Commentary

The banking system was standing on its head, we just put it back on its feet says Mohammad Yunus, founder of Grameen bank, Bangladeshi Economist, Banker and Nobel peace prize winner in his TED talk, talking about the microfinance industry. The subcontinent has now forced the system not just to stand on its feet, but also to start walking. The Indian microfinance industry has come a long way.

Dispersing cash in a country as large as India has traditionally been hugely problematic due to the way the financial services infrastructure has developed in the country. In effect, the inability to service low value customers due to a systemic cost problem with the industry (driven by both regulation and staff unions who have opposed many measures to increase efficiency in the past, including ATMs) has resulted in a very urban-centric distribution coverage by the industry.

For financial institutions and customer-centric executives, it has never been more important to focus on the rapidly developing cards and payments market. Now Asia is set to lead a card acceptance revolution with China’s UnionPay governing the charge.

To stay relevant, banks in Asia are keeping in touch with technological advancements and innovating on their product and service offerings.

It is very clear that Islamic banking is now an established industry with high growth prospects. Asia is and will continue to be a key geographical area for this industry, whether it is South East Asia, South Asia or the Middle East.

The growth potential for Bangladesh's Islamic finance industry is enormous, and coupled with a steadily growing economy and financial reforms. With support from the Bangladesh government, financial regulators and the central bank, Bangladesh can be poised to become the next hub for Islamic finance in Asia and on a global scale, the world Islamic scholars opined in the International Islamic Finance Roadshow held recently in Bangladesh.

Mobile learning, particularly in Asia, is rapidly going mainstream. Research by Ambient Insight revealed that Japan, South Korea and Taiwan were the earliest adopters of mobile learning, accounting for 70% of the buying market in 2010. Yet other countries are catching up fast, with China, India and Indonesia expected to be the top purchasers by 2015.

The continuing digital sophistication of consumers in the financial services market has driven many of the developments in products, infrastructure and processes.

Asia Pacific has overtaken North America for the first time as the region with the highest number of high net worth individuals (HNWI), 3.37 million in 2011, according to the latest World Wealth Report, jointly published by RBC Wealth Management and Capgemini, and this figure is set on an upward trend. Welcome statistics for wealth managers. Saying that, this explosion in the HNWI segment can also present a thorny challenge for the industry.

The banking model is fatally flawed. It’s time to break up the universal banks, separate the cavalier commercial arm from the retail element, and educate the new generation of retail bankers.

Banks across Asia Pacific continue to wrestle with issues surrounding corporate actions processing. Changes to the distribution of event notifications – often still inconsistent and fraught with delays that increase risk and operational costs – have long been overdue. However due to the fragmented nature of the Asia Pacific region, creating a standardized approach to overcome these problems is a significant challenge.

After a disappointing 2012, India heads for an uncertain 2013. Here are five key challenges we would recommend the Indian economic authorities to focus on.

Today, bank compliance departments are under greater pressure than ever before. As the global economy struggles to recover, many banks are experiencing decreasing budgets and fewer resources dedicated to compliance functions.

Fitch Ratings’ outlook for Asia-Pacific (APAC) banks is a broad reflection of their ability to handle the risks of a less favourable external environment.

Ostensibly, the country's GDP per capita remains little change in the past twenty years and the banking industry hasn't change much either. It is difficult to envisage the future development of Taiwanese financial industry with hope. However, all banks are crazy for setting up branches , subsidiaries, or even leasing companies entering China market since 2012. It is an exchange term for allowing Bank of China and Bank of Communications to open branch in Taiwan. Among the targets of market in China are local Taiwanese companies ,joint ventures, and state-owned companies, especially to those companies moving to China in the past twenty years with direct financial support.

While private equity (PE) firms tend to be cautious and meticulous recruiters, rapidly growing players in Asia are willing to take a longer term view on hiring.