Competition in Nigeria’s FinTech industry is stiff and growing. Startups and older companies in the space are battling it out for the loyalty of increasingly picky consumers. With the ranks of players in the space swelling, customers have more options and can switch platforms and providers without batting an eyelid.
FinTechs and banks realize this and are constantly exploring new ways to improve their productivity, service quality, and response times. They have happened upon a number of solutions that help them in this regard. One of such technologies is Robotic Process Automation.
What Is Robotic Process Automation?
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) means deploying special software (‘bots’) to take care of repetitive, rule-based tasks. Users of such tools can prime them to automatically carry out certain monotonous and high-volume tasks, with little or no human intervention.
RPAs can populate fields on forms, may be scheduled to execute specific tasks and can enable interaction between separate systems. Because RPAs have begun taking over such roles, staff at banks and FinTech companies are now able to focus on more creative assignments and attending to work that they alone can handle.
What’s more, the technology doesn’t suffer stress, and so doesn’t make the sort of recording and processing errors that weary humans do.
How Robotic Process Automation Is Enabling FinTechs To Perform Better.
Here are some ways that Robotic Process Automation enables FinTechs to improve and grow.
Account Opening
Banks and FinTech companies often have to handle large numbers of account opening requests at once.
In such situations, there’s a risk of data conversion errors occurring. RPAs can eliminate this problem, and improve the quality of accounts data that financial institutions hold. With it, FinTechs may significantly reduce the time it takes to accurately input data, and reduce the cost of delivering quality service.
Know Your Customer (KYC) Procedure
KYC processes typically involve a fair amount of data—whether it’s ID, document, or biometric verification. They are often the main means by which financial institutions are able to verify the identity of people who are already on or planning to use their platform.
RPAs are helping banks and FinTechs to validate customer information. They can access databases, collect social media information, extract data from documents, and merge data from multiple locations. Taken together, these operations enable the technology’s users to identify their customers.
Processing Loan Requests
Traditionally, the process of reviewing loan requests were drawn out and tedious. This remained the case even when banks computerized parts of the procedure. But thanks to RPA, digital loan platforms can run through requests and respond within the same day—sometimes within minutes.
This is possible because RPA tools can extract relevant information about applicants from multiple sources and present all the data points that should determine their loan worthiness.
Operational Costs
Managers and executives at FinTechs appreciate the reduced cost of operations that RPAs makes possible. It achieves lower costs by replacing human agents and increasing the efficiency with which repetitive and rule-based tasks can be executed.
An example of the cost-cutting benefit that RPAs afford may be seen in customer relations. In recent times, banks have introduced automated robots that take on some of the simpler but more frequent customer requests. RPAs can also process invoices faster. They take care of both these jobs at a much lower cost than it would require if they were done by humans.
Productivity
By automating repetitive tasks, banks and FinTechs can free up their staff to attend to other aspects of their operations. This may enable them to boost productivity on many fronts. Because RPAs are better at dealing with monotonous processes, they’ll deliver more and better output there. Human workers will also do better on KPIs for more creative aspects of their jobs because they have more time to devote to them.
Final Words
Robotic Process Automation is defining the future of FinTech. It’s helping with several processes—customer onboarding, KYC, opening accounts, and processing loans. It’s also enabling FinTechs cut costs and increase productivity. It will be interesting to see how RPA changes the face of the sector in the coming years.
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