Banks Say "The Answer is Digitalization"... 'Post-Corona' Innovation Fever

Reference image (Source=Getty Images Bank)

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyo-jin] The banking sector, surrounded by adverse factors such as the aftermath of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), the resulting ultra-low interest rate policy, and deteriorating profitability, is intensifying its competition for digital innovation to secure new growth engines.

According to the banking sector on the 4th, Woori Bank has established four major management strategies for the second half of the year targeting the 'post-COVID' era: ▲Digital Transformation ▲Channel Transformation ▲New Normal Management ▲Risk Management.

Woori Bank plans to actively introduce new digital-centric business models and services in line with the government's financial innovation initiatives such as the introduction of MyData and MyPayment, and focus on digitizing all areas of existing financial-related tasks.

To this end, Woori Bank newly established the Digital Transformation (DT) Promotion Team and the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Business Division in the organizational restructuring carried out the day before. Additionally, to strengthen the non-face-to-face customer management system, the customer center of the Personal Group was moved to the Digital Finance Group and placed within the same group as the Smart Customer Department.

KB Kookmin Bank has set four major principles for digitalization: ▲Strong enterprise-wide driving force ▲Enhancement of digital technology capabilities ▲Active external partnerships ▲Participation of all employees in change and innovation, and is promoting various innovations.

Through this, KB Kookmin Bank is conducting a 'comprehensive transformation' process that reinterprets and reorganizes all work processes from a digital perspective.

It also plans to maximize capabilities in new digital technologies such as AI, blockchain, cloud, data, and eco-friendly systems, and expand its service territory through collaboration with global digital companies and various financial technology (fintech) firms.

NH Nonghyup Bank received designation as an innovative financial service by financial authorities at the end of last year for its 'reservation and consultation service through AI bankers.' NH Nonghyup Bank plans to introduce this service to customers within this year through collaboration with AI startups.

NH Nonghyup Bank also plans to rebuild its Customer Happiness Center into an AI-based intelligent consultation center to improve the quality of customer consultations. Currently, NH Nonghyup Bank operates with 120 robots deployed across about 40 tasks.

Hana Bank, under the theme of 'Digital-Global Convergence,' aims to transform the bank into a data-driven information company and compete in the global market with new business models combined with information and communication technology (ICT).

Hana Bank aims to launch the 'Line Bank' service, the first project of such 'digital banking,' within this year. Last year, Hana Bank sold 20% of its shares in the Indonesian local corporation of Line Financial Asia, a subsidiary of Naver.

Hana Bank also plans to promote changes incorporating digital innovation in all areas including sales, channels, products, systems, organization, and corporate culture, based on the establishment of a special task force 'Digital Lab' that promotes autonomous digital transformation in each division within the group, units, and headquarters.

Shinhan Bank is focusing on the 'Robotic Process Automation (RPA)' project. Accordingly, last month, it achieved results by combining the employee chatbot AI Molly with RPA to automate the corporate financial statement input process.

As a result, when a branch employee inputs only the company's business registration number and financial statement issuance number into the chatbot AI Molly, the RPA automatically retrieves information from the National Tax Service and inputs the data. After the input work is completed, it even sends a notification message to the requesting employee so that subsequent tasks can begin.

Shinhan Bank also became the first in the banking sector to introduce a 'Process Mining' solution that generates and analyzes an image map allowing a comprehensive view of the entire work processing process based on user system usage logs.