Retail and branch banking
Give customers an answer before they leave the branch.
Customers who visit a branch expect an answer. Many leave with a checklist and a promise of a call. The Zoral Finance Operating System (fOS) gives branch and mobile sales staff an AI assistant and a robo-underwriter that applies your credit policy. Where policy allows, the application is completed, checked and decided during the visit. Other cases reach an underwriter with the file prepared.
The branch visit
Finish the work during the visit, not after it.
In many branch networks the visit is where the work starts. Forms are typed up later, documents are copied and sent on, and the credit check waits in a central queue while the customer weighs up offers from elsewhere. Zoral fOS brings that work to the adviser’s desk, with the customer still there.
Completed with the customer, entered once
Guided screens on a desktop or tablet fill in what your bank already knows about the customer. Customers are identified at the counter using the identity, signature and scanning devices your branches already use, connected through Zoral Integration Gateway. Zoral Document Fabric, our intelligent document processing (IDP) service, integrated with Zoral fOS, reads payslips and statements as they are scanned. An application started online opens where the customer left off.
A robo-underwriter beside the adviser
A pre-screen tells the adviser early whether to continue. Bureau, fraud and screening checks, affordability, scorecards and your policy rules then run as the application is completed. The adviser sees the outcome, its reasons and anything still missing. Where policy allows, the customer leaves with an approval in principle or an offer.
Signed, opened and offered in one visit
The offer is explained on screen and signed electronically. The account for disbursement is opened, and cover such as insurance or Takaful can be added. Products the customer already qualifies for are offered within your rules. Approved loans are booked in your core without re-keying.
Cases that need judgement arrive prepared
Applications outside policy go to the underwriter with the right authority, with documents read, checks run and the arguments for and against set out. The adviser can see where the case stands and keep the customer informed.
Existing customers served at the same desk
Top-ups, limit increases, card upgrades and requests for help with repayments can be handled at the same desk, configured to your policy. Each starts from what your bank already knows and asks only for what has changed, under the same policy and with the same record.
For retail, risk and operations leaders
Faster answers in the branch, with credit discipline intact.
For the CEO and Head of Retail: time to yes you can manage
Branch managers see the applications waiting at each step, time to yes and conversion by branch and product, against the plan for each. Leaders see where customers drop out and why, and act on the cause while there is still time to recover the month.
For the CRO and Compliance: one credit policy across the network
The robo-underwriter applies the policy, scorecards and models your bank approves, the same way in each branch. AI agents, configured to your policies and workflows, help advisers and underwriters with paperwork. They act only within the permissions you set and do not make credit decisions. Delegated authority, maker-checker and named overrides keep accountability with your bank.
For the COO and CIO: fewer hand-offs, your systems kept
The branch, the credit desk and the disbursement and booking teams work from one record. Zoral fOS connects to your core banking, card and payment systems through documented interfaces, and can run alongside an origination system you already use.
Founded in 2004, Zoral has delivered over 100 projects. We have worked with clients regulated by the FCA in the UK, the CFPB in the US and the central banks of Malaysia and Thailand. References are available in confidence.
Questions retail banks ask us
Business and risk
Does the robo-underwriter take credit decisions away from our people?
No. The robo-underwriter applies the credit policy, scorecards and models your bank approves, in the order and within the limits your credit team sets. It records the reasons for each outcome. Cases outside policy or above an automated limit go to the person with the right delegated authority. Your bank decides what may be approved automatically, and can change that as confidence grows.
What do the AI assistant and AI agents do in the branch?
AI agents, configured to your policies and workflows, help advisers complete applications, check that documents match the application and chase what is missing, and help underwriters prepare credit papers for review. They act only through the permissions, workflows and approvals you set, and what they do is recorded. Agents do not make credit decisions. Credit decisions follow policy and models your bank approves, and accountability stays with your bank. You choose the language models behind them, connected to Zoral fOS through a standard interface (MCP). Client data, knowledge bases and conversation records stay under your governance, within the environments and agreements you control.
