TOP 5 SUGGESTED RPA PROCESSES FOR INDIAN BANKS
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is an emerging technology where robots mimic human functions with greater speed and accuracy. RPA envisages deployment of software robots in day- to-day data processing activities of the Organizations.
The jobs most suitable for RPA are repetitive, high Volume and rule based processes performed by human resources using IT Systems.
The advantages of deploying robots in business operations are
- Removal of Drudgery of repetitive work by human resources
- Efficiency in operations; robot can accomplish at least 3 times of the work performed by a person
- Accuracy of data – Nearly 100 %
- Cost effective
- 24 x 7 operations by robot without fatigue
- Minimal implementation time
Some Banks and Financial Institutions in India have successfully begun to adopt RPA Technology to reap its benefits in the following areas:
Reconciliation of Financial Transactions:
This is an important area as Bankers are dealing with customers’ money and the transactions have to be squared off to eliminate impending risks including frauds. Normally, the reconciliation will involve multiple systems carrying out the transactions. It is difficult,if not impossible, to reconcile such huge volume of transactions within the specified time limit, without the use of Technology. However,building up software application for reconciliation will take more time. Since Multiple agencies are involved in payment transactions like ATM,SWIFT,NPCI,Payment Banks,POS Terminals,Core Banking systems etc., it becomes necessary to automate the reconciliation to keep the house tidy.
Here, RPA comes in handy as it has the adaptability and readily available tools called “extensions” to integrate the data from different IT Systems and match them with options for Exact Matching,Partial Matching,listing of unmatched transactions with transaction history. RPA has native tools to integrate with Email servers to send/receive communications to the intended users automatically.
Data Capture from Public Databases and Websites:
Data scrapping facility, a wonderful feature available in RPA Systems is a boon for the Clients. Data in different formats like plain text,table,images,charts available in Public Databases/Websites like NSDL,Income Tax, FEDAI, Google search etc., can be read using Robots and these data can be integrated into Bank’s application Modules like PAN/Aadhaar Verification through APIs seamlessly. The OCR utility available in RPA is yet another automation tool to read & process the structured data from the documents,screens etc.
Credit Scoring and Dispensation of Retail Loans:
RPA is an ideal choice for Retail Credit Dispensation process involving getting Credit Score from CIBIL, performing analytics of eligibility norms and arriving at total score of the borrower. The entire process will be automated without human intervention and the data can be interfaced with Core Banking software for generating loan transactions.
For example, post sanction process like capturing the attributes of vehicles financed under Vehicle Loan Scheme such as Engine Number, Chassis Number,Insurance details from Vaahan Website through RPA native integration into the Lending system of the Bank can be automated. This process can be scheduled for execution by the robot during non-peak period.
Trade Finance Operations:
Trade Finance Operations are complex in nature as they involve various rules of trade,terms &conditions and multiple user options within the software application as well as interfaces with other web applications.
As “to err is human” due to multiple rules,terms and conditions,robots are a better choice to perform such rule based repetitive functions accurately. In the case of Bill Financing,robots can be effectively used to check the consistency between various documents like invoice,LR/RR/AWB,LC,Shipment Bill etc., and also to validate the ICC & operational rules.
HR Functions:
HR Functions are more suitable for automation using robots.Right from Skill set mapping,resume validation,background checking,recruitment, training, placement to performance can be automated using RPA with cost efficiency.
To summarise,I would thus conclude that Indian Banks will embark on RPA journey with greater speed sooner they experience its benefits.