Asia Green Development Bank (AGD) is a public commercial bank founded in Myanmar in 2010. It was one of 4 private banks to commence operations in August 2010 when the Myanmar government issued four new banking licenses and the first new financial institutions in the country since the establishment of Innwa Bank in 1997. AGD Bank caters to more 700K+ customers through 77 branches and 190 ATMs across the country.

Bank Genie is a Singapore-based technology solutions provider providing technology solutions to commercial & retail banks as well as rural and microfinance institutions across Africa, South East Asia, Central Asia, and Russia.

Project Details:

Bank-Genie implemented Genie-Transformation, it is Digital Transformation suite at AGD Bank, Myanmar, to bring-in end to end process automation within the Branch and at Remote Locations. The solution was expected to provide improved customer experience including first mile and last mile service delivery, front, mid and back-office operations.

The project mandate also included improving efficiencies by 60-80% without the traditional addition of new branches and infrastructure at the same time reducing the cost of delivering and maintaining products and services. AGD Bank wanted the services to be delivered via multiple channels including digital channels such as social media (Facebook and Viber), self-service via customer apps, and more traditional channels in branch and remote kiosks, physical and contact centers.

Bank-Genie was able to completely digitalize manual and physical processes for customers and bank staff. Automation in processes such as account opening, queue management, cashier/teller/till optimization, geo-location, pushing customers to adopt self-service, and staff to rely on dashboards for task execution was the key expectation for the bank.

End to end digital transformation was made possible by implementing genie-transformation, comprising of remote account opening, bank staff assisted account opening, remote initiation of transactions by customers, queue management, cashier till load balancing, queue load balancing, servicing high priority customers, branch and branchless operations of deposits, withdrawals, internal and external funds transfer, microfinance customer collections into MFI pool accounts, utility bill payments, deep learning AI bot for FAQ and transactions. The solution also provided a single view of the customer and customer intent facilitated cross-selling and upselling as well. All transactions initiated via genie-transformation were posted to core banking via a service bus and various alerts and monitoring via dashboards, SMS, and emails.

The Genie-Transformation Framework enabled easy onboarding of multiple business lines of AGD within the retail business and the MFI business. The transformation project enabled all manner of transactions such as self/third party deposits and withdrawals, internal/third party funds transfers, utility bill payments, forex deposits and withdrawals, account holder, and third-party remittances. Services were delivered via customer self-service apps (mobile), tablets (branch and remote locations), web browser. The features were developed so that they could be easily extended across all lines of business such as retail, microfinance, preferred customers. AGD Bank also lends to many MFI’s and with minimal changes the bank was able to extend banking services to the MFIs and the MFI borrowers for disbursals and loan collections at AGD Bank’s physical and remote branches.

Key flexibility of the system was demonstrated when AGD Bank received its license to offer services via the Myanmar post office network. All that it took was to set up the post offices as remote branches and to attach third party (post office staff) as agents of AGD, thus expanding the banks reach exponentially across Myanmar, without adding to branch set up, operational and infrastructure costs.

The implementation cycle was a simple affair and the only material effort was the interfacing with the AGD CBS. Once the interfaces were in place, completing the setups of branches, users, and onboarding customers were accomplished within a very short period. Setting up new lines of business, adding Billers are now intuitive and can be easily accomplished by bank admin operators with minimal assistance from Bank-Genie. The delivery is via Bank-Genie’s RIT – remote implementation methodology, enabling its customers to maintain business continuity, to grow business, maintain operational integrity, and meet SLA’s.

When used as intended the bank and its customers experience a completely integrated ecosystem, right from customer acquisition, transaction management, and distribution encompassing the customer journey and addressing the operational matrix of the bank. This permits multiple benefits consisting of increased customer satisfaction, brand loyalty, reduced costs, and highly optimized staff efficiencies.

Post-implementation reviews and opinions have been positive from AGD customers and AGD staff. This is reflected in the all-time high level of customer satisfaction and the level of satisfaction among bank staff.

The process automation achieved through Bank-Genie’s system had some impressive post-implementation outcomes. It was observed that account opening turnaround times reduced from several days to a matter of minutes, with new accounts being opened by customers in approximately 34 clicks including approval processes at the mid and back office. Transaction throughput at branches increased by 300 – 400% without adding branches and incurring infrastructure costs. Also deposit transaction turnaround times reduced from 15- 20 minutes down to 3-5 minutes, withdrawal and funds transfer transaction turnaround reduced from 20-30 minutes to 5-7 minutes.

IBSI View:

This case study is a classic example of the power of transformation when banks completely buy into the digitisation agenda. The numbers reflect the success story.

KEY FACTS
Bank: Asia Green Development Bank
Bank Headquarters: Myanmar
Solution partner: Bank-Genia
Solution: Genie-Transformation
Timeline: Genie-Teller go-live on 24 JAN, 2020 & Genie-Branch go-live on 18 JUNE, 2020