The technology is rapidly maturing, and domain expertise is developing among both banks and vendors-many of which are moving away from the one-solution-fits-all “hammer and nail” approach toward more specialized solutions. Still more have begun the automation process only to find they lack the capabilities required to move the work forward, much less transform the bank in any comprehensive fashion.ĭespite some early setbacks in the application of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) to bank processes, the future is bright. Other banks have trained developers but have been unable to move solutions into production. Some have launched numerous tactical pilots without a long-range plan, resulting in confusion and challenges in scaling. Some have installed hundreds of bots-software programs that automate repeated tasks-with very little to show in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. There are clear success stories (see sidebar “Automation in financial services”), but many banks face sobering challenges. Barclays introduced RPA across a range of processes, such as accounts receivable and fraudulent account closure, reducing its bad-debt provisions by approximately $225 million per annum and saving over 120 FTEs.
#PROJECT 3.1.1 HISTORY OF AUTOMATION FULL#
Leading applications include full automation of the mortgage payments process and of the semi-annual audit report, with data pulled from over a dozen systems. In addition, over 40 processes have been automated, enabling staff to focus on higher-value and more rewarding tasks. In another example, the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group deployed robotic process automation (RPA) at scale and is now seeing annual cost savings of over 30 percent in certain functions. And at Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance, a Japanese insurance company, IBM’s Watson Explorer will reportedly do the work of 34 insurance claim workers beginning January 2017. The bots are expected to handle 1.7 million IT access requests at the bank this year, doing the work of 40 full-time employees. JPMorgan, for example, is using bots to respond to internal IT requests, including resetting employee passwords. A number of financial services institutions are already generating value from automation.