Fukuoka Bank, the First Regional Bank, Adopts LayerX's "Ai Workforce." AI to Streamline Contract Document Management in Structured Finance, Projecting 7,000 Hours Saved Annually

LayerX Inc. (Chuo-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director and CEO Yoshinori Fukushima; hereinafter "LayerX")'s AI platform "Ai Workforce" has been adopted by Fukuoka Bank Ltd. (Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture; President Hisashi Gotoh; hereinafter "Fukuoka Bank"). This marks the first adoption by a regional bank.

As an AI utilization project centered around young bank employees, it aims to streamline the search and management of complex loan agreements in structured finance using AI, thereby creating more business hours and improving operational quality. This operational efficiency is projected to reduce work by approximately 7,000 hours annually.

Background of Implementation

Structured finance refers to lending operations secured by assets or projects, including project finance, real estate finance, LBO finance, and ship/aircraft finance. Dealing with complex and varied contractual terms for each case requires advanced expertise and meticulous management.

Fukuoka Bank's structured finance operations faced the following main challenges:

Difficulty in searching and utilizing past cases

Existing systems took time to search for past cases, and there was a lack of tools for young employees to refer to past cases when considering new projects.

Consequently, past case examples and know-how were concentrated among veteran employees, leading to task dependency.

High management burden for complex loan agreements

Cases and contracts are complex and highly individualized, and many parts of the workflow involve manual processes, leading to a significant human workload.

For example, it took a considerable amount of time to extract necessary monitoring information from loan agreements exceeding 100 pages and transfer it to management tables.

Overview of Implementation

Fukuoka Bank adopted "Ai Workforce" for its structured finance operations. This implementation is expected to achieve high-precision searching of past contract documents and efficient management of loan agreements, leading to a significant reduction in work hours.

Advanced search function for past contract documents

Extracts summary information from past loan agreements and stores it in a database.

Enables searching not only by file name but also by words contained within the contract documents.

Establishes an environment for instant searching, supporting young employees in proactive information gathering.

Automation of loan agreement management

Automatically extracts monitoring information from loan agreements and automates the creation of various management tables.

Expected Outcomes

Fukuoka Bank expects an annual reduction of approximately 7,000 hours in contract document management operations related to structured finance through the implementation of "Ai Workforce."

Breakdown:

Contract search: approx. 6,500 hours/year

Management table creation: approx. 500 hours/year

The time saved will be allocated to enhancing customer service and improving operational quality.

Positioning as an Organizational Culture Reform Project

This project is primarily driven by young project members in their early 30s. Through the project, they gain experience in organizing tasks and defining requirements, and by cycling through feedback from trials, it contributes to human resource development. Furthermore, accumulating successful DX experiences within the organization is a crucial goal to foster a culture of operational improvement.

Moreover, it is an advanced initiative within the bank, originating from a user department for AI utilization, and the success of young employees is being shared through internal case presentations, leading to deployment not only in the Structured Finance Department but also in other departments.

Future Outlook

Fukuoka Bank is considering whether "Ai Workforce" can be utilized for contract content verification tasks, in addition to contract search and management table creation. By enabling multiple operations within a single system, they aim for further efficiency.

Comment from Mr. Yonekawa, Deputy Department Manager, Structured Finance Department, Fukuoka Bank

Before the implementation, we spent a lot of time organizing vast amounts of contract documents, and we felt challenges in the speed of our operations. In particular, the effort required to find contract documents and create various management tables was significant, which became an obstacle in an environment demanding quick responses.

The decision to select LayerX Inc. as a partner was based on their innovative technology and proven track record. Ai Workforce utilizes advanced AI technology, offers flexibility that precisely meets our needs, and the expectation of continuous support after implementation was also attractive.

Through this project, the AI knowledge of each staff member has improved. While young employees previously had limited means to review the details of other cases, they can now proactively search for cases, which we believe will also lead to human resource development.

Moving forward, not only will the search time for contract documents be significantly reduced by Ai Workforce, but various management tables will also be automatically created. This will allow us to shift to more strategic operations and focus on our customers.