As markets in Asia craft their own roadmaps to normalcy amid the pandemic, the focus on digitalization of financial processes remains as relevant as ever.  

Whether in frontier markets or developed markets in the region, financial firms are looking to become more “client-obsessed”, carefully studying the habits of their target customers and providing more meaningful services to better fit their needs. These are some of the takeaways from the past several months that the board of editors at The Asset has been engaging various market stakeholders active in digital finance on their achievements over the past year.

For most of these firms, 2021 was a chance to put into practice several key digital initiatives in the hope of improving customer stickiness as market competition heightened. Areas such as front-end functionalities were enhanced to enable customers to access relevant financial services with just a click of a button.

Key officials of these firms shared with The Asset the specific strategies they have pursued to provide better service to their customers, such as the risk management processes they have put in place to spot possible fraudulent/unusual transactions. Other firms sought to move additional back-end processes to the cloud, making it easier for them to access the information they needed.

Several fintech firms continued to thrive and expand under pandemic conditions, lending their expertise and unique capabilities to financial firms to enable them to provide a better experience to both their retail and corporate clients.

Yet, with all the push for better digital financial services across the industry in Asia, caution must be exercised so as not to compromise security. The need for cyber security and cyber resilience must always be top priority.

Data from software provider ITRS Group reveal that 85% of the firms in Asia-Pacific feel that rapid changes in their IT environment over the last 12 months have made it harder for them to maintain client-level agreements or meet service-level objectives. This has led one in five financial firms surveyed in the region to suffer unexpected downtime at least once a year, higher than the global average.

This is something that financial firms active in rapidly improving their digital interfaces should keep an eye on as they look to make better use of emerging technologies such as blockchain to validate transactions or robotics process automation to help reduce the likelihood of “fat-finger errors”.

Digitalization is not a destination but an ongoing journey for institutions striving for operational efficiency and service excellence. While several financial firms have faced difficulties in maintaining their digital offerings from time to time, the key to achieving their goals is learning from their mistakes and putting it place better contingency measures to respond to specific challenges when they arise.

Going forward, the financial firms that are more likely to win more mindshare and market share in the post-Covid era are the ones that are able to demonstrate consistency in the quality of their service to the end user.

To see the full list of winning fintechs and institutions of the Triple A Digital Awards 2022 please click here.

To view the best digital procedures and initiatives across the region please click here.

For the list of the best digital projects please click here.

Winners of The Asset Triple A Digital Awards 2022 will be honoured during a virtual awards ceremony scheduled for Q2 2022.

For more information about attending the event please reach out to us at [email protected].