Park Jae-hyuk is a seasoned journalist who has provided comprehensive coverage of South Korea's corporate dynamics, economic policies, industry challenges and the global positioning of Korean companies. Based on the articles he has written since joining The Korea Times in 2016, his investigative approach has helped readers understand corporate governance, economic trends and business strategies shaping South Korea’s economy.
Robots set to replace bank clerks
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By Park Jae-hyuk
By Park Jae-hyuk
Bank clerks are expected to be replaced by robots in the near future, as a growing number of banks here are speeding up efforts to adopt robotics process automation (RPA), according to industry officials.
RPA initially referred to software robots performing programmed and repetitive tasks on behalf of people. As their performance has improved, however, they have begun managing credit, conducting foreign exchange and giving advice on investments.
NongHyup Bank CEO Lee Dae-hoon, fourth from right (standin), checks on the robotics process automation control room at the bank's headquarters in Seoul, Friday. / Courtesy of NongHyup Bank
NongHyup Bank is considered the leader in this transition that will change the landscape of the banking industry in the coming years.
The bank said Wednesday it has completed installing 120 RPAs doing 39 different tasks, as part of its efforts toward a digital transformation.
NongHyup expects this project will reduce its employees annual working hours by 200,000.
In addition, the bank is developing another type of RPA that can analyze whether a consultation about financial products is mis-selling or not.
“Before attracting customers with digital finance, bank clerks themselves should be digitized,” NongHyup Bank CEO Lee Dae-hoon said. “We will develop a corporate culture in which robots and people can work together.”
The nation's top four commercial banks ― Shinhan, KB Kookmin, KEB Hana and Woori ― and provincial and state-run banks began adopted RPAs in 2016 to enhance productivity.
They have also made efforts to develop artificial intelligence (A.I.) programs to improve the performance of their RPAs.
In particular, Shinhan Bank officially appointed its virtual chatbot-assisted communication channel platform, “AI Moli,” as a new “employee” Nov. 21
The bank said the decision was made so its employees could inform Moli of “bugs” and add more search records to the system, as they would do in helping instruct new employees.
Against this backdrop, less people will be needed at banks, as robots allow savings in time and cost.
Mike Mayo, a senior analyst at Wells Fargo Securities, said in a report that technological efficiencies will result in the biggest drop in the headcount across the U.S. banking industry, with an estimated 200,000 jobs being cut over the next decade.
According to the report, the $150 billion that the country's finance firms are spending on technology annually ― more than any other industry ― will lead to lower costs, with employee compensation currently accounting for half of all bank expenses.
“It will be a dramatic change in contact centers, and these are both internal and external,” Michael Tang, a Deloitte partner who leads the consulting firm's global financial-services innovation practice, said in an interview in the Wells Fargo report.
“We're already seeing signs of it with chatbots, and some people don't even know that they're chatting with an A.I. engine because they're just answering questions.”