an excellent gain in service quality. The institution can implement a chatbot to meet small demands, streamlining and unburdening the central. For the customer, this means more available and more brilliant banking services. As for the financial institution, this helps reduce internal workload and operational costs.
As a result, small demands, such as data consultation, can be performed without needing an employee at various points, eliminating several calls received in the institution’s service channels.
Safety
Although this has been a significant concern, technologies provide greater security for banks, reducing operational risks from activities previously performed manually.
Automation brings more protection to the business. This is because monitoring systems can respond to attacks with greater agility and accuracy, reducing the likelihood of services being unavailable or the institution losing its strategic information.
This way, the IT infrastructure can achieve a much higher degree of integrity and reliability. By the way, in internal processes, technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and OCR allow a detailed analysis of data, avoiding various risks and fraud.
Increased productivity
With the help of technology, the team gains productivity, as it does not have to waste time with numerous simple tasks. Thus, employees perform activities in less time, freed up for product development or service quality improvement.
cost reduction
Like any strategic action, bank automation requires an initial investment to implement systems. However, this should be understood as savings in the company’s operations.
In addition to providing customer benefits, instant transactions eliminate human rework, such as the need to check documents and count money, among others.
Improve customer experience
Automating processes makes it possible to offer a better customer experience, positively and directly impacting the company’s business. After all, satisfied consumers generate new business opportunities, and technology is a crucial tool to ensure excellent service.
In addition to reducing costs with employees in branches and SAC, the added value in the experience increases the probability of loyalty. It is possible to offer more autonomy to the user, allowing a large part of the actions, previously carried out in person, to be quickly resolved without the need to leave the house and be available in the palms of the hands in a few minutes.
error reduction
A machine’s chance of miscalculating is much smaller than a person’s. Thus, automation reduces errors that can generate losses for both the customer and the bank. In addition, it avoids the rework required to repeat processes when inconsistencies occur.
Standardization of services and processes
This is one of the main benefits provided to customers and institutions. It prevents consumers from receiving different information on the same subject, depending on the channel they use to communicate with the bank.
For the financial institution, this means keeping the operation running smoothly, even when an employee must leave.
To complete this, it promotes the optimization of processes, increases the team’s productivity, speeds up the integration of new employees, and provides managers with clarity about the functioning of the techniques, allowing the analysis and application of improvements.
Database Integration
The lack of systems integration in banks is relatively standard. This is because these institutions evolved gradually. Many have gone through mergers and acquisitions, making their technological structures a patchwork quilt.
Bank automation solves this problem by eliminating obsolete systems and spreadsheet records and integrating all databases. This brings excellent agility and efficiency in sharing information that can be used in the most diverse ways by the organization.
report generation
One of the significant advantages is that the software used can capture, tabulate, and store all the data, transforming them into reports. With this, it is possible to generate tables and graphs and establish indicators that help monitor the institution’s results.
The information generated by the reports is essential for managers to analyze the company’s performance, serving as a basis for decision-making. This helps to promote continuous improvement, also contributing to increasing the group’s efficient fraud identification
Bank automation makes it possible to identify fraud with greater precision and agility. It allows programming of the most common parameters that point to various fraud and money laundering attempts and stop the fraudulent operation before it is completed, alerting the competent authorities.
This promotes risk reduction and provides more security for the bank, whose obligation, in these cases, is to monitor suspicious transactions and report them to the authorities. Customers also feel more confident in knowing that their money is protected against possible attacks on the institution.
What services can be automated?
There are numerous services that can be automated. Below are some of the main ones.
digital onboarding
Digital onboarding refers to the initial process of attracting new customers or updating those already active in the institution, aiming at offering new products or services through technology to facilitate and streamline the operations of the steps involved. In the financial sector, it can be applied to:
- account opening.
- card issuance and unlocking.
- the credit application and approval.
The prevention and protection tool with the KYC process is also essential integrates the international security protocol, which is crucial to understanding the risks involved in customer onboarding and complying with legal requirements. When implemented and carried out correctly, it allows the institution to:
- knowing the identity of the customer.
- understand the nature of activities.
- guarantee the legitimacy of sources of income;
- detect suspicious or potentially fraudulent patterns.
The objective is to prevent fraud and, if they occur, to try to stop them. In addition, it is possible to assess the risks of financial crimes, such as money laundering, among others.
