Author:
WP Dev
We are amidst an industrial revolution driven by technologies. The financial sector has been prompt in adapting to automation to improve efficiency, meet compliance needs and improve customer experience. Previously basic back-end tasks, HR, and accounting functions were automated, whereas, the industry is swiftly moving towards more complex initiatives. Farsighted organizations are banking on automation to take care of the productivity issue and make the organizations ready by freeing up employees and driving towards innovation. For business leaders, automation is a real game-changer as it provides them agility and also lets them innovate and pursue new opportunities that would have otherwise been impossible.
With the advent of the internet and technologies banking has transformed from somewhere you go to something you do. Traditional financial service providers are not just competing among themselves but are also competing with new digital services that are challenging them. According to IBM (2018), intelligent automation allows business and technology to function together for a common goal instead of working against one another. Automation is revolutionizing most aspects of banking and financial services through technologies like chatbots and virtual assistants as they change the way of interaction between organizations and their customers, which in turn helps improve customer satisfaction.
Intelligent automation includes robotic process automation, and artificial intelligence applied with business process management to achieve business objectives. Sub-disciplines of Artificial Intelligence have different types of applications. Adding the algorithms of Artificial Intelligence to RPA will enhance the capabilities of the process.
Robotic Process Automation
In this process, the bot is trained to drive applications like humans through Graphical User Interface following pathways determined previously. They also access and assemble structured data performing the actions prescribed to them.
Complex Process Automation
This process requires the bot to follow predetermined machine pathways, conduct complex calculations, perform actions accordingly, and rig downstream activities. It uses artificial intelligence to monitor and improve the process environment. Lastly, the bot will access and integrate the base knowledge repository into process flows to optimize desired outcomes.
Intelligent Process Automation
In intelligent process automation, the bot is blessed with autonomous decision making and self-remediating capabilities. It uses artificial intelligence to redesign and restructure processes to optimize operations. The bot here reasons and remembers information and learns to identify new insights. It interacts with humans through advanced algorithms and records every action, transaction, interaction, and decision that makes it accountable.
Automation use-cases in Fintech
There are various use-cases of automation applied to banking. Let us have a look:
Automatic Report Generation
A bank or financial institution’s standard requirement is to generate compliance reports for fraudulent transactions as suspicious activity reports. Traditionally, compliance officers should read the reports and fill up the details manually in the SAR report. Having natural language capabilities, automation can read through these extensive reports before taking out the required information to fill the SAR.
Customer onboarding
For banks, customer onboarding is a long process primarily due to many documentations that require careful manual processing and verification. Automation can capture the data from the KYC documents using OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technique. The data can be matched with the information provided by the customers in the forms.
KYC and Anti-money laundering
KYC and AML are both very data-driven processes, and that makes them a perfect fit for automation. Automation has not only automated the manual process but also made it easy to spot suspicious banking transactions. Automation has saved not only time but also cost as compared to standard banking ways.
