Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse has deployed 20 robots that take queries from employees related to compliance. The new tools at the disposal of the bank’s personnel are designed in a similar way to a voice-activated assistant on your phone. The employee asks a question and awaits an answer from the device.
The news comes as compliance costs for big banks have been rising materially every year. Reuters first reported on the new compliance robots that Credit Suisse is using, after the Global Markets CEO of the Swiss bank, Brian Chin, spoke about the new approach of the bank at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California.
According to Mr Chin calls towards the company's compliance call center could decline as much as 50 percent after the introduction of the robots. He did not provide any details as to how are the machines operating and how employees are gaining access to those.
The voice-activated guides to compliance are representing one of the ways global banking is tackling increasing compliance challenges. Regulators worldwide have been ramping up the pressure on major financial institutions in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis in 2008 and the investigations into manipulation of the LIBOR and foreign Exchange markets.
According to Mr Chin the robots are able to directly reference and cite the appropriate Regulation without redirecting employees to a website or a document. This saves time for employees and in the long run could decrease compliance costs, which have been a major weight on earnings of major banks in recent years.
According the the Global Markets CEO of Credit Suisse, the innovation has not so far reduced headcount at the bank. Employees that the company let go in back-office and mid-office operations were substituted by an increased number of programmers.
