Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Aims to Automate Nearly One-Third of Banking Operations

Japanese financial institution Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (MUFG) recently revealed that it is aiming to automate nearly one-third of the operations within its banking unit by 2024.

In an interview with Reuters, Kanetsugu Mike, deputy chairman and chief executive of the core banking unit, said that the company believes it can invest in robotic process automation (RPA) to fulfill paperwork processing tasks that represent roughly 30% of branch operations and would otherwise require almost 10,000 human employees.

Currently, said Mike, many workers at the Tokyo-based bank spend more than 50% of their time processing documents related to the financial firm’s customers. “We can free up that time with robotics technology so more time can be spent with customers,” Mike told Reuters.

With robotics-based software, which would be supported by artificial intelligence capabilities, taking care of the low-level tasks, he said employees would have more time to focus on more complex, growing areas of the business, such as estate management.

According to the report, the bank’s 1.2 million clients with assets of $890,000 or more are currently underserved. MUFG only has roughly 2,600 employees dedicated to these clients.

So Mike believes that those workers who currently are bogged down in processing tasks, once freed up, could be put to better use assisting these high-income customers. “We need more bankers,” Mike told Reuters.

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