Contactless banking, remote working to witness increased demand in times of Covid-19, says Deloitte

There will be increasing preference for contactless banking and remote working due to the Covid-19 outbreak, according to Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP.

The Covid-19 outbreak and resultant government response have triggered significant structural and behavioural changes across retail and MSME (micro, small and medium enterprise) customers, it added.

The audit, consulting, risk and financial advisory firm, in a report, said contactless banking solutions will entail digital onboarding enabled by video KYC (know-your-customer), contactless authentication and payments, virtual customer servicing, and immersive banking experience.

Deloitte observed that adopting Aadhar and Video Customer Identification Processes (V-CIP)-based digital onboarding can help drive new customer acquisition, while offering cost efficiencies and lowering the turnaround time.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and facial recognition technologies could help enhance the veracity of customer data during this process, it added.

The firm underscored that customers are likely to opt for contactless authentication and payments to minimise physical interactions.

“Using technologies such as facial or voice recognition and wearables can help maintain social distancing norms and enhance customer experience during merchant payments, ATM, and business correspondent-enabled banking transactions,” the report said.

While many banks and NBFCs have adopted chatbots and voicebots for basic service requests, contact centres continue to be critical for managing complex requests.

“The pandemic has disrupted contact centre operations, affecting response time and quality for a range of services. Enhancing the capabilities of chatbots/voicebots and contact centre virtualisation through cloud-based systems can help address this issue to a large extent,” Deloitte said.

The firm said that with substantially reduced human interactions in branches, recreating immersive experiences virtually can help build a differentiated customer value proposition. It suggested that technologies based on virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AI) can be used to develop interactive banking apps and create a virtual branch experience.

Referring to remote working solutions, Deloitte said financial institutions can consider deploying appropriate cloud-based solutions to offer secure remote access to major systems. This could also provide flexibility to quickly scale up/down in case of a rise in transaction volumes due to increased volatility.

The firm felt that AI-based productivity enhancement tools could help assess and predict human behaviour, identify development areas in real-time, and track performance.

Further, VR/AI-based training programmes have the potential to increase the efficacy of remote learning, thereby improving employee productivity. Staff access to virtual medical assistants for their physical and psychological well-being can further maintain employee health and morale.

Varying levels of Covid-19 restrictions in different geographies, sectors and segments have led to increased uncertainty and risk in MSME lending.

“Geospatial analytics can provide rich micro-market level understanding of each sector/segment, and enable the customisation of offerings. These, along with remote sensing solutions, can help financial institutions identify clusters with business potential and monitor risk levels, especially in sectors such as mining, infrastructure, and farming,” Deloitte said.

With mobility restrictions posing challenges to physical movement, the report emphasised that remote asset evaluation through Internet of Things (IoT)-based systems can help drive credit growth.

Products such as trade and lease financing, asset maintenance financing (for example, car tyre replacement), and manufacturing and infrastructure financing can significantly benefit from these solutions.

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