Data Capture Tools in the Banking Industry
Data collection has always been an integral function in the banking industry. Without the data that is collected, financial professionals would not be able to serve customers, analyse financial data, mitigate risks and more.
What’s more, the rapid evolution of regulatory compliance requirements and the surge in market demands means that data capture tools are indispensable to businesses in the industry.
The result of this is that the banking industry has often been at the forefront of cutting edge document and data management.
And thanks to these technological advances and automation tools, it is now easier than ever to create and capture data.
This is great news for those in the banking industry and means we are likely to see increasing innovation in the way of data capture tools, as organisations across the sector continue to digitise their systems.
In this guide, we’re going to take a look at what data capture is and why it is so important for the banking industry. We’ll then look at some examples of common data capture tools used by organisations across the sector.
But let’s start by looking at data capture in more detail.
What is data capture and why is it important for the banking industry?
“The process of collecting structured and unstructured information and converting it into data that is readable by a computer. With technology advancements, data capture has evolved phenomenally from paper to automated data entry.”
Data capture tools are vital for collecting this information, but why do they need to do this in the first place? And how does this benefit the banking industry?
Well, there are a number of reasons that data capture tools are important for the banking industry, including a number of benefits. These are:
Increasing efficiency
As the amount of data we collect increases, so does the need to improve efficiency. Automated data capture tools make it possible to extract, organise and store data in a matter of milliseconds. Something that would have taken humans much longer to achieve.
This means that data capture tasks are able to be completed much quicker and easier, improving efficiency.
Not only this but these tasks can be done around the clock, 24/7, with no need to be restricted by office hours. This means a lot more can be achieved each day.
This is particularly important in the banking industry, with thousands of documents, forms and applications being processed every day, which would otherwise require a lot of work and hours from employees.
Cutting costs
This increase in efficiency also means that businesses are able to cut costs. Think about it; data capture tools can achieve in seconds what it could take humans hours to complete. Therefore, these tools are more cost-effective.
Not to mention that with machines taking on the bulk of the labour-intensive work, there is no need to hire additional staff to keep up with data capture demand.
Improving accuracy
Of course, accuracy is important in any industry but even more so in the banking sector. After all, people will be making payments, applying for important financial support and sharing a lot of sensitive data.
Data capture tools are much more accurate than manual data entry and drastically reduce the risk of an error.
This means organisations can feel more relaxed knowing that the accuracy and validity of their data is taken care of. Again, something which is crucial when dealing with money and sensitive financial information.
Increasing customer retention and experience
In today’s digital world, customers and website visitors expect instant results. For example, in the banking industry, if they fill out an online form to determine whether they’re eligible for a credit card, they want to know right away.
And automated data capture tools make this possible.
As we said earlier, it speeds up the process in general to provide smoother and quicker results. Plus, you can use these tools to gather data and offer more personalised services and products to meet the customer’s specific needs.
And finally, these tools make it possible to gather customer feedback and implement important changes. This could be done through customer surveys, reviews or online comments and allows you to sort and respond in a timely manner.
All of this means that data capture tools make it possible to increase overall customer satisfaction and user experience.
Improving security and fraud detection
Security and fraud detection is absolutely crucial in the banking industry.
The good news is, new data capture tools have made it much harder for cybercriminals or any other malicious entities to gain access to sensitive customer information.
Not only this, but because you can use data capture to map patterns in customer behaviour, this makes it easier to spot potentially fraudulent activity. Banks can then alert their customers to confirm either way.
Lastly, when you integrate data capture tools with your existing business intelligence software, these can analyse data to flag potentially higher risk customers.
All of this helps to ensure the business is complying with data protection laws. It also helps to keep customer’s and the business’s sensitive data safe.
Boosting employee satisfaction
Imagine a time when poor employees had to sit and enter customer data and transactions manually. Well, thanks to data capture tools, this is no longer necessary. This frees up the time of bank employees to focus on other more important tasks.
What’s more, data capture tools can be applied to gather and analyse employee feedback and company culture-based metrics. These things combined help to boost employee productivity and satisfaction at work.
Data capture tools are irreplaceable in the banking industry
As you can see from the list of benefits above, these data capture tools are so important in the banking industry. They are able to not only make data-entry processes more efficient but they also improve security and boost both the customer and employee experience.
Keeping all this in mind, we’re now going to look at some use cases of the data capture tools that are most commonly used in banking organisations.
