In the past decade, the world of banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) has transformed from slow, branch-heavy models to an always-on digital landscape. Smartphones and online platforms let customers manage their finances with the click of the mouse or swipe of their finger, be it moving money, applying for a loan, trading stocks, or buying a policy. The overall BFSI sector is now “at the forefront of transformation”. This dramatic shift was driven by consumer demand for fast, personalised service and by regulators who have opened the door to innovative solutions. Global studies show digital banking is now nearly universal. In India alone, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) grew from a 34% share of digital payments in 2019 to 83% in 2024.
This massive adoption of digital channels has empowered customers and benefited banks. The digital tools let banks process transactions faster, reduce errors, and reach more people (even in rural areas). In fact, a recent Deloitte survey found nine of India’s top banks became global “digital champions” the highest maturity level by innovating in payments, mobile channels, and advisory tools. Yet, with great digital growth comes a new challenge of complexity. Every money transfer, loan application or insurance claim leaves a data trail across multiple systems. As banks go paperless and insurers automate underwriting, successfully managing hundreds of interlinked processes becomes critical. This is where Process Intelligence (PI) comes in.
Process Intelligence: Seeing the Invisible
From loan disbursements and KYC checks to credit card applications and dispute resolutions, every step in these processes leaves a data trail. Process Intelligence platforms use process mining technology to read this event data in system logs. It then combines this process data with business context to create a living digital twin of business operations. It’s system-agnostic, without bias, and gives everyone a common language for understanding and improving the business. And PI gives AI the data and knowledge it needs to understand how a business runs and how to make it run better. With PI, banks see exactly where things wait, who does what, and where errors or delays creep in. In other words, banks and insurers can see their own processes as transparently as a customer sees their account balance on a mobile app.
When the RBI implemented the T+1 settlement cycle, it reduced the time for trade settlements from two days to one. While this improved liquidity for investors, it put immense pressure on banks to adjust backend operations like reconciliation, compliance, risk checks, all to be completed faster. Process Intelligence can help financial organisations pinpoint where internal delays were occurring and fix them quickly, bringing down the failure rates and regulatory exposure. In global markets, banks are already using PI to reduce customer onboarding times, lower error rates in payments, and improve turnaround time for loan processing. A leading African Bank implemented an app to increase visibility of cross-border payments and enable process re-engineering initiatives, including automating payment release, reducing rework, and eliminating bottlenecks. It reduced payment cycle time by 30%, increased payment processing capacity by 18%, and identified $2.4 million in annual cost savings.
This data-driven insight is a powerful complement to an organization’s existing tech stack. For companies, it means moving from intuition about bottlenecks to actionable, data-driven insights. Crucially, PI taps the data logs from core banking systems, chat histories, or CRM records, and it sits on top of existing systems. It provides a 360-degree visibility into how a business process is executed, surfacing inefficiencies and allowing teams to simulate improvements. The outcome is not just cost-cutting, but also better customer service, faster response time, and stronger compliance.
India’s Opportunity: Merging Digital and Intelligence
India’s BFSI sector is already well-poised to adopt this next phase by leapfrogging on digital adoption from UPI and digital wallets to mobile KYC and e-insurance. Regulators like RBI and IRDAI are on board: besides urging tech adoption, they’ve introduced reforms (composite insurance licenses, higher FDI limits) aimed at attracting investment and innovation in financial services. With banking penetration and insurance coverage still below global peers (India’s insurance is only about 3.8% of GDP, both banks and insurers know they need better efficiency and outreach.
PI lets institutions bring their departments and systems in sync and enables AI to continuously optimise processes so they’re ready for whatever the market throws at them. It gives organisations the power to become adaptive, so they can:
- Provide faster digital banking experiences
- Make operations and transactions smarter
- Rapidly respond to new risks and regulations
These benefits will cascade through the system, leading to happier customers, leaner operations, and a stronger financial ecosystem. A global bank, for example, uses Celonis to connect settlement data across multiple systems to better prioritise high-value payments, resulting in a 75% reduction in waiting times to complete wire transfers.
Global research supports this path. In fact, Deloitte notes that India’s banking sector has already effectively mastered account opening and customer onboarding digitally, and regulators urge continuing investments in data agility. Process Intelligence gives financial institutions the enterprise-wide visibility to scale those gains.
Also Read: Catalysing India’s Economic Future: Reimagining MSME Financing for Sustainable Growth.
A Smarter, More Inclusive BFSI Future
The journey from brick-and-mortar banking to smartphone apps was only the first act of BFSI’s digital saga. The next step is using data to make processes as customer-friendly as the digital front ends are. For BFSI’ṣ the lesson is clear: keep investing in digital tech for customers and invest in process insights behind the scenes. India’s banking sector has the infrastructure and intent. What it needs now is a new operating rhythm: one that listens to data, adapts in real time, and puts operational intelligence at the core of decision-making.
Views Expressed By: Kaushik Mitra, Vice President and Head of India GTM, Celonis
Elets The Banking and Finance Post Magazine has carved out a niche for itself in the crowded market with exclusive & unique content. Get in-depth insights on trend-setting innovations & transformation in the BFSI sector. Best offers for Print + Digital issues! Subscribe here➔ www.eletsonline.com/subscription/
