Around 5 of 10 FIs use robotic process automation

This is expected to grow as 31% plan to adopt RPA in the next 6 months.

The financial process just got more intelligent, as Blue Prism’s latest survey reported that 47% or around five of 10 Hong Kong-based finance institutions are currently using robotic process automation (RPA).

The reported number, according to the survey, is also expected to surge, with 31% of those who had not implemented the process saying that they had plans to do so in the next six months. 

In terms of the technology used by these organisations, Hong Kong was also reported to have the highest adoption rate of predictive analytics at 70%, higher than the 47% average across markets. Placing second was machine learning at 63%.

Finance departments of Hong Kong respondents also saw the strongest adoption rates at 79%, followed by customer service, and sales and marketing, at 71% and 59% respectively. The latter two, in particular, were higher than the regional averages of 50% and 43%, respectively.

“The latest insights from this report show that we can expect to see a significant uptick in RPA and Intelligent Automation adoption amongst Hong Kong’s financial services institutions. This will position local organisations to make a strong post-pandemic recovery and improve their competitiveness in an increasingly crowded global market,” said Robert Dewar, Vice President, Financial Services, APAC, Blue Prism.

According to the report, the high adoption rate can be attributed to a strong local understanding of RPA, with 82% of respondents stating that they were “familiar” with the process. 78% of organisations also adopted the process due to a need to help workers concentrate on higher-value tasks, whilst 81% also pointed to increasing organisational efficiencies. 

The move, however, comes with its own obstacles, as 59% indicated that finding the right talent to manage the deployment was a common problem. 54% of respondents also pointed to identifying the right processes for RPA. 

Respondents in the survey include leaders in the financial services industry from across five markets, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, India.

The full report can be found here.