The adoption of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is increasing. According to a recent report published by Fortune Business Insights, the global RPA market size is expected to reach USD 6.81 billion by the end of 2026. Leading analysts also estimate a dramatic increase in the RPA market size.

RPA streamlines the following key processes in the banking, finance, and insurance sectors:

Implementing RPA can automate many processes, including credit scoring, accounts payable, account reconciliation, and fraud prevention. This can make these processes faster, easier, and more accurate. For now, we will focus on some of the most common use cases of RPA in the BFSI sector which are as follows:

Top 10 RPA Use Cases in the Banking Industry:

1. Customer Onboarding and KYC

An excellent first impression is critical to a good customer experience. For most customers in the BFSI industry, the first impression occurs during onboarding. Onboarding a new customer traditionally involves filling out and signing reams of paper. It creates an administrative burden for onboarding teams, increases the risk of process bottlenecks, and tests the patience of customers.

2. Contact Center Optimization

With most customer interactions happening digitally now, banks face a huge volume of incoming calls in their contact centers. RPA tools and chatbots can help handle a significant portion of this traffic. For example, bots can handle routine queries related to account statements and transactions, while queries that require human decision-making are escalated to the appropriate knowledge workers.

3. Trade Finance Operations

Banks can use RPA solutions to expand their Trade Finance Operations and improve their presence in the financial supply chain. A leading bank in India already uses RPA to automate processes related to issuing, managing, and closing Letters of Credit – the most preferred trade finance tool. Automation enabled by this RPA bot improves overall turnaround time by 70%, enhances process visibility by 80%, and delivers a 50% reduction in operational costs.

4. Anti Money Laundering (AML)

One of the best examples of RPA in banking is the automation of the entire AML investigation process. The process is highly manual and it takes 30 to 40 minutes to investigate a single case depending on the complexity and availability of information in different systems. These repetitive rule-based tasks can be easily automated with RPA, allowing over a 60% reduction in process turnaround time.

5. Closures of Bank Guarantees

Many banks use this very specific but highly relevant RPA use case. The Bank Guarantee Closing Process ideally requires knowledgeable team members to manually transcribe data between multiple disconnected legacy systems and identify bank guarantees due for closing/termination/settlement. Generation and distribution of notice letters and execution of cancellation/closure are also done manually. In addition, there are multiple manual validations at each stage, reducing overall productivity. RPA can be used to successfully automate the entire process.

6. Bank Reconciliation Process

The Bank Reconciliation Process is very time-consuming and requires knowledgeable staff to manually find vast amounts of transaction data spanning multiple banks and reconcile the final numbers. RPA robots can be programmed to replace manual efforts with several rule-based automation, including validating each payment record against bank details and other records. If the records match, the records are reconciled. However, in case of any discrepancies, the bots can send the records for further verification.

7. Processing of the Loan Application

The Loan Application Process is a very good use case for Automation for both Banks and Financial Institutions. Generally, loan applications and appraisal documents are received as PDF attachments via email. Extracting data from applications and verifying it against multiple IDs and credit assessments are some of the key manual tasks. RPA robots with Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities can be used to extract data intelligently and automate many of these manual tasks. 

8. Automatic Report Generation

Many Banks and Financial service providers are using RPA to automate the manual tasks involved in generating reports and can realize an immediate Return on Investment (ROI). Automation of the Report Generation Process includes several activities, such as optimization of data extraction from internal and external systems, standardization of the data aggregation process, development of templates for reporting, and control and approval of reports.

9. Account Closure Processing

The activity of full account closure involves several manual tasks such as checking the availability of documents in the bank’s records, sending emails to clients and branch managers, and updating data in the system. RPA bots can automate all these manual tasks so knowledge workers can focus more on productive operations.

10. Credit Card Application Processing

RPA-enabled credit card application processing automation is another use case where banks have seen phenomenal results. RPA enables credit cards to be issued to customers within hours. RPA bots can easily traverse multiple systems, validate data, perform multiple rule-based checks, and decide whether to approve or disapprove an application.

Conclusion

Implementing RPA solutions in businesses such as Banking and Insurance starts with identifying the right processes. BFSI companies need to shortlist their processes and assess them based on problem type, feasibility, and overall impact. They must build a strong business case for using RPA in their chosen process, emphasizing potential cost savings, efficiency gains, and other benefits. The most important thing is to identify a partner who can help with the end-to-end implementation of RPA.

At BigStep Technologies, our RPA experts have helped various BFSI companies with successful RPA implementation. From RPA assessment, development, and implementation to support and maintenance, we provide a variety of RPA-related services. Contact us if you have any queries regarding RPA implementation in the BFSI sector or planning to implement it and our team will provide you with the best solution.