RCS for banking communication: richer, safer digital conversations

For banks, the primary goal of customer communication is to engage effectively through channels that drive growth while maintaining the highest levels of security and compliance.

Yet, despite heavy investments in digital transformation, many institutions continue to depend on legacy communication systems. These outdated tools not only increase operational costs but also expose banks to greater security and compliance risks. Traditional methods like SMS and email place additional strain on IT teams and create vulnerabilities within the security framework.

Rich Communication Services (RCS) has emerged as a modern alternative—a messaging protocol that replaces traditional SMS with richer, interactive, and more secure communication. Unlike SMS, which is confined to plain text, RCS supports images, videos, file sharing, carousels, quick reply buttons, and read receipts—all delivered through a customer’s default messaging app.

For banks, RCS offers a powerful way to modernise customer engagement while cutting operational expenses. With enterprise-grade security and advanced interactivity, RCS can reduce support costs by up to 60% and minimise fraud through verified business profiles and encrypted exchanges. It empowers banks to deliver multimedia alerts, real-time updates, and actionable buttons, transforming how customers interact with financial institutions.

By integrating RCS into their communication strategy, banks can strengthen customer trust while differentiating themselves in a crowded digital marketplace.

How RCS Strengthens Secure Banking

In today’s hyper-digital economy, customers expect speed and safety in equal measure. Banks that can assure both are more likely to win lasting loyalty.

Unmatched security features: Security is non-negotiable in banking communications, and RCS meets this need with end-to-end encryption and verified business profiles that make impersonation nearly impossible. Every message originates from the bank’s verified sender, helping customers instantly distinguish legitimate communication from scams. This is crucial at a time when more than 60% of consumers express concerns about data misuse during banking transactions.

Superior engagement rates: RCS achieves a 90% open rate within 15 minutes of delivery, outperforming SMS and email by a wide margin. Banks leveraging RCS have seen an 86% improvement in read rates compared to email and a 120% boost in clicks over SMS. This higher engagement directly translates into faster customer actions and reduced support overheads—especially vital for fraud alerts or transaction confirmations.

Interactive features: Modern banking demands seamless two-way communication without overloading support teams. RCS addresses this by offering interactive features enabling customers to act instantly—confirming transactions, reporting suspicious activity, or updating account details. Notably, 89% of consumers say they prefer such direct, two-way interactions, leading to higher satisfaction and lower call-centre volumes.

RCS Drives Measurable Impact

As banking shifts toward conversational, real-time engagement, RCS offers measurable operational and strategic advantages.

Reduced support costs: Interactive RCS messages enable banks to handle routine customer service queries more efficiently, allowing customers to check balances, verify transactions, and update preferences within the same message thread. This self-service model not only enhances the customer experience but also frees up human agents to handle complex queries.

Improved conversion rates: With high readability and interactive functionality, RCS ensures quicker responses to time-sensitive communications—from fraud alerts and payment confirmations to account updates. Faster action means fewer fraudulent losses and smoother resolution of customer issues.

Enhanced analytics: RCS allows banks to track open rates, response times, and feature usage with far greater accuracy than traditional SMS or email systems. These insights enable targeted communication strategies and measurable ROI.

Measuring Success with RCS

For banks implementing RCS, measuring success requires looking beyond basic delivery rates and focusing on deeper engagement and impact metrics. Key performance indicators include message open times and response rates, the usage of interactive features, and improvements in customer satisfaction scores.

Banks should also track the reduction in support tickets, higher transaction completion rates, and fewer security incidents, all of which reflect the actual value of RCS in enhancing communication efficiency and customer trust.

Designing Tomorrow’s Trusted Communication

As digital banking continues to evolve, the need for secure and engaging customer communication becomes increasingly critical. RCS goes beyond being a simple SMS upgrade, positioning itself as a strategic investment for banks. By enabling verified sender profiles, it enhances security and builds customer trust, while interactive features drive customer engagement. Automated interactions help reduce operational costs, and faster customer responses improve fraud prevention. Together, these capabilities allow banks to deliver branded, trustworthy, and future-proof communication experiences.

RCS holds strong potential to overtake SMS as the leading channel for banking communications. By blending the universal accessibility of messaging with the advanced features modern banking demands, it delivers both reach and functionality. With Apple’s recent commitment to support RCS, the platform is poised to become the new standard for secure banking communication.

For banks aiming to elevate customer communications without compromising security, RCS offers a strategic pathway to strengthen relationships, improve efficiency, and build digital trust. With rising customer expectations and sophisticated security threats, the blend of verified identity, encryption, and interactive features makes RCS a vital tool for future-focused banks.

The author is the Co-founder & CEO of Fyno.