About
State of the art digital onboarding solution for SME clients in UAE, helped reduced turn around time for account opening by 60% and increased digital acquisition by 25%.
Innovation presentation
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a crucial role in the UAE's economy, constituting a significant portion of its business landscape. With approximately 350,000 SMEs having less than 250 employees and turnovers below AED 250 million, they represent over 95% of all businesses in the country and make substantial contributions to its GDP.
Access to banking services has been pivotal for the success and expansion of SMEs. However, it has long been a challenge for them, as SME banking presents high risks for financial institutions. Consequently, SMEs often endure prolonged document scrutiny and back-and-forth interactions with banks. Moreover, due to limited digitization and banks' subdued interest in this sector, SMEs have predominantly experienced offline banking journeys for their business needs.
RAKBANK has emerged as a frontrunner in serving the UAE SME sector, offering tailored products and services to meet their unique requirements. As a traditional SME bank, RAKBANK has excelled in providing core business banking products.
In Q4 of 2023, RAKBANK significantly enhanced its digital services for SME clients by introducing an end-to-end digital account onboarding journey. This journey enables SMEs to apply for a business account and receive instant approval. Customers can conveniently upload their documents on-the-go, and the platform includes mechanisms to verify document authenticity with relevant authorities, as well as the liveliness and authenticity of applicants.
The primary objectives of developing this journey were to position RAKBANK as a “Digital Bank with a Human Touch”, reduce the turnaround time for opening business accounts, minimize the number of fields and clicks required in the application process, pre-populate fields for customer convenience, and decrease the cost of customer acquisition.
Uniqueness of the project
RAKBANK has steadfastly upheld its commitment to nurturing an ecosystem supportive of SMEs, with a core focus on providing cutting-edge digital platforms. The latest digital account opening journey embodies this commitment by integrating industry-leading features, setting new benchmarks in service excellence.
Key features of this journey include:
- Decision Engine: A rule-based engine that determines customer eligibility by analyzing credit bureau reports and income data obtained from FTS.
- Credit Bureau Report Integration: Enables assessment of customer exposure, income declaration, and calculation of exposure, facilitating the determination of the IPA.
- Courier Tracking Automation: Streamlines the process of generating Air Waybills (AWB) for consignments and tracks courier deliveries with proof of delivery.
- FTS – Central Bank Statement Integration: Offers customers the option to retrieve bank statements through FTS for assessing eligibility for asset products. This functionality is seamlessly embedded in the journey and operates based on customer consent.
- MOI – Ministry of Interior Data Integration: Pulls customer data from the Ministry of Interior (MOI), fulfilling 60% of the onboarding fields. This reduces the need for customer inputs, resulting in an expedited onboarding experience.
Committed to delivering unparalleled customer service, RAKBANK ensures that applicants can resume their application journey from where they left off. Recognizing that most journeys commence on mobile devices but document uploads are preferred on computers, this feature enhances convenience and continuity for applicants.
