The Evolution of banking – What the future holds in 2020 and beyond

The Evolution of banking – What the future holds in 2020 and beyond

Asia has long been bustling with innovation – with Singapore and Hong Kong competing for financial supremacy for many years. HKMA (Hong Kong Monetary Authority) has awarded eight virtual banking licenses this year, including online lender WeLab (the only homegrown fintech on the list), as well as seven separate ventures led by Ant Financial, Bank of China (Hong Kong), Ping An, Standard Chartered Bank, Tencent, Xiaomi, and ZhongAn International. The hope is that such efforts will fuel disruption and innovation within one of the world’s leading financial hubs and the gateway to China. Meanwhile, Singapore quickly followed suit, with the MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore) announcing plans to issue up to five virtual banking licenses.

But not all the banks in the region see the need to launch a virtual bank. One of them is DBS, a leading financial services group in Asia, headquartered in Singapore, with a growing presence in Greater China, Southeast Asia, and South Asia. Named “World’s Best Bank” by Euromoney magazine, it has its own digital initiatives and is considered one of the most innovative banks in the region. The Startup Xchange program, launched in Hong Kong and Singapore, brings in startups to co-create solutions that address specific business challenges in focus areas such as AI (artificial Intelligence), Machine Learning, Big Data, and RegTech. As with any innovation programs, collaboration is key to success.

Once a business case is matched with the startup, DBS’s  Startup Xchange team works with the specific stakeholders to bring the idea to POC (proof of concept). A few success stories have emerged since the launch of the program, including one particular use case that involved the application of an intelligent chatbot to screen job candidates, thus streamlining the recruiting process and alleviating the time-consuming manual tasks of the recruiters.

Beyond improving operational efficiencies and improving customer experience, fintech startups in Asia are leveraging mobile technology to provide a variety of services to the underbanked and unbanked, as we have been highlighting in our Red Envelope podcast series. From payments, lending, to wealth management and beyond, fintech giants such as Ant Financial and Tencent, as well as super apps such as Grab, Go-Jek, and Line, are leading the charge in revolutionizing our relationship with money.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg. As DBS noted, “Innovation will continue to be a driving force in Asia as fintechs and banks both develop new platforms services for the increasingly connected consumers in Asia.” Emerging technologies such as AI and machine learning will change how we live and work, beyond ways that we can imagine. Smartphones will play an increasingly important role in this evolution – gathering data every step of the way – by enabling financial institutions and service providers to gain valuable insights on our habits and our digital lives, in exchange for personalized services.

While advancement in technology brings many advantages and opens the door to a better future, the onus is on all of us to ensure that it is done ethically and responsibly, and to ensure that we are not simply echoing past behaviors and injecting human biases into the algorithms. After all, technology is merely a means to an end. It is up to us to charter our own course, and write our own history. Focusing on our next step toward the future is perhaps the most logical starting point.

Listen in to our conversation on our new episode of “Red Envelope” on iTunes and Spotify, as we chat with Medhy Souidi  about bank innovation at DBS and FinTech in Asia.

See more by Theodora here.

https://irishtechnews.ie/author/theodora-lau/ 

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