Citizen developers could prove essential for financial institutions (FIs) looking to ramp up automation efforts while avoiding compliance pitfalls.
Banks that test applications using low-code platforms before pursuing full implementation can help free up valuable IT resources. However, fully entrusting citizen developers to integrate software such as Salesforce into core systems is risky, Tracie Cleveland Thomas, senior vice president and digital transformation executive at $185 billion KeyBank, said Tuesday during the panel discussion “Facilitating citizen developers in banking” at Bank Automation Summit Fall 2022 in Seattle.
“I still feel like we’re on this maturity curve to learn more about it before we say ‘yes, I’m going to just turn you loose and loosen up the guardrails,'” Cleveland Thomas said, adding that utilizing citizen developers too early in a process can cause scalability and consistency issues.
To tackle fraud and avoid data loss scenarios in back-office operations FIs must implement a robust vetting process to determine when to use citizen developers, Michael Lehmbeck, chief technical officer at $36.3 billion BankUnited, said during the panel.
“That’s something to definitely keep in the back of your mind when you’re looking at potentially automating some of these processes — and who’s going to be creating those automations for you,” Lehmbeck said.
Risk is multifaceted, said Gabriel Skelton, director of banking and mortgage automation solutions at robotic process automation provider OpenBots. So holding off on deploying citizen developers to find use cases for automation can also pose challenges, he said.
FIs should consider the long-term savings of automating loan processes, especially amid rising interest rates, Skelton added.
Banks with automated processes can continue to operate with existing staff during times when cost savings are top of mind, “instead of laying people off, because you put off automation and now you still have a process that’s very manually executed,” Skelton said.
