Accelerating business processes in FSIs with e-signature

Document turnaround time for banks which adopted DocuSign was cut by an average of 50%.

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Given that agreements are at the heart of every banking process, financial service instructions (FSIs) must ensure that documents are processed at a speed to ensure customer satisfaction. One way to do this is by adopting an e-signature software.

When selecting which e-signature software to use, businesses must consider several factors including ease of use. 

"When implementing a platform or any technology, organisations should always keep in mind what the user journey is. The last thing you want is a clunky, heavy system that many people may have signed up for. It just makes life even harder for them,” DocuSign's Area Vice President for Asia, Kartik Krishnamurthy, told Singapore Business Review.

The second factor to consider when adopting e-signatures is security.

According to Krishnamurthy, the software must match and meet all of the legal and security requirements “that are very stringent for every organisation.”

DocuSign, the pioneer and world’s leading solution in electronic signature, has compliance certifications like ISO 27001, the international standard for information security management systems.

“At DocuSign, we meet the highest level of global security standards available today, whether it's ISO 27001, GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) compliance for clients who are operating in Europe, or PDPA (Personal Data Protection Act) in Singapore. Our strong compliance culture and robust security are part of our commitment to ensuring clients that we are handling their documents with care,” he added.

Another thing to check is if the e-signature platform is integrated with productivity apps. In the case of DocuSign, Krishnamurthy said the platform has over 400 integrations. 

“It's got to be seamless from a mobile experience standpoint. Specifically in Southeast Asia, there is very high mobile internet penetration rates. Hence a question you should ask yourself before selecting an e-signature solution is, how do you ensure a seamless mobile experience from an end user perspective?” he said.

Lastly, Krishnamurthy said organisations must ensure that the platform they select is compatible with their existing technologies.

Faster turnaround

After implementation, Krishnamurthy said organisations will see a significant amount of returns, including faster turnaround time.

According to the DocuSign official, banks that have adopted DocuSign eSignature have been able to cut their document turnaround time by about 50%.

Organisations were also able to slash the amount of time spent sending documents back and forth for signature by 20-25%.

Speed was not the only thing that e-signature platforms were able to achieve – they can even improve accuracy.

Krishnamurthy said DocuSign users saw their error rates go down by 45%.

Given the faster turnaround and lesser errors, DocuSign users also saw an improvement of 55-60% in their customer experience and a reduction of abandonment rates by almost 30%.

These improvements have allowed organisations to save $36 per document of discretionary cost. 

Apart from operational targets, adoption of e-signature can also help organisations hit their environmental goals.

“Since 2003, we’ve helped hundreds of millions of people around the world to replace over 20 billion sheets of paper with digital processes that do not require paper. Together, we have preserved over 2.5 million trees required to make paper.” Krishnamurthy said.

Whether a company is in the financial services industry or not, Krishnamurthy believes that implementing an e-signature platform is critical.

“Agreements form the basis of any business, no matter the nature of your business. Whether it's financial services, manufacturing, or retail, agreements are the foundation of everything that you do,” he said.