When the chief banking officer of a $10.3B group financial institution visited a competing super-regional department in her suburban New Jersey neighborhood, she seen one thing troubling.

Piles upon piles of paper crowded the department supervisor’s desk and cluttered the close by credenza. Set amid an open flooring plan, the stacks of recordsdata left delicate buyer info—enterprise and private, loans and deposits—accessible for all to see¹.

At present’s quickly rising fee setting is driving exercise throughout the nation’s 72,000 financial institution branches². These branches, and their operational websites and processing facilities, are stuffed with paper. As most banks preserve a hybrid of bodily and digital data, front-line department associates battle to offer a pleasant, frictionless buyer expertise.

What the chief banking officer understood whereas visiting a competitor’s department was each the complexity and the need of digital transformation, together with paperless initiatives. Her financial institution, presently present process an acquisition, has performed 5 mergers prior to now ten years and consolidated roughly 40 branches. In every case, they contended with volumes of latest and decades-old paperwork.

By digitizing buyer data, operational data, and legacy data, banks just like the one led by the chief banking officer see enhancements in key areas: accessibility, effectivity, and compliance³.

Take into account the next real-world situations.

● A tier 1 North American financial institution digitally reworked greater than 1,000 of its branches. They decided and executed a ‘retailer versus destroy’ technique for paper paperwork primarily based on shopper classification and file retention schedules⁴.

● A worldwide financial institution with greater than 1,400 branches in Latin America listed important buyer information. This freed up department house by eliminating saved bins of paperwork. They achieved a safe chain of custody with recordsdata in an digital repository. The proper paperwork had been then put in long-term storage to satisfy compliance necessities⁵.

● A tier 1 US retail financial institution tackled paper at greater than 5,000 of its branches. Info is now safe and simply accessible to department associates main to raised customer support. The financial institution saved wanted info and safely destroyed the remaining⁶.

● A big monetary establishment acquired a smaller financial institution. They organized and secured belongings from 30 redundant branches and workplace places to quickly put together for closures⁷.

● A small regional financial institution securely disposed of IT belongings throughout 5 branches and a knowledge heart because it started a large improve to its backend and customer-facing applied sciences⁸.

‘It’s not likely in regards to the paper’

Some market analysts predict the extinction of paper banking within the subsequent decade⁹. In response, main monetary companies organizations make use of cloud-based options mixed with synthetic intelligence¹⁰.

Of the highest 50 US banks, 46 work with Iron Mountain, an organization recognized within the clever doc processing and content material companies platform markets. Greater than 2,500 monetary companies establishments, nearly all Fortune 1000 firms, and hundreds of native enterprises depend on Iron Mountain’s options and companies.

These trade leaders are hastening a digital transformation—one which guarantees to indicate a return on funding in lower than 18 months, scale back the dangers of non-compliance, and save 40% of worker time¹¹.

Working with financial institution branches, Iron Mountain specialists customise the correct software program implementation and integration with present programs. In the end, they discover probably the most environment friendly and risk-averse methods to scan, course of, and securely retailer¹² or destroy bodily paperwork. Digital info will get encrypted with restricted entry and role-based permissions. Paperwork from different places, reminiscent of cloud repositories, enterprise content material administration programs, and file shares, may be accessed for enhanced visibility and connection. Utilizing optical character recognition expertise¹³, paperwork are searchable by textual content or index, accessible for a lot of file sorts and in lots of languages.

Although decreasing space-hogging shops of paper does shrink the department footprint, “it’s not likely in regards to the paper. It’s in regards to the information inside these paperwork,” mentioned Olivia Markbreiter¹⁴, a Principal Advisor at Iron Mountain.

“While you open a buyer file, you actually may be studying their life story: once they opened their account, if they’ve a partner’s account, if they’ve their youngsters’s accounts or a enterprise account,” Markbreiter mentioned. “So, the problem right here isn’t just about paper however how we get all this information right into a digital format and a unified buyer profile.”

That buyer profile helps the department optimize customer support, as does using expertise to type paper recordsdata somewhat than assigning tellers to the duty.

Synthetic intelligence expertise—accessible in Iron Mountain’s InSight¹⁵ software program—can spot parts reminiscent of names, Social Safety numbers, buyer ID numbers, examine quantities, and addresses. Then, it robotically indexes data primarily based on any specified standards. This implies legacy paper paperwork merge with on-line data for a extra full digital profile that may be queried, searched, and built-in with automated workflows.

