The benefits of document management for the banking industry

According to the latest research conducted by Forbes, the banking industry is one of the major vertical markets, with a strong growth potential as far as IT investment is concerned. This is no surprise given the huge amount of transactions banks carry out on a daily basis and the efforts they make to optimize their processes.

However, despite the breakthroughs in data management and transmission, most of the internal or external communications with different banks or customers are still paper-based. These confidential documents are usually stored using obsolete document management software with limited accessibility options.

Therefore, managing documents more efficiently has become one the main objectives across banks. Whether driven by the need to streamline core processes (e.g. granting loans or opening accounts) or meet organization-specific requirements, implementing document management software is absolutely essential for the smooth running of any banking institution.

Main benefits of implementing a document management system

Implementing an adequate document management solution is a safe bet, both for banking institutions and their customers. Some of the key benefits are:

  • Financial benefits: Managing and sending millions of documents such as statements and notifications imply a high cost for financial entities. With appropriate document management software, they will be able to reduce this cost considerably.
  • Banks save time: Handling paper documents entails using resources for a great number of manual tasks like putting letters in envelopes before sending them by post. Adequate document management software helps save a huge amount of paper and, therefore, allows removing many manual tasks. This way, the bank will be able to take better advantage of resources and assign them to more important tasks thanks to the substantial amount of time it saves.
  • Customers save time: With agile document management software, banks will be able to provide their customers with all their account information in a fast and efficient manner. Thus, customers will have the possibility of accessing this information through the Internet, which will significantly reduce waiting times and, therefore, increase customer satisfaction. Likewise, customers will be able to electronically sign different types of bank documents, which once again results in time and money savings for customers.
  • Regulations: All banks must comply with legal regulations and keep up with the continuous changes that occur in this field. Nevertheless, this may turn out to be hard when most documents are in paper form and compliance with those regulations is monitored manually. Secure document management software meets all these requirements by efficiently protecting customer data.
  • Electronic audit trails: Banks carry out internal and external audits to ensure that they are complying with the relevant regulations and keep an accurate record of all financial transactions. These audits are conducted in a more efficient and error-free way when adequate document management software is used, which makes it possible to monitor all transactions conducted with a certain type of data.
  • Optimized work flow: When documents are managed electronically, it is more agile and efficient to assign each work flow, since employees can easily find the documents and information they need, while complying with working protocols and procedures.
  • Environmental benefits: Changing to an electronic document management system also involves obvious benefits for the environment. Paper consumption is outstandingly reduced, which implies a decline in tree felling, waste and chemical scrap products.

Key guidelines to implementing a document management system

The benefits of an appropriate document management system are clear, but banks should take the following guidelines into account before choosing a solution:

  • They should focus on the underlying information rather than on the document’s format.
  • It is important to try to capitalize on existing assets as much as possible.
  • Architectures should be easy to integrate.
  • Emphasis should be put on ease of use and flexibility.

In the banking industry, most documents are very heavy. For this reason, this may be one of the industries where using state-of-the-art technology for document management purposes makes more sense. An adequate document management system will allow banks to stand out from the competition, guaranteeing customer service is optimized, ICT operations are enhanced and confidential data is protected to a higher extent.

It is obvious that the banking industry needs to implement a topnotch document management system in order to benefit from the multiple advantages it offers. This will provide both banks and customers with agile and easy access to documents, while increasing their security.

André Klein
Freelance Consultant for DocPath