The financial services industry (FSI), a vast and complex ecosystem, encompasses diverse stakeholders and dynamic components. From basic banking to investments, insurance, risk management, fintech and capital markets, it plays a central role in the global economy. However, the landscape is evolving rapidly, driven by technological advancements that are changing the way financial services work and the way consumers interact with them.

This change is mainly driven by fintech, the merging of financial services and technology. McKinsey predicts that revenues in the fintech industry will grow almost three times faster than the traditional banking sector between 2023 and 2028. As the global financial services market expands and is expected to grow to $44,925.71 billion by 2028 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.6%, companies are using cloud and AI technologies to optimize their services and create new offerings to stay competitive and bring more people into the circle of banking customers.

Discover how leaders in the Americas are transforming their businesses and helping to reshape the financial services industry with innovative Microsoft solutions for efficiency, scalability, productivity, security and personalized customer care.

Accelerating operational efficiency

The digital age requires a robust infrastructure and companies like Yape (the leading Peruvian payment method)Freedom, life solutions (a people’s finance company in Mexico), Zenus Bank (a global digital bank based in Puerto Rico), Central Bank of Costa Rica (Authority responsible for providing banking services to the Government of Costa Rica and financial institutions) and Banco de Desenvolvimento de Minas Gerais (a financial institution based in Brazil) have taken up the challenge.

In Peru Yapes The user base grew from half a million to over 12 million in just six years. This exponential growth was supported by a strategic move to Microsoft Azure, which provided the necessary infrastructure to handle a flood of transactions, launch new services and promote financial inclusion in the country.

Freedom Life Solutions, A financial institution that offers a range of financial services to promote financial inclusion in Mexico embarked on a similar journey, modernizing its services with Microsoft Dynamics and Azure. This transformation enabled both internal operations and the way products and services are brought to market, reducing service delivery times from 48 hours to just 30 minutes – a leap in efficiency for customer satisfaction.

Headquartered in Puerto Rico, Zenus Bank used Azure to become a pioneer in international banking. Their growth, focused on scalability and security, enabled them to expand their digital banking services worldwide and offer their customers access to US banking services and fast, low-cost global payments.

The Banco Central de Costa Rica The SINPE-TP initiative, also supported by Azure, is revolutionizing public transportation payments. Despite the challenges of coordinating multiple stakeholders, over 14 million transactions have been successfully processed, marking a significant step towards a cashless society and modernized infrastructure in Costa Rica.

Brazilian Banco de Desenvolvimento de Minas Gerais (BDMG) Azure has also been used to innovate and improve customer experience. Their disaster recovery solutions ensure business continuity even in difficult situations. In addition, cloud adoption has had a positive impact on employee productivity. With systems running in the cloud, BDMG employees have more flexibility to work from different locations, enabling secure access to the bank’s systems and increasing efficiency through Azure Virtual Desktop.

Strengthening the workforce and increasing efficiency

In the area of ​​strengthening the workforce and increasing productivity Ban reservations (large bank in the Dominican Republic), Itau Bank (the largest banking institution in Brazil and the second largest in Latin America) and TD Bank Group (Canada’s second largest bank) used AI to achieve its business goals.

In the Dominican Republic Ban reservations turned to Copilot for Microsoft 365 to empower its workforce with cutting-edge tools to succeed and drive its business forward. AI has opened up new levels of creativity and productivity for the company and set a new standard for customer experience in the financial sector.

Itau Bank in Brazil, GitHub has deployed Copilot and Copilot for Microsoft 365 to improve its software development and business processes. With Copilot, the bank can generate 1 million lines of code, save time, and focus on more strategic tasks. It also uses Azure OpenAI Service to read, interpret, and classify over 70,000 legal documents per month.

Similar, TD Bank Group of Canada used generative AI to improve the customer experience in its contact centers and accelerate the coding workflow for its engineers. Their AI virtual assistant provides summarized answers in colloquial language, including links to relevant TD policies and procedures; and GitHub Copilot helps TD engineers by analyzing the code they write and providing real-time suggestions for completion and review – saving engineers up to 20 hours of work in two weeks and increasing efficiency and innovation in the company.

Transforming service

Protection (Pension fund and investment manager in Colombia), DiBanka (a Colombian company whose goal is to improve the financial situation and inclusion of millions of Colombians who have limited access to formal credit) and Brazilprev (Brazilian leader in the insurance sector with over 30 years of experience) are an example of the transformative impact of AI.

In Colombia Protection The use of generative AI to automate severance claims reflects the company’s commitment to using technology to better deliver service and transform its business with AI-driven solutions. Using Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI Service, the company successfully processed 22,000 claims, resulting in 50% increased productivity in cases where letters could not be processed automatically by the original model. By using these solutions, the company expects to be able to automate 80% of severance claims.

DiBanka has developed a digital platform that supports payroll loans, leveraging Azure and AI to automate and secure the loan process. By reducing the costs, time and risks of traditional loans, the company has grown to now serve 99% of financial institutions offering this type of loan in Colombia, with more than 300,000 active users, 7 million transactions and zero identity fraud. DiBanka aims to innovate and expand its services in Latin America to improve the financial well-being and inclusion of its subsidiaries.

Brazilprev, a leading insurance company in Brazil, has taken a big step towards digital transformation. Through its innovative platform “Hub Brasilprev”, powered by Azure OpenAI Service, API Management and Azure Cosmos DB, the company has democratized data access and transformed user interaction. This has resulted in an impressive revenue of R$9.86 billion and a remarkable 28% conversion rate among its target audience. Brasilprev is well on its way to making its digital journey even more successful in the future.

Microsoft is uniquely positioned to help institutions solve their most pressing problems and digitally transform their businesses. Through our secure and compliant cloud, AI platform, and expansive partner ecosystem, financial services institutions can better manage risk across the enterprise, streamline compliance operations, modernize real-time payments, core banking and insurance operations, and infrastructure, enable a modern workplace, and deliver differentiated customer experiences.