MUFG Bank to digitize personal stamp forms with robotics, AI

The lender will digitize over 300 million pages of paper forms stored in warehouses.

MUFG Bank has decided to implement robotics and AI technology in digitizing paper documents, most notably ‘hanko’ (carved named seal forms) stored by the lender, an announcement revealed.

The lender aims to leverage IT to digitize paper documents and enable a location-free operational environment where tasks are not reliant on paper.

Over 300 million pages of hanko forms (including related documents) are stored by MUFG Bank in warehouses. To confirm individual hankos, staff must use special terminals in limited locations which only contain certain information. This leaves open the risk of inefficiencies depending on the transaction as well as adding to the long wait time of customers.

MUFG Bank plans to digitize all stored hanko forms starting 2021 using the service offered by US-based tech and robotics start-up company Ripocord, which combines  robotics,  software  and  AI  technology  to  automate  processes,  such  as  sorting by sheet size and removing staples, amongst others.

This will allow the lender’s employees to check digitized images of all hanko forms and related documents from their own work terminals, providing instant access to customer information.

Photo couresty of Angie (Sawara, Chiba-ken, Japan) from Wikimedia Commons