Nanyang Commercial Bank: Saving nearly 12,000 hours annually to explore a unique agile digitalization path

Nanyang Commercial Bank was established in Hong Kong, China, in 1949, becoming the first foreign bank to operate in mainland China after the founding of the People's Republic of China. It is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Cinda Asset Management Company. Over the past 70-plus years, the bank has adhered to the principle of "customer first, service with respect" and "reputation first, supreme service," with a focus on serving customers around the world.

With the rapid development of the digital economy and the accelerating pace of enterprise digital transformation, the complexity of commercial banks' internal information systems is increasing, and there is a growing demand for automation and intelligence in business processing. Traditional operation and business processing models can no longer keep up with the times. Nanyang Commercial Bank started cooperating with Laiye in October 2021 to explore the path of intelligent automation, which has been implemented across key departments such as Information Technology, Operations Management, Personal Finance and Wealth Management, Innovation and Inclusive Finance, Human Resources, Personal Banking Risk Control, and Corporate Banking.

Yue Yi, the head of the Information Technology department at Nanyang Commercial Bank, stated: "For the banking industry, the 'golden decade' has passed. In the context of the digital economy, business transformation through digital transformation is the next great challenge for banks. Especially for small and medium-sized banks with limited resources, a major value of digitalization is cost reduction and efficiency improvement, as well as enhancing customer service experience. During our cooperation with Laiye, we have felt the security and ease of use of their intelligent automation platform, and the professionalism and efficiency of their service team, which allows us to replace low-value repetitive operations with robots. This not only reduces costs and increases efficiency but also provides a means for optimizing our personnel structure. In the future, we will introduce more intelligent automation technologies to help the bank achieve true innovative transformation."

In 2022, Nanyang Commercial Bank's intelligent automation project was selected as a typical case by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology in the "Financial Artificial Intelligence Research Report (2022)." The application of the intelligent automation platform has improved business accuracy, prevented operational risks, enhanced user experience, increased employee value, and reduced overall costs, thus enhancing the competitiveness of Nanyang Commercial Bank in China. The project has also cultivated digital talents and accelerated the integration of business and technology, speeding up the pace of digital transformation.

How to involve all departments in intelligent automation construction comprehensively?

Establish an RPA agile team for full lifecycle management

Nanyang Commercial Bank's technology department set up a dedicated RPA agile team to promote intelligent automation. They created clear guidelines called "Robot Process Automation Platform Management Specifications" to manage the entire process efficiently.

Organize training across the bank, cultivate cross-departmental professionals

The RPA agile team at Nanyang Commercial Bank is organizing RPA knowledge and skill training for all staff. They use various methods to train non-technical and business personnel, making it easier for them to identify automatable processes in their work. The bank also holds RPA certification exams to train cross-departmental RPA professionals.

Develop shared components, allowing front-line business staff to participate in intelligent automation construction

The RPA agile team at Nanyang Commercial Bank developed and shared components for various systems within the bank. These include components for invoice verification, business registration, data extraction, OCR identification, and Notes email processing. Front-line business staff can use these components to participate in the development of automated processes, making the deployment of intelligent automation more agile and efficient.

What qualitative changes can innovation in various forms and the application of multiple products bring?

"Full-time digital workers" and "personal work assistants"

Nanyang Commercial Bank aims to enhance organizational efficiency by creating a team of full-time digital workers and empowering every employee with software robots. Using the Laiye RPA avatar running mode, software robots can operate silently in the background without disturbing employees, ensuring business continuity even when employees are away.

Embrace intelligent automation with integrated platform

Nanyang Commercial Bank integrates multiple AI capabilities such as NLP, OCR, and conversational AI into the intelligent automation platform. This extends the capabilities of RPA software robots to more domains and business areas. With AI empowerment, software robots can perform a wider range of tasks, including listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking. The bank is focused on further integrating NLP, conversational AI, and other technologies to accelerate intelligent applications.

‍