Navigating Banking Compliance Regulations: How interface.ai Complies with “Time is Money” Initiative

The Biden-Harris administration’s “Time is Money” initiative targets companies that waste consumers’ time and money through inefficient practices, poor chatbot experiences, and frustrating ‘doom loops’. interface.ai’s solutions are already fully compliant with these proposed banking compliance regulations as the company continues to set the industry benchmark.

Earlier this month, the Biden-Harris administration announced the “Time is Money” initiative,  targeting corporations and technology that impose time-and-money-wasting practices on consumers. It seeks to remove burdensome processes that cost Americans’ money, waste their time, and degrade the quality of their lives. The initiative focuses on two aspects of banking compliance regulations that could directly affect financial services:

• The shortcoming of customer service chatbots
• The ‘cracking down’ on customer service ‘doom loops’ – frustrating cycles where customers are trapped in automated systems, unable to reach a live agent or find a resolution.

A wider trend

Wherever you stand on the economic rationale behind the initiative, it’s crucial for financial services to proactively adapt and ensure their systems and strategies comply with these proposals. Several other previous initiatives indicate a broader trend toward increasing consumer protection. The Junk Fees initiative, for example, was first introduced by Biden in October 2022, aimed at eliminating hidden or unexpected charges. Since then, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has built on this momentum to issue new guidance specifically targeting the banking industry to remove surprise overdraft fees and bounced check fees.

How interface.ai complies with – and exceeds – the initiative’s proposals

interface.ai’s AI solutions for banks and credit unions comply with all of the proposals in the “Time is Money” initiative. As a market leader in AI for financial services, interface.ai prides itself on not just complying with the industry’s latest regulations, but being ahead of them. Our ethos is to always offer the most progressive and pioneering technology – and this goes beyond compliance. Our proprietary AI and Generative AI is built on the industry’s most advanced architecture, with multiple LLMs trained on vast amounts of domain-specific data. This powers hyper-intelligent, flexible, and accurate AI that doesn’t only meet regulatory demands, but also drives best-in-class customer and member experience.

The “Time is Money” initiative proposes various financial services regulations to streamline consumer interactions and prevent unfair inefficiencies. Here, we will focus on the proposals that would most directly affect financial services, and how interface.ai already complies with them.

Initiative 1: “Crack down on ineffective and time-wasting chatbots used by banks and other financial institutions in lieu of customer service.”

This first initiative targets ineffective banking chatbots that fail to resolve complex customer issues and instead “provide inaccurate information and give the run-around to customers.” interface.ai’s purpose-built AI is specifically designed to handle the complexities of financial service interactions with exceptional accuracy and reliability.

Unlike standard chatbots that struggle with anything beyond basic informational queries, interface.ai’s cutting-edge AI can handle complex queries and tasks from day one. This is powered by interface.ai’s One AI Brain. This unified data repository and processing engine collects vast amounts of domain-specific data from over 1.5 million conversations every day, across every channel. By  infusing this data and using it as the basis of the AI collective intelligence, the bots can accurately understand and respond to intricate financial inquiries.

This is taken one step further with smart integrations with core banking systems. For example, by integrating with a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, interface.ai can access detailed customer interaction histories, preferences, and past inquiries. This allows the AI to offer personalized service, such as reminding customers of upcoming bill payments, or offering tailored financial products based on their profile.

The goal, as stated in the release, is for chatbots “to enhance customer service with speedy response times, not used to shirk on basic responsibilities.” interface.ai does this and so much more to enhance the customer experience.

Initiative 2: Stop customers “being forced to listen to long messages before being permitted to speak to a live representative.”

The “Time is Money” initiative addresses the frustration customers face when they are forced to listen to lengthy automated messages before being given the option to speak to a live representative. This is a common complaint for traditional IVR systems that are not powered by AI, as well as poor-quality AI voice solutions.

This stands in stark contrast to the experience provided by interface.ai’s AI voice assistant. Unlike outdated IVR systems that rely on static, pre-recorded messages, interface.ai leverages conversational AI to engage with customers directly from the start of the interaction. Its sophisticated LLM models can understand and interpret a wide range of customer intents. This minimizes and even eliminates follow-up questions, leading to a smooth and fast interaction.

Many other AI voice providers with basic NLPs struggle to understand the nuances of queries. These systems often rely on basic keyword matching which can cause misunderstandings and the need to ask several follow-up questions to gather more information. This back-and-forth creates a frustrating experience for the customer that the initiative is rightly attempting to eliminate through new banking compliance regulations.

Initiative 3: “… let customers talk to a human by pressing a single button.”

Doom loops are a key focus within the initiative. In the context of automation and bots, doom loops refer to situations where customers get stuck in a repetitive, unproductive cycle, “wasting their time failing to get the support they need.” In these scenarios, the initiative recommends enforcing companies to allow customers to talk to a human by pressing a single button.

interface.ai has in-built mechanisms that ensure customers can speak with agents when necessary, while ensuring this transferal between AI and human agent is seamless:

1. Rule-based routing: Set predefined rules that automatically trigger a transfer to a human agent. For example, if a customer requests to speak to a representative or if the inquiry involves a sensitive topic like loan approval, the system will immediately route the conversation to the appropriate human agent.
2. Fall-back routing: Recognize when the AI is unable to adequately resolve a customer’s issue in real-time and automatically transfer to a human representative.
3. Sentiment-based routing: Monitor the emotional tone of customer interactions. If the AI detects frustration, confusion, or other negative sentiments, it proactively transfers the conversation to a human agent.

Initiative 4: “… identify when the use of automated chatbots or automated artificial intelligence voice recordings is unlawful, including in situations in which customers believe they are speaking with a human being.”

Many financial services compliance regulations address misrepresentation prevention and transparency. The “Time is Money’ initiative reinforces this by proposing chatbots and AI voice systems meet higher standards, especially in situations where customers might mistake AI for a human.

Interface.ai ensures full compliance with these standards by prioritizing transparency and disclosure. The AI assistants clearly inform customers when they are interacting with AI, including creating a persona for the bot, setting up clear welcome messages, and educating users on the bot experience. Where chat conversations are recorded for quality and training purposes, organizations can set up explicit acceptance flows to ensure users are fully aware and in control. You can learn more about interface.ai’s approach to bot disclosure here.

Wrap-up

By aligning with the ‘Time is Money’ initiative, interface.ai is helping financial institutions avoid regulatory pitfalls, enhance customer satisfaction, and maintain a competitive edge in an increasingly regulated market. Banking compliance regulations are always evolving, so you need to make sure you choose an AI partner like interface.ai that keeps ahead of the developments to ensure its solutions are always in compliance.

Learn how interface.ai’s commitment to Responsible AI can help your financial institution stay ahead of the curve while delivering exceptional customer and member experiences.