Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Automation have been around for a number of years, and the financial services industry including the banking domain is one of the prominent businesses to rise on the wave of RPA. The financial services industry especially the banking business has deployed the maturity of the technology being used as well as the business processes that it is being applied to.

In every business people, processes and technology are combined to meet the external demands of the customer. The banking industry is no different, however, the adoption to technology has been slow due to the huge dependability on the old legacy systems which can be very difficult to upgrade. Many banks instead find it easier and cheaper to deploy people to bridge the divide taking the advantage of the human mind to apply judgment, empathy, interpretation and deal with exceptions. This leaves the human resource with repetitive and mundane tasks which directly hamper their productivity as these tasks are often subject to errors, resulting in operational deficiencies, less customer focus, higher operational costs and a declining zeal and motivation amongst the workforce.

The benefits of RPA are accounted here. RPA deploys a virtual workforce which is powered by software robots allowing organizations to automate mundane and repetitive tasks. Businesses are hiring resources for key work areas that are targeted for RPA automation, these include:

•  Highly manual processes

•  Repetitive tasks

•  High volume processes

•  Rules-based tasks

•  Low exception processes

•  Stable processes

•  Data conversion processes

•  Low complexity processes

RPA has the highest adaptability in areas which are ambiguous, unstructured and are not rule-based with a high exception rate and complexity. RPA despite being a new technology is neither too expensive nor complex compared with some other emerging technologies. Additionally, RPA tools are 65% less expensive on an average to employing a full-time human worker to do the same task.

Financial Business & RPA

RPA is embraced by the financial sector to some extent; however, it is still relatively at a nascent stage compared to other industries. Several industries like the vehicle manufacturing, have heavily embraced RPA since the late 2000s.

The financial services tend to be far more complex compared to other industries. The complexity/multi-layers with the regulatory demands that have been placed on firms over the past decade have increased dramatically in the financial services domain. The current low rate of adoption in the financial services sector is considered as an opportunity for the industry, as this leaves a room to make large improvements, which may be achieved very cost-effectively without the need to deploy complex technologies.

RPA Adoption within Financial Services

RPA has the highest rate of adaptability in the following routine financial tasks-

•  Client on-boarding by checking Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) guidelines

•  Performing data enrichment and reviewing transaction data

•  Adding new securities to systems thereby resolving books and record breaks

•  Matching and reconciling securities positions

•  Clearing and conveying settled trades

•  Monitor liquidity and report exceptions

Advantages and Benefits of RPA Deployment

There are numerous benefits with financial organizations deploying RPA including improving operational efficiencies, increased customer focus to enhance customer experience thereby saving costs, and decreasing business risk. Deploying RPA into business also leads to efficient human talent utilization, increases productivity and scalability. RPA releases employees from routine tasks, thereby leaving them to concentrate on critical and innovative work.

The Path Ahead

The concept of RPA deployment is not completely new for financial services. The financial services sector has become more mature than other technologies currently in use. Thus, RPA is a very strong contender poised to transform processes within the financial services sector. Firms adopting RPA will benefit from higher accuracy, consistency, right first-time approach and scalable solution with a 24/7 availability.

The financial services sector is all set to reap the benefits of RPA to a greater extent than they do at present. RPA adoption will not only save costs but can also be delivered with low complexity compared to other emerging technologies. Moreover, RPA can be combined with artificial intelligence (AI) for more sophistication and powerful technology adoption.

Some may deter the 'rise of the robots' or automation for the fear of losing jobs but the truth is RPA is here to stay and will make a new history the way financial services domain functions.