RPA
RPA stands for Robotic Process Automation. It is used to automate back-office tasks usually given to humans, such as data extraction, filing and organisation, and many other manuals and computer-based tasks.
As RPA allows businesses to automate very manual and monotonous tasks that consume a significant amount of human effort and time, companies can free up their human workforce to work on other aspects that can help to improve the business. This saves both valuable time and money for the business, leading to faster growth and higher efficiency.
Benefits of RPA
Furthermore, RPA bots are extremely accurate, quicker, and much more consistent than humans, meaning there are significantly fewer error intervals, delays, and faults. All of which can hinder business processes. Especially in banking, where it is mandatory, you have consistent accuracy, security, speed, and as few errors as possible since you would be dealing with money and currencies, the centrepiece of the economy and how the world functions.
Drawbacks of RPA
However, with RPA, as productive as it may be, there are also some flaws. Some of which can be costly. RPA will require upfront capital and will need you to hire skilled staff to maintain the bot. This will undoubtedly lead to very high costs- which for banking would be high, as the bot will have to be built for certain specific functions whilst also adhering to regulations for data handling and other tasks.
Another unfortunate downside is the reputation of RPA. While some claims of RPA taking over jobs and requiring constant, expensive attention to its upkeep are true, it is only to some extent. RPA is designed to support the (existing) employees, and once trained, employees can ‘work’ the RPA or BOT. Due to the reputation, however (especially from the job-claiming standpoint), future employees may often steer clear from the business due to redundancy fears. This is also a significant reason why some companies have not adopted RPA yet. They have worries that introducing RPA will cause job security fears and lead to a meager employee retention rate. Which, considering the banking industry, would have been extremely hazardous to the business/bank.
Specific for the Finance & Banking IndustryRPA
- RPA can be used to confirm appointments with customers, pull up their information from the bank’s systems, and (using machine learning) suggest which financial routes are most likely to be of interest to them.
- It can also be beneficial in processes such as loan applications and approval, drastically cutting the time it takes for clients to receive a decision on their request.
- The machine can also quickly do data-related tasks such as filing, extracting, and editing. This highly improves customer service and waiting times, resulting in more time and money saved.
- RPA in banking will offer superior customer service, staff efficiency, and ease of compliance with legal and regulations.
- On the other hand, using software means it is susceptible to attacks, which poses an indefinite threat to client data and money. This also can be said for traditional banking methods though.
Our Conclusion
Overall, whether or not to implement RPA is the industry’s choice (as well as society’s, arguably). Although from what you can see, the major drawbacks are the doubts of RPA and humans in a job, as well as a financial standpoint. Both of which can be easily fixed. RPA’s pros heavily outweigh the cons and so prove to be useful to implement in the majority of cases.