5 Back-Office Processes Your Bank Should Automate Immediately
Introduction
Community and regional banks are under pressure to modernize — not just to compete with fintechs and megabanks, but to improve internal efficiency and reduce costs. One of the clearest paths to measurable ROI is automating manual, time-consuming back-office processes.
According to McKinsey, banks that adopt automation at scale can reduce costs by up to 30% while improving employee satisfaction and customer experience. (McKinsey Report)
So where should your bank start?
Here are five back-office workflows every community bank should consider automating right now.
Use digital forms, e-signatures, and rule-based workflows1. Customer Onboarding
Why it matters: Manual onboarding is error-prone, time-consuming, and often frustrating for both customers and employees.
Automation opportunity: Use digital forms, e-signatures, and rule-based workflows to automate account setup, document collection, and ID verification. This can cut onboarding time in half — or more.
Stat: A Celent study found that digital onboarding can reduce account opening times by 70%. (Celent)
2. Monthly Report Generation
Why it matters: Compliance and performance reports take up hours of staff time each month, often using spreadsheets and manual inputs.
Automation opportunity: Set up templates that auto-populate with data from your core and ancillary systems. Schedule recurring reports to generate and deliver automatically.
Stat: According to Accenture, 80% of financial firms say reporting is one of the most time-consuming manual tasks still left in banking operations. (Accenture)
3. Loan Processing and Document Collection
Why it matters: Gathering paperwork and approvals can create bottlenecks that slow down loan approvals — costing you time, money, and customer satisfaction.
Automation opportunity: Automate loan workflows with smart forms, document reminders, and internal routing rules. Use AI to extract and verify key data from uploaded documents.
4. Internal Communications & Task Management
Why it matters: Too much communication still happens through scattered emails, spreadsheets, or hallway conversations.
Automation opportunity: Implement task tracking systems that send automated alerts, assign responsibilities, and escalate items when overdue. This eliminates confusion and saves hours every week.
5. Marketing Execution Workflows
Why it matters: Community bank marketers are often doing everything manually — building email lists, writing every piece of content from scratch, managing social posts by hand.
Automation opportunity: Set up smart content templates, auto-scheduling tools, and reporting dashboards to simplify campaigns. Bonus: AI tools can now help generate compliant, high-quality content.
Stat: The Financial Brand reports that 53% of banks plan to increase investment in marketing automation by 2026. (The Financial Brand)
Final Thoughts
Automating just one of these workflows can save dozens of hours per month. Automating all five? That’s when you start transforming your bank’s efficiency and performance.
You don’t need to rip out your core system or hire a team of developers. At 2Novas, we help banks like yours identify high-impact workflows and automate them using practical, proven tools.
Ready to find your automation wins? Schedule a discovery call.