When Robotics and Banking Collide

Ultron from Avengers: Age of Ultron, Skynet from The Terminator Franchise, HAL 900 from 2001: A Space Odyssey. There are enough terrifying robot movies suggesting that people are worried about our future. Will robots take our jobs? How will artificial intelligence affect our relationships with major institutions like the government, the media… and banks?

Well, the good news is that – once managed properly – robotics can benefit financial institutions and their customers. So, let’s take a closer look at Robotic Process Automation or RPA. RPA doesn’t refer to an Ultron-style robot or a network of super computers that may become sentient. Robot-building company UiPath defines RPA as “technology that allows anyone today to configure computer software, or a “robot” to emulate and integrate the actions of a human interacting within digital systems to execute a business process.”

And RPA is not here to replace employees or current systems. Instead, RPA works best when it interacts with existing systems and people. RPA helps us to become more human at work, by relieving the burden of monotonous and sometimes mind-numbing tasks and allowing us to focus on more valuable processes that require human creativity and interaction. Banks are therefore most likely to use RPA in areas that are repetitive, prone to error and rules based, such as fees and billing, reconciliation and regulatory reporting. Used cases suggest that RPA is indeed making banking more efficient. BNY Mellon began adopting RPA in 2016 and by March 2017 the bank reported 100% accuracy in account-closure validations across five systems, 88% improvement in processing time, and a 20-second robotic trade settlement versus 60-second human settlements.

Let’s look closely at just one area where RPA is revolutionising banking – fraud. The rise of digitization has given would-be fraudsters increased opportunities. It is impossible for bank employees to track all transactions to identify potential fraud. Conversely, RPA can rapidly digest huge volumes of data and detect and report potentially fraudulent transactions in real time. However, that’s not to say that there’s no human involvement. Once potential fraud is identified, fraud prevention specialists determine whether illegal activity has, in fact, taken place. Employees are therefore spared from boring, repetitive tasks and are involved at the point where they add the most value.

We have found RPA to be particularly useful in the area of credit card and loan delinquency. Previously, up to twenty people were needed to check accounts, to determine if they were delinquent and then contact the customer. Now that we use RPA to check accounts, we can focus on what matters most: finding out why the customer is struggling and working with them towards a resolution. This is where the human element is irreplaceable – developing a solution tailor-made for an individual.

Hopefully, this blog has helped to convince you that robotics looks less like Skynet and more like software robots helping banks and other institutions to serve you better. As RPA becomes more prominent, I look forward to a future where robots and people work together to increase efficiency and improve customer service.