NatWest Trials AI Compliance Technology

NatWest has partnered with Fintech Recordsure to trial AI compliance tool to help give customers peace of mind during regulated conversations.

NatWest is trialling technology to give customers confidence that they are getting the best possible information and advice. The bank has partnered with Recordsure and is exploring how its RegTech recording and analysis tool could be used to improve and monitor the quality of information and advice provided during regulated customer conversations.

With customer consent, Recordsure’s technology records face-to-face and telephone conversations, encrypting and uploading an audio recording to a secure cloud in real time, making it impossible for the data to be tampered with. The system also sends an alert if the microphone has been disconnected or if there is a long period of silence.

Customers and staff can listen back to the conversations, which are securely stored on servers at former UK and US military facilities built to protect data and people in the event of a nuclear attack.

The artificial intelligence technology analyses an interaction, then classifies sections of the conversation. For instance, it can identify where in an interaction a customer was given initial disclosures, which parts were financial advice, and even which parts were general conversation. It can also identify whether certain topics or issues have not been discussed. The artificial intelligence is constantly learning and improving its understanding of interactions and context.

Joanne Smith, CEO of Recordsure, said: “Recordsure can create significant efficiencies in banks’ compliance monitoring processes, resulting in up to a 50% reduction in compliance costs, which means staff will have more time to spend proactively helping customers.”

Les Matheson, CEO of Personal and Business Banking at NatWest, said: “We want to restore trust and give customers complete confidence in us. Last year we scrapped bonuses for frontline staff so customers would know our advice was based on their needs, not commission. This trial goes even further and we look forward to seeing how it can improve the service we provide.”

NatWest is currently trialling the technology with some of its mortgage advisors and is looking at how it could be applied to improve the customer experience in other areas of the bank where regulated conversations take place.

The trial is the latest in a string of NatWest innovations which have been introduced this year. In February the bank launched NatWest Invest, a self-service online investment service which customers can access 24×7. The bank has also introduced paperless online processes which have cut both account opening and lending applications for SMEs from days to minutes.