RBC recognized by Celent for excellence in Digitally Onboarding Clients and Transforming Business Payments

TORONTO, March 10, 2021

TORONTO, March 10, 2021 /CNW/ - As the banking industry continues to develop an unprecedented acceleration of digital banking and payment solutions, the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) received multiple awards from Celent for its leadership in digitally onboarding clients and transforming business payments.

The Celent Model Bank Award for Digital Onboarding recognizes the speed at which RBC became the first major bank in Canada to offer remote account open experiences and ID verification (IDV) solutions for both personal and business clients. The offering, which is powered by RBC's IDV technology, features self-serve, advisor assisted and in-branch account open options.

"We're honoured to receive this recognition from Celent as it further validates RBC's digital leadership in North America and globally," said Peter Tilton, SVP Digital, RBC. "Fully digitizing the end-to-end account open experience and getting it into clients' hands was especially critical during the pandemic, particularly as branches were temporarily closed and public health measures were enacted to slow the spread of COVID-19. Regardless of where they are, clients can quickly, conveniently and safely start banking with RBC – in both self-serve and advisor-assisted ways. Also, with IDV's ability to scan government-issued IDs and use that information to populate a client's profile, clients now have more secure identity verification, stronger fraud protection, and a faster account opening experience."

RBC also received the Celent Model Bank Award for Payments Transformation. The award recognizes RBC's holistic approach to transforming payments to encourage adoption and optimize use cases by embedding e-payments in workflows and translating relevant payment data into valuable client insights. A solution that drove this transformation is RBC PayEdge (formerly WayPay). It's the first payments platform offered by a bank in Canada that allows businesses to combine multiple funding sources no matter a client's bank or account type, pay suppliers in the payment form they wish to be paid in, and gain more flexibility with their working capital tools so they can benefit from early pay discounts with suppliers. The award also called out RBC for being first to market with the Interac e-Transfer®: Bulk Money Request functionality.

"Across the country, businesses are looking for modernized banking solutions that help them grow and manage their operations more efficiently," said Greg Grice, Executive Vice-President, Business Financial Services, RBC. "Solutions like PayEdge and Interac e-Transfer Bulk Money Request enable businesses to better manage their cash flow, working capital and readiness for future growth. And with our onboarding and remote account open solutions, entrepreneurs have the flexibility to open an account whenever is most convenient for them."

Celent's annual Model Bank Awards recognize the best practices of technology usage in different areas critical to success in banking based on three core criteria: demonstrable business benefits of live initiatives, the degree of innovation relative to the industry, and the technology or implementation excellence.