How do we keep faster branch approvals from weakening credit quality?
Speed comes from removing waiting and re-keying, not from relaxing policy. Income and affordability are checked on verified data as part of the decision. Once loans are funded, early warning signs are watched and losses are compared with plan by branch and product. When results drift, you see where and why, and change policy through the same approval steps.
Do our advisers need to become credit specialists?
No. Guided screens ask for what each product needs. The assistant points out what is missing before the customer leaves. The robo-underwriter explains the outcome in plain terms the adviser can pass on. Advisers spend the visit with the customer rather than on forms. Credit judgement stays with the people who hold the authority.
How do we offer other products in the same visit without mis-selling?
Offers come only from eligibility, affordability and suitability rules your bank approves. Each offer, the customer’s response and the reasons are recorded. You decide which products may be offered together and in which order, and the record is there for conduct reviews. The duty to customers stays with your bank. The platform supplies the controls and keeps the evidence.
Can we run conventional and Islamic products side by side at the branch?
Yes. Advisers can serve conventional and Islamic customers from the same desk. Screens and documents use Islamic terms, and the commodity trade steps behind Tawarruq are completed as part of the journey. Your Shariah board remains the authority; Zoral provides the configurable structures and the evidence trail for its review.
What about customers who start online, and staff who sell outside the branch?
An application can start on the customer’s phone and be finished at the branch, or the other way round, without the customer repeating anything. Mobile sales staff use the same guided screens and robo-underwriter on a tablet, including where the connection is poor. The application is completed once they are back online. The branch manager sees their cases alongside the branch’s own.
How does a customer challenge an automated decision?
The record of each decision holds the data, the policy and model versions and the reasons behind the outcome, so the decision can be shown exactly as it was taken. If a customer asks for a person to look again, the case goes to a reviewer with that record and the customer’s own points in front of them. You handle reviews and complaints under your own policy.
Technology and delivery
We already have a core banking system and an origination system. Do we replace them?
No. Zoral fOS connects to your core banking, card and payment systems and can work alongside an existing origination system. It takes the application, adds the checks and the decision, and returns the outcome. A common first step is the branch journey for one product. You decide later how much more to move. More on origination
How does it work with the equipment at the counter and the systems behind it?
Through documented interfaces to your core banking, card, payment, bureau, screening, document management and CRM systems. At the counter, it works with the identity, signature and scanning devices your branches already use, connected through Zoral Integration Gateway. Your technology team sees each connection documented before go-live.
What happens if the bureau or core is unavailable while the customer is at the desk?
Zoral fOS is designed so that the adviser is told straight away and the application keeps its place at the step it reached. It continues when the system returns, and the customer can be contacted with the outcome without having to start again. Operations teams see which cases were affected.
Where does Zoral run, and who runs it?
On AWS or Azure in your chosen region, or in your own data centre, and designed for high availability. Zoral Document Fabric, which reads your documents, runs in your own AWS or Azure account, or your private cloud, in your region and under your control. Our controls are independently audited under SOC 2, with details on the Zoral Trust Portal. Zoral can run and support the platform for you, your own technology team can run it, or we share the work and hand over as your team grows. Your people run the banking operations.
How do we roll this out across a branch network?
Start with one product in a few branches, measure time to yes and conversion against your plan, then extend product by product and region by region in regular releases. We give a realistic plan after scoping, not before. Your data, product definitions and audit history remain yours and can be exported in standard formats.
Who implements it?
Atelier, Zoral’s consulting and implementation team, works with your teams and, where you choose, with your advisers and systems integrators. The same team can help design products that win and keep customers, and tune them across the customer’s life.
Prove it in a few branches. Then take it across the network.
Bring us the retail product where customers wait longest for an answer, or the branch transformation you are preparing. Senior Zoral specialists will map today’s branch visit with your retail, credit, operations and technology leads, show the same visit on Zoral fOS, and agree which product and branches to start with.
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