Union Bank Launches Robotics Technology To Automate Banking Processes

At a launch event which was held at its Stallion Plaza HQ, Union Bank one of Nigeria’s oldest bank announced its Robotic Process Automation technology, a culmination of three years of development and testing.

Robotic Process Automation which makes use of software robots to provide an improved business efficiency,  consistently and data security which can help automating repetitive tasks across a multiple business applications without altering existing infrastructure and systems.

Union Bank is the first bank to implement it in Nigeria, starting with reconciliation of ATM transactions and cutting the processing time for that service by 60%.

Emeka Emuwa, Union Bank’s CEO said in a speech at the event, according to the bank’s blog post, he explained that:

“The provision of simpler, smarter banking services to our valued customers is at the core of our business. Therefore, we remain focused on leveraging cutting edge technology and creating innovative partnerships which will facilitate the achievement of this objective.”

Emeka Emuwa, MD/CEO of Union Bank during his opening speech at the RPA launch

The project was borne three years ago at the bank’s steering committee meeting which was headed by the Head of Operations, Lateef Dabiri, who pushed for automation of certain processes which would help the bank improve service delivery and staff productivity, cut down processing times and improve accuracy and compliance in the banking environment.

The Head of Operations, Lateef Dabiri, at the event during an interview, he added that:

“Several banking processes are quite repetitive, even mundane frankly, and that is not sustainable. So we thought, why don’t we use technology to handle these processes and free up staff to focus on the customers?”

“Compared to humans, robots don’t get tired, go on breaks, or fall sick – which means they can continuously do work and that is where the whole idea came from. We started to work on it and decided to pick a process – in this case, reconciliation – which eventually led to this launch,” Lateef added.

“Beyond this, AI will also come into play down the line to help with various aspects of banking outside of just operations and compliance. This is just the beginning,” and It’ll be interesting to see how technologies like these are implemented across board within the Nigerian banking industry and how that will affect customer service and experience.” he says.

This is an eye opener as the rest of Nigeria’s banking industry will be looking at technologies like RPA, at least to keep down cost of serving each customer.

Making headway, the recent update on its technologically transformation and a marked upgrade of its infrastructure, such as the new RPA technology, Union Bank is indeed keeping to its promises on what it really stand for and upholding its vision and mission statement goal to serve its customers well.