Automating Transactions Improves the Bottom Line

Major corporations around the globe have accepted that automated transactions are essential for staying relevant and profitable in the modern world. Technology has enabled digital transactions to take place securely and consumers have now come to expect the ease of automation in all of their transactions.

While consumers and many industries are fully on board with automated transactions, the banking industry has been more hesitant to embrace the new technology. Given the large amounts of money that banks deal with, security is a constant concern. And even banks that have added mobile deposit and mobile bill pay features on their apps and websites still tend to see implementing these modern measures as an obligation, not as a potential boon to their business.

What banks do not yet realize is that automation is not just necessary for staying relevant, rather, automation can also help them improve their bottom line. Automation enables transactions to take place instantly, eliminating the hassles of cash and paper checks. By switching to automated transactions, banks can eliminate the time it takes to print, mail and deposit checks and allow their employees to focus on other tasks. Additionally, every transaction made with a paper check costs a bank the price of printing, a stamp, and an envelope – automated transactions save banks the money they spend on these costs, too.

Adding up the cost of labor, printing, an envelope, and a stamp, the cost of processing an individual paper check is still just pennies. But when multiplied by the number of checks that a bank processes in a year, the cost of using paper checks is significant. For banks, every penny that can be saved on every transaction ultimately has a significant effect on their bottom line. Switching to automated transactions allows banks to cut a major expense.

Additionally, automating transactions may help banks reduce the amount of money they lose to fraud. While conventional wisdom says that automated digital transactions are fundamentally unsafe, AI technology has now become just as good, if not better, at detecting fraud as humans are. Check fraud is on the rise, too – automating transactions eliminates the potential for fraud to be committed with paper checks.

And automation does not just benefit banks. As the rise in popularity of peer-to-peer payment apps and online shopping proves, consumers love the convenience of automated transactions. Consumers are now more likely to make a transaction when they can make it digitally.

This means that consumers are more likely to make a transaction with their bank when they can make it digitally. By giving their customers the option to automate their transactions, banks will increase their customers’ engagement and the number of transactions they make, ultimately improving their bottom lines.

Banks should embrace automated transactions because the move to automation is inevitable, but also because the move to automation is profitable. By automating their transactions, banks can cut pennies off of every transaction, which amounts to huge savings overall. Additionally, by acknowledging consumers’ preference for automated transactions, banks can increase the total number of transactions made with them. Together, these benefits of automating transactions will have a significant positive effect on banks’ bottom lines.