Credit grant analysis
We know that any financial transaction involves dangers. Understanding them is the first step that an institution needs to take to avoid problems with defaults. This is where the need for risk analysis for lending comes in.
Although it is a very complex process involving variables, applying the predictive model makes it possible to optimize all the steps and obtain reliable directions. Based on mathematical calculations, probabilities, and statistics, it allows you to predict the financial future of a transaction.
Credit analysis and granting have benefited from critical technological advances in recent years, with the possibility of implementing platforms for this purpose.
This is because increasingly sophisticated tools make it possible to efficiently scale many daily analyses by institutions, including anti-fraud solutions in the processes.
In this context, the terms Credit Score, Collection Score and Behavior Score were created and gained strength, as they are relevant indicators that must be considered before granting credit.
Internet banking
The most used automation technologies for banks, which offer the most practical services and contribute to customer loyalty, are internet banking and mobile banking. Both provide customers with a set of services via the web. Through them, almost all operations usually carried out in the branch can be carried out, such as:
- investment in investments.
- consultation of balances and statements.
- cell phone recharge.
- payment of tickets.
- payment of vehicle licensing, fines, etc.
- application redemption.
- money transfers.
mobile banking
This technology allows financial institutions to create apps and for customers to download and install them directly from the app store on a smartphone. Mobile banking gives access to current and investment accounts, with an electronic password enough to carry out financial operations.
Service based on artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence in the financial sector has stood out as a competitive and highly strategic tool for clients and institutions. With this, credit analyses that previously required days to be performed can be carried out in minutes.
But its benefits go further, impacting activities such as cost and fraud reduction, data regulation, and customer loyalty.
virtual assistants
Virtual assistants are good practical examples of how artificial intelligence and automation can be applied to the financial sector. The use of technology speeds up basic and primary care, reducing costs and saving time for other activities. To top it off, it allows for database integration and immediate assistance, contributing to a good user experience.
voice interaction
Voice interaction is increasingly used inside and outside financial institutions. With popular features like Alexa and “Ok Google”, consumers have become familiar with services that offer voice interaction to gain faster service through mobile devices.
Facial recognition
It is a detailed analysis of the human face to capture individual shapes, distances, and features that allow customer identification. For this, facial recognition uses systems that apply a standard set of steps to deconstruct an image (photo, video, or in real-time) and try to validate it through comparison.
What precautions should be observed in bank automation?
Some care needs to be taken for the bank automation process to work perfectly. Here’s what you can do to ensure an efficient implementation.
Map all processes
Before implementing bank automation, all processes must be mapped. Documenting each step clarifies what it takes to make work more agile, efficient, and productive.
Establish business priorities
There is no point in automating processes that are irrelevant to the institution. Therefore, choosing what is necessary for the business’s and customers’ goals is essential. This definition will serve as a basis for the other steps to be taken.
Engage and train IT staff
Having a responsible technology team to manage the deployment and maintenance steps is essential. This ensures that data migration takes place with greater fluidity and professionalism.
In this sense, involving employees and preparing them for changes is essential. For this, it is necessary to inform about the needs raised and train the teams to evaluate the market for technological solutions and identify the best tools to boost the business.
Combine technology integration solutions
As we have already commented, systems integration is essential to generate an efficient base. This way, with an appropriate combination of technological solutions, it is possible to automate manual processes without losing information.
Track and update processes
As in any model of continuous improvement that competitiveness requires, it is essential that processes are periodically reviewed to allow reassessment and identification of points that need changes after implementing bank automation.
In this sense, it is also necessary to update the team on the results and improvements required to understand which needs were or were not met. This makes it possible to predict and avoid potential failures, eliminating rework and improving productivity.
Update on the market
The Future Of banks has arrived, and new technologies are constantly emerging, requiring constant updates. Financial institutions that cannot keep up with technological advances will be left out, losing a lot of competitiveness in a short time.
This means that, after implementing bank automation, as efficient as it may seem now, in a short time, it may be inefficient to offer the same services that the more tuned competition proposes. Thus, one cannot think of accommodation in a dynamic environment.
As shown throughout the article, bank automation is essential to streamline processes, provide the best user experience, attract, and retain customers and fight fraud. Financial institutions committed to competitiveness must implement technological solutions that allow data integration and offer agility and security.
