ICICI Bank launches 'Software Robotics' to power banking operations

NEW DELHI: India’s largest private sector bank, ICICI bank has announced the deployment of ‘Software Robotics’ in over 200 business processes across various functions of the bank.

The bank is the first in the country and among few, globally, to deploy ‘Software Robotics’ that emulates human actions to automate and perform repetitive, high volume and time consuming business tasks cutting across multiple applications.

At ICICI Bank, software robots have reduced the response time to customers by up to 60% and increased accuracy to 100% thereby sharply improving the bank’s productivity and efficiency. It has also enabled the bank’s employees to focus more on value-added and customer- related functions. The software robots now perform over 10 lakh banking transactions every working day.

ICICI Bank has deployed these software robots in over 200 business process functions across the organisation including retail banking operations, agri-business, trade & forex, treasury and human resources management among others. The bank has implemented the ‘Software Robotics’ platform mostly in-house, leveraging recent advancements in artificial intelligence such as facial and voice recognition, natural language processing, machine learning and bots among others.

Announcing the deployment of ‘Software Robotics’, Ms. Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank, said, “ICICI Bank has a legacy of pioneering innovations in technology to create propositions that provide increased convenience to customers. We have created new paradigms in the financial services industry by taking the lead in introducing path-breaking innovations including internet banking, mobile banking, Tab banking, Touch Banking branches and banking on social media.

It is yet another proud moment for us as we bring forth the futuristic technology of ‘Software Robotics’. We have re-engineered over 200 business processes which are powered by software robots across various functions of the Bank. This initiative marks a milestone in the banking innovation in the Indian banking industry as it joins a select group of overseas organisations which have deployed this unique state-of-the-art robotic technology in such a large way.

The software robots are processing over 10 lakh transactions daily, bringing in unparalleled operational efficiency, higher accuracy and a massive reduction in processing time for customer services. Further, with our retail banking growing at over 25% every year, we will be ready to handle larger volumes with the same resources. This initiative deeply embodies the bank’s philosophy of ‘khayaal aapka’, wherein we strive to offer the best-in-class experience to our customers.

It will also enable our employees to focus on more value-added services while having better work-life balance. I believe that the implementation of ‘Software Robotics’ will herald a transformational change in the Indian banking industry. We plan to more than double the software robots to over 500 by end of this fiscal.”

The software robots at ICICI Bank are configured to capture and interpret information from systems, recognize patterns and run business processes across multiple applications to execute activities including data entry and validation, automated formatting, multi-format message creation, text mining, workflow acceleration, reconciliations and currency exchange rate processing among others.

This launch comes close on the heels of a slew of technology-led innovative services introduced by the bank. The list includes fully automated and round-the-clock 'Touch Banking' branches, Tab Banking, banking on Facebook and Twitter, the country's first contactless debit and credit cards, ‘Pockets’- India’s first digital bank on mobile phone and ‘iMobile SmartKeys’ – Asia’s first payment service using a smartphone keyboard.

ICICI Bank services its large customer base through a multi-channel delivery network of 4,451 branches, 14,073 ATMs, call center, interne t banking (www.icicibank.com), mobile banking, banking on Facebook & Twitter and ‘Pockets by ICICIBank’ the country’s first digital wallet. (Figures as on June 30, 2016)

About ICICI Bank Ltd: ICICI Bank Ltd (NYSE:IBN) is India’s largest private sector bank with consolidated total assets of US $ 138.67 billion at March 31, 2016. Its subsidiaries include India's leading private sector insurance compa nies, securities brokerage firms, mutual funds and private equity firms. ICICI Bank’s presence currently spans 17 countries, including India.