What’s taking so lengthy?

If digital transformation had been simple, everybody would have performed it by now. What makes the transfer to paperless uniquely difficult for banks comes down to a few issues.

1. Uncertainty: Many banks are uncertain about their stock—precisely what’s in all these bins and cupboards. Cautious of regulatory compliance, they want a technique round which papers to maintain and which to destroy. Additionally, they have to be conscious of minimizing disruptions to banking operations and day by day customer support.
2. Quantity: Throughout a whole bunch of financial institution department places, every has its personal circumstances. One is likely to be new with a digital-first mindset, whereas one other is an acquired department with many years of data. There’s simply a lot to type by way of. Inside each department sits 100+ totally different doc sorts with distinct information factors, taxonomies, and retention intervals. In hybrid environments, extra care have to be taken to reconcile digital recordsdata towards bodily paperwork.
3. Complexity: Many banks have gone by way of acquisitions, divestitures, or consolidation, resulting in an awesome commingling of recordsdata. To untangle the snarl, data have to be reviewed on the doc stage. And inner decision-makers should agree on tips on how to index and tag every doc.

Time to play ‘what’s within the field?’

After years of supporting monetary companies purchasers with their digital transformations, the specialists at Iron Mountain advocate a wise and efficient strategy for financial institution branches.

1. Decide goals: Establish ache factors, locations the place digitization can have probably the most affect. For some branches, this may imply enhancing the shopper expertise with customer-facing applied sciences reminiscent of cellular banking, digital contracts, and self-service cash administration. Others might have to spice up inner effectivity by digitizing paperwork and automating workflows for productiveness good points.
2. Make an correct evaluation: Decide how a lot paper the department makes use of, creates, and shops. Be aware the variety of submitting cupboards and the way a lot house they occupy. Have floods or different occasions broken legacy data? Are there info gaps?
3. Search for fast wins: Discover methods to go paperless, maybe with buyer statements. This alone would yield a major value discount and supply environmental advantages. Plus, it’s extra handy for the shopper.

A really perfect start line is to speak to an expert on this enviornment. Iron Mountain’s crew works with hundreds of financial institution branches to seek the advice of and customise options that handle goals in addition to ache factors. They know tips on how to scale back the danger and stress illustrated by the chief banking officer who witnessed an all-too-common scene of associates overwhelmed by paper. Not solely will digital transformation declutter department desks, however it’s going to additionally improve compliance, improve efficiencies, and shield delicate buyer info.

For extra info and help with changing into a paperless department, be taught in regards to the Iron Mountain Digital Financial institution resolution.

[1] https://www.ironmountain.com/assets/multimedia/okay/key-trends-and-topics-about-the-journey-to-become-a-paperless-bank 

[2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/193041/number-of-fdic-insured-us-commercial-bank-branches/

[3] https://www.ironmountain.com/industries/banking#go-solutions

[4] https://www.ironmountain.com/assets/data-sheets-and-brochures/p/paper-may-be-putting-you-at-risk-go-paperless

[5] https://www.ironmountain.com/assets/data-sheets-and-brochures/p/paper-may-be-putting-you-at-risk-go-paperless

[6] https://www.ironmountain.com/assets/data-sheets-and-brochures/p/paper-may-be-putting-you-at-risk-go-paperless

[7] https://www.ironmountain.com/assets/case-studies/q/quickly-and-securely-move-forward-with-ma-activity

[8] https://www.ironmountain.com/assets/case-studies/r/regional-bank-securely-disposes-of-it-assets-with-iron-mountain-secure-itad

[9] https://www2.deloitte.com/content material/dam/Deloitte/lu/Paperwork/financial-services/Banking/lu-digital-banking-benchmark.pdf

[10] https://www.ironmountain.com/industries/banking

[11] https://www.ironmountain.com/companies/document-scanning-and-digital-storage

[12] https://www.ironmountain.com/companies/offsite-records-storage

[13] https://www.ironmountain.com/companies/document-scanning-and-digital-storage 

[14] https://www.ironmountain.com/blogs/creator/olivia-markbreiter

[15] https://www.ironmountain.com/companies/information-management-and-content-services-solutions