In the last two years, Banreservas has launched several product solutions, including a digital wallet and a digital token. And despite posting the highest return on capital – 35.52% – in Latin America and the Caribbean in this year’s Top 1000 World Banks ranking for the second year running, the bank is still aiming high.
For the largest bank in the Dominican Republic, digital transformation is one of the main strategic priorities, says Fraysis Moronta, senior managing director for human resources, technology and operations at Banreservas.
“Everyone thinks digital transformation is just about technology. But there’s so much more to it. You need to take care of the technical aspect of it, but it’s people who are ultimately handling the systems,” says Ms Moronta.
“Leading these areas allows me to have a panoramic perspective of the needs in each field to bring efficiency and productivity across the entire organisation,” she adds, referring to the various projects the bank has been working on over the past couple of years.
Since 2021, Banreservas has been carrying out an ambitious plan with its technology team committed to the improvement and modernisation of its digital capabilities. The bank has implemented agile methodologies, reducing its products’ time to market from months to a matter of weeks.
we provide free data to customers to promote financial inclusion
As a result, the bank has been able to launch several solutions in the last two years, such as MIO – a digital wallet app that enables Banreservas to support government social programmes; a chatbot known as Alma; a digital token; and more. Additionally, robotic process automation has been applied to key processes in the back office to increase efficiency and improve the customer experience.
“Another example of optimisation is our loans process automation, launched in 2022, where all processes from the request to the disbursement are fully automated, reducing the response from four months to three to four weeks,” Ms Moronta explains.
“Banreservas has also explored the digital experience by opening hybrid branches where customers can do several self-service operations in addition to traditional transactions. This concept is new for the Dominican Republic.”
Customer first
Being closer to its customers, too, has been a central point of concern for the bank.
“We’re very intentional about that,” says Ms Moronta. “When a customer visits a branch, we ask if they are familiar with our digital channels and, if not, we show them how to use them, whether it is an ATM or mobile app. Also, in our app, we provide free data to customers to promote their transition to digital channels and financial inclusion.”
From 2020 to date, the bank, which has around 30% market share in the country, has successfully migrated over a million customers to its mobile app, totalling more than seven million transactions each month.
“Even though we are a state-owned organisation, we compete with the commercial banks without distinction. I believe our success can be attributed to our young and experienced management team, as well as the commitment and hard work of all our people,” says Ms Moronta.
