Transforming Bank Processes for Resiliency
Discover how banks can redefine their approach to process transformation to unlock maximum value while minimizing risk and cost.
Introduction
Banking sector stands at the crossroads of disruption, driven by sweeping macroeconomic and industry-specific factors redefining its future. Over the past two years, rising interest rates, sustained inflation, and a post-pandemic environment have created a volatile landscape.
Banks, already grappling with fierce competition from both traditional institutions and emerging players, now face unprecedented challenges. Historically, many banks have relied on incremental change to adapt to evolving market conditions. However, this staggered approach has often prevented them from fully realizing the gains of their substantial investments. Despite significant spendings on technology - estimated at approximately $600 billion to enhance productivity - labor productivity in key markets, such as the United States, has shown a noticeable decline.
The sector has reached an inflection point. Shifting customer expectations, the rapid adoption of digital ecosystems, and increasingly complex regulatory requirements demand a fundamental rethinking of traditional processes. Process transformation is no longer a discretionary initiative but a strategic imperative. While it often involves leveraging advanced tools and technologies such as automation or AI to drive impactful changes, it can also include simpler yet effective initiatives, such as redundancy removal or streamlining workflows to enhance overall process performance.
With 70% of business leaders ranking process improvement and automation as top priorities for 2024 and beyond, banks must reimagine their process landscape to remain competitive, resilient, and future-ready.
Traditional Approach to Process Transformation
Banking industry has traditionally responded to evolving business and regulatory requirements by increasing headcount, often establishing in-house teams dedicated to addressing specific needs. This approach, mostly supported by a patchwork of solutions from multiple vendors, has been driven by the time-critical nature of these changes. While effective in short term, it has led to escalating cost, heightened complexity, and increase exposure to risk.
As the need for agility, resilience, and scalability grows, the limitations of this reactive approach have become more apparent, highlighting the critical need for a strategic and integrated methodology for process transformation.
Challenges with Traditional approach
Many transformation programs in banking have historically fallen short of their ambitious objectives, primarily due to a lack of a strategic focus on transforming underlying processes. Often, the emphasis is placed on isolated process mapping or improvements, neglecting the broader interdependencies and risks inherent in interconnected systems.
- Siloed Approach: Banks often overlook the need for a comprehensive, 360-degree view when undertaking process redesign initiatives. Even a seemingly minor process change can have a significant ripple effect on interdependent processes, leading to unintended disruptions or inefficiencies if not carefully evaluated and managed.
- Absence of Risk Optimized Strategy: The success of process improvements initiatives hinges on the extent of modification required to existing underlying systems, tools, and workflows. Overlooking the risks associated with these interdependencies can undermine these changes, leading to unintended failures.
- Need-based Adoption: Quite often organizations approach process transformation initiatives reactively, driven by immediate business and regulatory pressures rather than long-term strategic planning. This approach prioritizes short-term fixes over a cohesive vision, resulting in failure to realize the potential of such initiatives.
- Lack of Organizational Alignment: Resistance from employees, coupled with inadequate support and commitment from management, often derails even the most well-intended transformation plans. If leadership does not actively champion process transformation, it can undermine its importance, leading to fragmented effort and lack of cohesion among stakeholders involved.
- Competing Priorities: Furthermore, process transformation often competes for financial resources with other high-priority initiatives, leading to delayed or incomplete implementations that fail to deliver value.
Strategic Approach to Process Transformation
The success of process transformation in banking is heavily dependent on adoption of a risk-optimized strategy that accounts for the intricate interdependencies involved.
Banks should start by thoroughly mapping out their existing processes using advanced tools to gain a comprehensive 360-degree view of their workflows. This foundational step will provide critical insights into how processes are currently executed, enabling the identification of inefficiencies, and risks associated with interdependent systems, functions and workflows.
Banks should focus on establishing a robust ecosystem that brings together expertise and experience, proven frameworks, accelerators, advanced technologies and strategic partnerships to provide effective risk controls and measures for smooth and swift execution.
By streamlining processes, eliminating inefficiencies, and implementing customer-centric solutions, organizations can consistently deliver exceptional products and services, creating long-term value and ensuring readiness for future challenges.
NTT DATA with its global banking experience and process transformation expertise has become a trusted partner for banks worldwide. By leveraging our proprietary frameworks and reusable business assets, we have been delivering exceptional value to clients. Our experts employ advanced diagnostics and process mining to swiftly identify inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and deviations, enabling banks to deliver exceptional customer value, helping them improve their ROI and overall customer experience.
Learn more about our Global Delivery Assurance capabilities and explore how we can assist you in achieving your goals.
Siddharth Sharma
Vice President, International Consulting
Siddharth Sharma is Vice President- International Consulting Practice at NTT DATA. For over 18 years he has been at the forefront of leading large transformation programs for clients across industries including Banking & Financial Services, Telecom & Media, Life Sciences and other Commercial Industries. Siddharth and his team are known for driving innovation tailored to client needs by establishing specialized competency centers- focusing on areas such as, Process Transformation, PMO, AML & KYC, that are pivotal in consistently improving efficiency and generating continuous value for the clients.