See how Vizolution helped AIB achieve a 250% year-on-year growth in income performance within remote financial planning.

Allied Irish Banks (AIB) is one of the larges commercial banks in Ireland. It offers a full range
of personal and corporate banking services, and a variety of general insurance products such as home,
travel, and health insurance.

AIB Capital Markets is a subdivision of the bank, which offers international banking and treasury operations. The bank also offers a range of general insurance products such as home, travel, and health insurance. Its life assurance and pensions packages are provided by Irish Life Assurance plc.

With more than 200 branches across Ireland, AIB is undergoing a digital transformation and overhauling operations to meet the needs of its customer base, by streamlining complex customer journeys and providing more intuitive interactions, whether in branch, in self-servic channels, or through remote advisory sessions.

AIB partnered with Vizolution to evolve its Direct Customer Financial Planning journey.

The financial planning journey would typically take place in person, either in branch or at the client’s home, which would be inconvenient for the customer or inefficient for the business. The financial planning process was two-staged:

1. A fact find – an introductory, information gathering session to understand the customer’s current investments, and how much they can afford to invest going forward.
2. An investment review – where the advisor would take the client through their advice and recommendations.

AIB used Vizolution’s technology to develop and deploy a wealth management journey which enabled customers and agents to exchange information and participate in a convenient and efficient remote financial planning session.

1. The journey now combines the quality of face-to-face interactions with the low costs and convenience of remote channels, allowing customers to do everything they could in branch.

2. Each stage of the process, including terms & conditions, disclosures and signatures are recorded in the audit archive, making the journey fully compliant.

The transformed AIB financial planning journey now has two stages, which can be completed remotely.
As communication is not restricted to branch opening hours, the customer has more flexibility as to when they can speak with their advisor [extended hours, five days a week 8am – 8pm].

Remote agent availability is therefore also easier, and more efficient to manage, as the team is staffed for extended hours every day compared to the limited days that specialists may be available in certain branches.

The AIB Direct Customer Financial Planning journey works particularly well with joint applications, as it is far easier for two applicants to join a joint remote session than a joint branch appointment, or indeed two separate appointments.

Offering remote options has become all the more important during the Covid-19 pandemic, with social distancing practices and customer reluctance to visit branches, as well as reduced branch opening hours and advisor availability.