In Asia-Pacific, Citi was a clear e-banking champion. With its well designed online system, clients can perform over a hundred banking tasks online. Backed by a series of platforms ranging from online financial planning to trading, the bank is now setting its sights on further engaging clients via social media.
Standard Chartered, supported by its extensive network in Africa, has also turned heads as it offered customers a number of online solutions. Most notable is the bank’s Straight2Bank Wallet platform. Over the review period, the bank partnered with Airtel Mobile Commerce in an effort to increase its financial services in Zambia. The bank boasts ‘mobile wallet’ platforms in large African markets including Kenya and Nigeria.
The board of editors at The Asset reviewed the digital credentials of both global and domestic banks and discovered that most banks have been re-evaluating all aspects of their digital offering, from the front end systems such as payments to their back-end systems such as customer behaviour/risk analysis. While different in their approach, these banks all considered customer satisfaction as the most important factor when crafting future digital projects.
Though global banks lead in digital banking, regional and domestic banks were not too far behind when it comes to their digital capabilities. DBS Bank, for example, has made digitization a key component of its global strategy with DBS Bank CEO Piyush Gupta stating that the bank would invest around S$200 million (US$142 million) in the next couple of years on technology.
On the domestic banking side, Taiwanese banks demonstrated their commitment to the digital revolution with many of them embarking on ambitious projects to replace their legacy systems. CTBC, for example, rolled out new features on its ATMs which include a fingerprint identification system.
According to a report from consultancy firm McKinsey, Asia is estimated to have more than 700 million customers using regional digital banking services. In developed Asian countries such as South Korea and Singapore, digital banking penetration is high at 96% and 94%, respectively. However, there is still much room to grow in developing countries such as Thailand and the Philippines where the digital banking penetration is below 20%.
That has not prevented domestic banks in developing markets from making their mark in the digital space. The stand-outs include Shanghai Pudong Development Bank in China, Malaysia’s Hong Leong Bank, Taiwan’s E.Sun Bank, Kasikornbank of Thailand, as well as the Philippines’ Security Bank.
For a full list of the Digital Enterprise Awards winners please click here.
