4 best practices for banks and credit unions for process improvement
By Pavithra R
Today, the need for banks and credit unions (CUs) to swiftly provide answers, complete transactions, and deliver service is no longer a convenience feature, but an absolute necessity. To help navigate change, embrace transformation, and ultimately improve account holder loyalty, Jack Henry has pointed out 4 best practices to enhance banking and credit union operations.
1, Automate Business Processes
The value of automating business processes cannot be overstated. One of the key challenges banks and CUs struggle with is manual processes, which may result in compliance violations, regulatory scrutiny, and reputational damage. Besides risk and liability issues, banks and CUs also lose time and money to their manual processes.
By automating processes, organizations can easily identify areas that can be made more efficient, for eg., using automation to address increasing fraud rates and labour-intensive processes like manually posted payments. Automation also helps in standardizing business processes by integrating with multiple cores or truly third-party solutions to save time and money while reducing operational risk.
2, Streamline Branch Operations
Banks and CUs know that efficient branch service is not optional but a necessity. But throw in a pandemic and an economic crisis, and it becomes a potential disaster if FIs can’t meet account holders in their moments of need. The key to effective branch service includes ease of handling frequent transactions and quickly and accurately resolving issues.
In the financial industry, it comes down to being there for customers and members where they need – be it at the branch, on the phone, or through a digital channel. Manual processes is unsurprisingly the biggest time-killer when it comes to branch operations. When branches offer automated solutions for repetitive processes, there’s more time for enhancing accountholder service through speed, accuracy, and convenience.
3, Improve Back-Office Productivity
Back-office operations are the lifeblood of an organization’s ability to serve account holders and create efficient workflows for employees. A maximum efficiency here can drastically reduce the number of errors while improving adherence to compliance and regulatory demands. The back office also plays a critical role for digitizing and automating the flow of information throughout the organization for quicker response times.
One trend the financial industry witnessed in its effort to combat back-office friction is the migrating of operations to a private cloud. The reasons cited by banks and CUs for this transition include cost savings, access to better technology, improved processes and productivity, and the ability to tackle IT security and regulatory uncertainty.
4. Reimagine the Customer and Member Experience
To meet the expectations of the modern consumer, banks and CUs need to offer the best possible customer experience and member experience. This means secure digital banking and making sure that account holders get the support they need when they need it.
Unfortunately, even though the financial industry is on the right track, the pace at which it is moving is much slower. Customers are increasingly looking for an omnichannel banking experience with the ability to seamlessly switch between physical and digital channels. However, majority of FIs are still trying to keep up. Although there’s room to improve, banks and CUs have made strides in areas like online account opening, digital loan management, and personalized phone and computer-based assistance.
Also, read US Financial Services Technology Report 2020
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