RPA in Banking and Finance

Processing loan applications is a multi-step process involving credit, background, and fraud checks, along with processing data across multiple systems. With RPA, streamline the tedious data entry involved in loan origination mortgage processing and underwriting and eliminate errors. with RPA by having bots can gather and move the data needed from each website or system involved. Then if any information is missing from the application, the bot can send an email notifying the right person. Supercharge these efforts with intelligent document processing to capture and extract complex document data via AI and ML, right as it enters your organization, further decreasing the time between application and close—and with greater accuracy.  

Aldergrove Financial Group switched from unreliable scripting and painful processes to an RPA software bot that easily runs the loan origination tasks. 

“Automate saves us time and enables us to solve problems efficiently and correctly.” –John D. Friesen, Information Technology Manager, Aldergrove Financial Group 

LEARN MORE >> How RPA Eliminates Manual Mortgage Processing in Encompass 

Banks and credit unions are notorious for having a lot of disparate systems, some that integrate and connect with each other and some that don’t. When your bank has multiple databases, core banking systems, and applications, RPA can transfer and migrate data to and from each system, ensuring that data is consistent and correct across the whole organization. And it can execute processes that touch multiple systems throughout your bank or financial institution. 

At Summit Credit Union, the mortgage department was able to connect two important systems—Mortgage Cadence and Blend—through RPA. RPA bots gather and download application data and documentation from Blend and automatically create the loan in Mortgage Cadence. 

“Loan officers don’t have to hand hold and help everyone through the process. They can focus on putting their members first and have the time to ask ‘how can I help serve you better?’” – Kjersten Janowski, Business Technology Consulting Manager, Summit Credit Union

Every bank has to post incoming and outgoing fund transfers to the federal reserve, whether the payment orders are routed and settled. As a manual task, this requires an employee to check Fedline (a branch of the Fedwire Funds Service) for inbound transfers to process and post any outgoing transfers. RPA bots can perform browser automation and data scraping to pull payment information from the core banking system and push it through the Fedwire Funds Service, saving banks time and money and helping them meet SLAs. It can actually replace an expensive monthly service called FedLine.

LEARN MORE >> Why Your Bank Doesn’t Need Fedline Advantage to Report Wire Transfers 

RPA is pivotal in combating debit and credit card fraud. RPA rapidly identifies and reacts to suspicious activities by monitoring transaction patterns and deploying rule-based logic. It swiftly automates alerts to both the bank's fraud team and customers and can proactively block compromised cards to prevent further misuse. Beyond immediate fraud mitigation, RPA aids in the continuous refinement of fraud detection strategies and ensures compliance with financial regulations. This integration of RPA enhances the security framework, providing a swift, accurate response to potential fraud, thereby protecting customer assets and maintaining the integrity of the financial institution. 

RPA serves as a cornerstone in ensuring regulatory compliance within the banking sector. It efficiently automates the generation of detailed audit histories for every process step, including the implementation of Regulation D Violation Letter processing. By regularly pulling various audit reports, RPA keeps essential compliance information readily accessible. This includes not only BSA/AML audits, which are crucial for anti-money laundering efforts, but also KYC reports for comprehensive customer data collection, screening, and validation, and CRA (Community Reinvestment Act) compliance. RPA's role in these processes ensures that banks can maintain continuous compliance with industry regulations, reducing the risk of non-compliance and enhancing the integrity of their audit processes. 

RPA proves essential for monitoring account activities, a task impractical for continuous human oversight. RPA tirelessly scans transaction data, using logic to detect and flag fraudulent patterns, thereby assisting fraud teams in identifying and addressing suspicious activities efficiently. Its capability to promptly notify relevant personnel enhances the response time to potential threats, making RPA an invaluable asset in bolstering the security of customer accounts and mitigating financial fraud risks. 

RPA plays a pivotal role in streamlining the account creation process. The manual processing of applications, conducting credit checks, and setting up online banking access can be time-consuming tasks. RPA efficiently handles these processes, swiftly processing customer information and running necessary checks with precision and speed. By automating these tasks, RPA not only accelerates account setup but also ensures a seamless and satisfying experience for customers. 

Close inactive credit and debit cards, especially during the escheatment process, in an error-free fashion. RPA can also handle data validation to maintain customer account records. When a contact information changes, an RPA bot can take the data from the intake system and make the changes in all other systems and applications necessary, eliminating the need for human oversight.  

Carter Bank & Trust saved over 40 hours of programming and three weeks of 20 people manually validating customer accounts—and ran the process in less than three hours with RPA. 

“We could never have conducted data validation and correction of erroneous account information without Automate. I don’t care if I had 100 people for a year, it never would have worked.” – Matt Speare, CIO of Carter Bank & Trust  

Better manage line-of-business systems (LOBS) and core banking applications by using RPA to manage back-office processing of account balancing, calculating interest, SQL Server backups, and other nightly and month-end processes.  

Consumers Credit Union uses RPA bots to complete their back-office processing tasks in just three to five hours, saving countless hours and downtime from manual processing.  

“RPA frees our employees up to do our member’s bidding.” – Jim McKee, Core Systems Administrator, Consumers Credit Union

As banks and credit unions adopt more technology to better serve customers, the number of IT service desk tickets will also grow. Not only can service desk tickets be resolved quickly and automatically with RPA for ITl, it can reduce downtime by fixing problems (like your network) and backing up data to shorten time to resolution.  

PSCU Financial Services uses RPA to automate these types of processes and saves more than 400 hours on a monthly basis without spending tens of thousands of dollars on custom scripting.  

"Every minute we save in these kinds of tasks translates into time we can spend on developing new reports, maintaining our data warehouse, doing other IT work that will benefit our clients, or keeping customer service representatives on the phones," noted Danielle Derby, Enterprise Information Manager. "This is a huge business advantage." 

RPA significantly enhances customer service management by intelligently categorizing and prioritizing customer inquiries. By assessing factors such as urgency, complexity, and customer value, RPA ensures that responses are timely and appropriate, aligning with the customers' expectations and needs. This automation not only streamlines the workflow but also contributes to higher customer satisfaction by addressing their concerns with the right level of priority and efficiency. 

RPA plays a crucial role in the Know Your Customer (KYC) processes, streamlining the setup and validation of customer data with efficiency and accuracy. It adeptly adapts to the ever-evolving KYC regulations and requirements, ensuring that risk assessments are comprehensive and up to date. By automating these critical tasks, RPA not only enhances compliance but also accelerates customer onboarding, maintaining the balance between regulatory adherence and customer experience. 

RPA significantly streamlines the process of stopping Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments, swiftly responding to preset triggers that necessitate such actions. By efficiently interfacing with banking systems, RPA ensures quick and precise execution of transaction halts. This capability is vital for managing financial risks and maintaining transaction integrity, allowing for immediate response to suspicious activities or customer requests, thereby enhancing the overall security and reliability of financial transactions. 

Replace manual efforts with rule-based automation, verifying each payment entry against bank data and other records. Not only is this a time-consuming process when done manually, but it also leaves room for error with data re-keying across systems. RPA helps by matching up data with records in disparate systems. Bots can detect duplicate entries, synthesize data stored in different formats across systems, and reconcile accounts accurately. 

RPA revolutionizes payroll management by automating critical tasks such as data cleaning and mining. This automation significantly boosts accuracy and efficiency within payroll departments. By handling the intricate details of payroll processing, RPA ensures that employee compensation is calculated and distributed correctly and promptly. Its role in streamlining data-intensive tasks not only reduces the likelihood of errors but also frees up valuable time for payroll staff to focus on more strategic activities, enhancing overall productivity and payroll service quality.