This can further help us to understand the importance of these tools to those in the industry.
9 examples of data capture tools in the banking industry
As you can imagine from what we’ve already said, data capture tools have several uses in the banking industry. From processing online applications to expense management and spotting fraudulent activities, these tools do so much to keep banks operating smoothly.
Our list below is not an exhaustive one (and is in no particular order), but it showcases nine of the most common examples of data capture tools in the banking industry. These include:
1. Managing new business and account opening
Data capture tools minimise the risk of manual errors when entering new customer information to open up a new account. They also reduce the time it takes to open a new account.
Using these tools, it is possible to automate the opening of savings accounts, current accounts, trade accounts, etc., making this much quicker and easier to do for both employees of the bank or customers using their online services.
2. Lending processing tools
Banks can boost the efficiency of their lending process while reducing transaction costs by using data capture tools.
These allow them to make faster and more informed decisions about loans and mortgages. For example, whether to offer personal, home or vehicle loans, credit cards and even mortgages.
These tools help them to improve customer engagement and overall experience. This, in turn, allows them to generate more revenue.
3. Online credit application tools
We’ve briefly mentioned that people expect instant results, and they want to be able to get these at any time of day. Increasingly, people use online forms to apply for loans, credit cards, overdrafts and more.
Data capture tools allow banks to check the quality, eligibility, completeness and supporting files attached to these forms, such as proof of identity.
This means they can give a faster response to the customer, even outside of office hours.
4. Indexing incoming communications
Banks might receive incoming communications in many different forms and they need to be able to quickly classify these and route them to the right business process. Data capture tools are able to classify documents such as emails, scanned documents, attachments, etc. and route these to the correct place.
These tools can also extract information such as contract numbers, bank details and more, and then prioritise them if relevant. This means they can be sent directly to the right (human) handler if needed.
5. Automated invoice payments
These data capture tools aren’t just used directly by bank employees. Automated invoicing tools mean that companies can quickly initiate an invoice payment from an unstructured source.
For example, an invoice sent in an email context, PDF or smartphone picture.
This is done by capturing bank account details, amount, sender, IBAN and any other important information. This makes it easier to extract and share bank details and make payments quickly and efficiently.
6. Expense management tools
Keeping track of business spending and finances gets more complicated as the business gets bigger. But banks can help them to stay on top of company spending through expense management softwares.
By extracting key fields from invoices and receipts, banks are able to help their customers find the best route from sales invoice to cash.
What’s more, these tools cut time spent on processing claims and flagging discrepancies. They also ensure better compliance and generate automated expense reporting to help the business make better financial decisions in the future.
7. Personal finance management
On a similar note, it’s not just big businesses that need help with financial management from the bank.
Data capture tools are used to extract information from invoices and receipts and to provide customers with insights into their own personal spending.
The great news is, with these tools doing all the labour-intensive data handling, this frees up the time of bank employees to work closely with customers and advise them on their financial situation. So it’s a win-win!
8. Reporting and visualisation tools
Banks rely on reporting and visualisation tools to create an intelligent view of the current state of the business.
What’s more, these reports are used to help business managers to track the bank’s performance, quality of the portfolio, staff productivity and other important metrics used to drive the business forward.
9. Data analytics tools
Finally, data capture tools are important for extracting data that can then be used to analyse and predict customer behaviour, risk assessment and more.
This helps the bank to better understand their customer’s preferences and to proactively manage the overall business. This means they’re able to offer better advice and support to customers and alert them to any potentially suspicious activity on their account.
The importance of data capture tools in the banking industry
Now we’ve reached the end of the guide; it’s clear to see that the banking industry relies heavily on the use of data capture tools for a number of reasons. Most notably, it relies on data capture for:
- Saving time and making processes more efficient. For example, processing loan or credit card applications
- Improving the accuracy of the sensitive data being entered. After all, banks dealing with huge sums of money can’t afford to be making mistakes
- Increasing customer retention and being able to provide a better experience in general
- Improving security and compliance, as well as using analytics and behavioural patterns to better detect fraud
- Boosting employee satisfaction by automating labour-intensive data entry tasks
Above, we’ve also outlined some of the tools that are most commonly used by banking organisations to make this possible.
But, of course, as the banking industry must process ever-growing amounts of data, new data capture tools are always being created and refined. Therefore, it’s highly likely that this industry will continue to rely on new tools to make these processes simpler.
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