Unlocking growth for banks with the power of data

At the High-level Forum on Digital Transformation for Banks (Smart Banking) 2023, FPT Information System Corporation (FPT IS) has delivered many proposals to help the banking sector take the most advantage of the power of data to promote business operations and optimize operations through automation.

Data mining is central to digital transformation of the banking sector

Recently, the Vietnam Banking Association, the Information Technology Department of the State Bank of Vietnam, the Authority of Information Security of the Ministry of Information and Communications, and IEC Group have jointly organized the 2023 Smart Banking international conference and exhibition in Hanoi themed “Harnessing and leveraging data: Shaping the future of the banking industry in the digital age”. The event is attended by representatives of banks, financial institutions, policymakers, and leading leaders in the sector to discuss outstanding issues in the banking sector today.

According to statistics from the State Bank of Vietnam, by the end of 2022, the banking industry has invested more than VND 15,000 billion in digital transformation activities. Affirming that digital transformation in the banking sector is on the right track, Mr. Pham Tien Dung, Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam, says that the banking sector has soon had a digital transformation plan in place with measurable and countable goals. One of the 9 groups of solutions proposed in the plan is to develop and effectively exploit digital data.

Data plays an increasingly important role in the banking sector as major decisions are made every day regarding every aspect such as operations, legal compliance, business… Speaking of the trend of data application in the banking sector, Mr. Sarat Kumar Saikia, Director of Solution Advisory, Risk and Finance, FPT IS – believes that data is the key for businesses to open the doors for opportunities and growth. Delivering a presentation themed “Data is the Key – Business is the Door”, Mr. Sarat emphasizes that data is becoming a major digital asset of a bank.

Mr. Sarat Kumar Saikia – Director of Solution Advisory, Risk and Finance, FPT IS – says that data is the key for businesses to open doors for opportunities and growth.

“As the banks shift from conventional operating methods to digital banking methods and further towards Neobanks (digital-only banking model that operates solely online and does not have a physical location), exploiting data in a proper way will create an important “impulse” to enhance service quality, accelerate the digital transformation process, and generate sustainable business advantages”, said Mr. Sarat.

Taking advantage of the data “gold mine” to leap forward

2023 is oriented by the Government to be the year of digital data. Banks, financial institutions in particular and businesses in general are given opportunities and greatly encouraged to exploit data by not only business goals but also state policies.

To take good advantage of the opportunities, Mr. Sarat says the banks need to equip a proper data management system: “We believe there are three stages to go through to become a data-driven business: (1) Data Disengaged – Data is rarely used for operations, (2) Data Enabled – Technologies, employees, and processes are optimized with data management, (3) Data Driven – Data becomes an asset, helping businesses stand out and become a “data first” organization.

Once a clear roadmap is determined, businesses need the involvement of technologies. Over the past three decades accompanying the banking sector, with an ecosystem of comprehensive solutions, FPT IS has delivered many strategic proposals for banks and financial institutions to consolidate and enhance their data management systems.

For data optimization, FPT presents the Data integration, management and exploitation platform (FPT.dPlat) for banks and financial institutions to plan for data management programs and implement advanced data analysis, thereby helping leaders and employees enhance work efficiency and work quality. FPT.dPlat offers a complete ecosystem for data collection, processing, discovery and exploitation based on open sources with diverse, feature-rich tools that optimize performance and security and minimize costs for finance agencies.

FPT IS presents the ecosystem of digital products for the banking sector.

Additionally, FPT IS also presents the Smart Search tool, a smart search solution that allows users to search for desired contents. Applying Artificial Intelligence (AI), the solution helps manage and fully control data privacy, and allows to search all types of data from applications such as CRM, ERP. The solution has been used by more than 3,000 users and reduces more than 46,000 work hours/year, which is equivalent to 17 billion VND/year in terms of labor costs.

Besides, the Anti-financial crime solution FPT.AFC uses data analysis to identify and prevent fraudulent activities, applicable to banking, finance, e-commerce and insurance services. The solution offers two major features: Customer screening to verify customer’s identity and assess the risk of fraudulent activities, and Transaction filtering to identify and alert fraudulent or suspicious transactions. FPT.AFC helps reduce up to 80% of the time spent on information security monitoring.

In addition, FPT IS also presents a tool to build a 360-degree customer portrait. The portrait includes every interaction of a customer with the company, from the first contact to the most recent purchase, all trackable on the system. Understanding customer behavior, the solution automatically recommends the next best products or services specific to each customer with AI technology. As a result, the solution has helped increase the number of customers reactivating credit cards by 7%, and increase the number of customers returning for savings services by 10%.

With the vision of connecting, resonating values, and promoting business with banks and businesses, FPT has also developed a Digital financial ecosystem (TradeFlat) to handle L/C operations on a single and end-to-end platform. The solution offers remarkable outcomes for trade activities such as reducing the time of document delivery by 90% compared to conventional trade finance transaction flows, reducing the processing time of bank staff by 50%, and increasing productivity and work efficiency by 3 times. The platform is jointly researched, developed, and trusted by leading commercial banks in Vietnam.

Besides data mining, FPT IS also presents a solution to help optimize the banking operations. Ms. Nguyen Minh Nguyen Thanh – Southeast Asia Sales Director of akaBot, FPT IS – emphasizes that the robotic process automation (RPA) technology is capable of properly enhancing the experience of both the employees and the customers.

“Starting from the simplest processes, akaBot’s virtual assistants can simulate repetitive operations, freeing the employees from manual and tedious tasks. “akaBot defines its very own concept called Human and Robot Alliance. The application of process automation is not for robots to replace humans, as the main purpose is to free the employees from tedious operations, so that they can focus on more high-end tasks such as assessment, analysis, and contribution to corporate strategy”, said Ms. Thanh.

Ms. Nguyen Minh Nguyen Thanh – Southeast Asia Sales Director of akaBot, FPT IS – emphasizes that RPA technology can help enhance the experience of both the employees and the customers.

With more than 1,000 automated processes deployed in more than 20 large banks such as TPBank, BIDV, LienVietPostBank, HDBank…, akaBot’s virtual assistants have freed up more than 1,000,000 employees from tedious operations, shortened 70% of processing time, and reduced 2,000,000 work hours/year. This is a core factor to enhance employee satisfaction and experience within the organization. In addition, because the processes are performed in a quick and 100% accurate way, the rate of customers’ satisfaction regarding digital experience at financial and banking institutions has also been increased by nearly 34%.

Always ready in terms of technologies and resources, FPT IS desires to continue to comprehensively accompany the banking sector to jointly exploit the power of technologies and data, generate business advantages, and realize digital transformation goals of businesses in particular and the Government in general.