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Robotics Process Automation (RPA) is trending in a number of different industries, particularly in the financial services industry. Its use is even being branched out to other industries as well. In fact, certain government departments have been actively seeking out RPA as an automation solution this year alone.
So, although it has taken on a somewhat slower pace than in other countries, it’s not a surprise that RPA in the Canadian Banking industry is on the rise. And the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), is one of the leaders in the implementation of RPA. Additionally, last year, Scotiabank began working on a proof of concept (PoC). The PoC was for a transaction flow solution with the use of RPA.
RPA has been used in banks not only for customer registration and onboarding but also for processes such as account closure. BNY Mellon utilizes a number of RPA bots. They’ve noted that there is a vast improvement in terms of processing time for account closures. Seeing as the process would need a number of validations through different systems. And they’ve managed to do so with a high rate of accuracy.
Manual fraud detection is a long and oftentimes tedious process. However, utilizing if-then algorithms can make it easier for banks to recognize any potential fraud. A process that would take a human perhaps one hour can be completed by the RPA bot in minutes.
In the case of fraud, time is of the essence. The speed in which the RPA bot can detect fraud can be extremely beneficial not just to the bank but also the intended victim of the fraud—the customer.
Mortgage processing can take almost two months to close. This is due to the fact that the process is long and has to go through several checks before it can even be approved. When done manually, errors can occur and each error can set the process back.
With the use of RPA, the process can not only be done quickly, the rate of accuracy will also be improved.
Like mortgage processing, credit card processing is also a lengthy process. Though the process is by no means as long as mortgage processing, but credit card processing can take a human up to one hour to complete.
RPA can cut that time down to mere minutes, however. And it also helps that RPA can be implemented on existing systems in addition to being able to access multiple systems at the same time to streamline the entire process.
A number of Canadian banks are already using bots as a customer service solution, including Scotiabank and RBC. But there are other areas of customer service where RPA can be of use, not just in conjunction with a chatbot.
Customer issues such as resetting a password can be solved much faster with the use of RPA. Shorter wait time for the customer would mean that not only would that customer be satisfied that the issue was solved quickly, it would also mean that the customer service representatives are free to help other customers.
As mentioned previously, RBC can be considered one of the leaders in RPA in the Canadian banking industry.
In fact, RBC initially started their RPA journey back in late 2016, according to Dana Ohab, its Director of Optimization and Transformation.
According to Ohab, RPA is currently in use in 11 business lines in total, with five of these lines aggressively using RPA. In fact, RPA has been implemented in the following processes: HR form processing, account closing, trade reports, monitoring report delivery, client onboarding, and OnDemand reporting.
In wealth management alone, 153,000 hours of manual work was eliminated thanks to the implementation of RPA. However, the total hours that the bank was able to get back was actually around 170,000 due to the fact that the 153,000 was the actual time taken to do the task and the rest of it were hours taken to re-check their work or any type of QC, over and over. And that equaled to CA$5.3 million in savings for the bank.
The use of RPA in the Canadian Banking industry can certainly be increased in the coming years. More and more banks in Canada can certainly utilize RPA in order to streamline a number of different processes.
The Canadian banking industry may be slower to adopt RPA than the United States or Europe. However, it’s clear that there are definite leaders in the industry who are aware of what RPA can do. And it’s time for their competitors to realize just how beneficial RPA can be for the industry.
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