IBS Journal April 2016
Sveriges Riksbank takes stand on cashless society
Sweden is often held up as the most cash- free country on the planet, but it looks like its enthusiasm for a brave new payments world is about to be reined in. The Sveriges Riksbank – The National Bank of Sweden – has called for access to cash to be a legal right. In 1661 Sweden became the first
European nation to issue banknotes, but it is now a country where cash plays a marginal role. Swedish buses do not accept it, retailers have the right to refuse it and many banks no longer offer cash-handling services. But in a statement submitted to the Ministry of Finance’s consultation on access to accounts with basic functions, the
Riksbank has requested a legal require- ment be introduced which would place a duty on banks to provide this as a basic feature of payment accounts. Signed by Stefan Ingves, the Riksbank Governor, it states that the banks have reduced their cash handling services too fast, resulting in a lack of notes and coins in less populated areas in particular, but for the public in general. Mike Lee, CEO of the ATM Industry As-
sociation (ATMIA), says: “This is a victory for common sense and for the future balance of the Swedish consumer economy and I’d like to congratulate the Swedish Riksbank for seeing through the mirage of anti-cash
RBS tests out AI with a human touch
Royal Bank of Scotland has wrapped on a two month ‘human’ artificial intelligence/ customer service trial. Piloted among 1,200 staff who manage relationships with small businesses, the AI, known as ‘Luvo’, is able to understand questions and then quickly filter through information before respond- ing with the answer. If Luvo is unable to find the answer, it passes the query on to a member of staff. Typical questions dealt with via web chat include: My customer has lost their card – what steps do they need to take now?; My customer has locked their PIN – how do they unlock it?; How do I order a card-reader for my customer? RBS says that, whilst banks have been
using AI for some time, Luvo is unique in that a ‘human’ like personality has been created for it. Its unique psychological profile means it has a warmth to its per- sonality, is approachable, creative and uses a combination of intuition and reasoning when answering questions. Like humans, Luvo has to be trained when dealing with new subject matter, but crucially, it learns from its mistakes and its answers become more accurate over time. RBS will now carry out pilots to explore
if Luvo could be used to answer questions direct from customers. Simon McNamara, RBS Chief Administrative Officer, says: “Luvo is a really exciting new technology that brings artificial intelligence to life and will help our staff serve customers better
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by resolving their questions and problems much more quickly. Its potential is huge.” It isn’t the only UK bank to go down
this route. Digital-only venture Atom, set to launch this year, is integrating the WDS Virtual Agent tool into its mobile app. The virtual assistant will learn through analysing customer behaviour, problems and solution success rates. Helen Wilson, Atom’s head of customer service, says: “We are setting out to offer a very different banking experience for our customers, using advanced technology to help provide customers with easy and intuitive ways to manage their money. Ensuring help is always available is vitally important to us and the WDS Virtual Agent is an intelligent way of us helping our customers.” WDS is also providing Atom with Agent
IQ software, which guides the human customer support team with the best questions to ask customers. This will also learn which agents are getting the best results and feeds that through to the rest of the team.
Scott Thompson In brief
Australia’s Westpac is testing out vid- eo conferencing technology to give deaf and hard of hearing customers access to financial advice in Auslan. Westpac Chief Operating Officer John Arthur says: “The trial is an important step to help break down the com- munication barriers experienced by many of our deaf and hard of hearing customers, and we’re proud to be the first financial institution to offer it to customers. Approximately 25 per cent of Auslan-users live in New South Wales and with many of these customers based in Western Sydney, this is an ideal location for us to trial the service with scope to expand it nationally in the future.” The trial will be run in Westpac
and
St.George branches in the Sydney suburb of Penrith for six weeks. The service will connect the branches with qualified Auslan interpreters through an email booking system. Customers can then have real-time conversations with bank staff via the video confer- encing tech.
Scott Thompson propaganda in the media to reveal
the basic economic right of free citizens to choose their own payment methods at all times, whether cash or digital.” Scott Thompson
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