Bank employees spend hours searching for compliance documents

Imagine if you spent around one fifth of your time at work, every week, searching for documents to ensure compliance.

This is the reality for bank employees according to a new report that reveals the impact of lost time, productivity, and therefore money for financial institutions, especially small-to-midsize banks and credit unions.

Around six hundred employees or recent employees from FIs of that size took part in the survey by financial services AI solutions provider Hapax, with 78% of respondents indicating that they find it challenging to locate the information they need at work.

A similar share said that asking others for information hinders their job efficiency including 75% who needed help from a colleague to access information, 74% who needed clarification. Two thirds found that the information was outdated.

"Say a bank employee makes $40 an hour, and 8 hours each week is spent just tracking down information needed to do their job accurately, which comes out to nearly $17,000 per employee each year that banks and credit unions are losing," said Kevin Green, COO of Hapax. "That's staggering – especially for smaller financial institutions that are struggling with a lack of resources and expertise to keep up with an ever-changing regulatory and competitive environment. Furthermore, that is time that can be better spent advancing their business goals and serving their customers and communities."

More than six in ten also felt that the compliance burden for smaller banks and credit unions are disproportionate and that larger firms can manage better, especially due to the lack of resources highlighted by around half of respondents.

The cost to employee efficiency is high and so too is the impact on employee satisfaction, with 43% of poll participants reporting difficulty finding information and managing documents negatively affects job satisfaction, and 32% say it leads to decreased work-life balance.

Additionally, the potential costs of failing to maintain robust compliance procedures are high. A shortage of compliance talent across the financial services and investment industry is exacerbating the challenges for FIs and their teams.

Just over half of respondents felt that AI would improve job satisfaction, 47% think it would boost their confidence in their work, 43% see it as helping build stronger client relationships, and 61% feel it would enhance productivity.