Commentary

Artificial intelligence has been a topic of conversation and a part of business for years, from rogue robots in movies to neural networks that detect fraud at credit card companies, but only recently have companies really started experimenting with and implementing it more widely.

When it comes to growth opportunities for digital payments, Indonesia is in a league of its own. The prospect of tens of millions of new digital payment customers is too much for digital companies and investors to ignore. The likes of SoftBank, Alibaba’s Ant Financial, and Chinese ride hailing giant Didi-Chuxing are injecting billions of dollars into companies with a chance of gaining a foothold in the market.

It might seem as though vertical division of labor and horizontal disintegration have already proliferated enough.

Banks that focus on customers over products have the best shot at standing up to Amazon's juggernaut when it steams into their market.

Banking executives today not only have to deal with running the bank, but also transforming it to grow in a sustainable manner. Banks have to balance these goals against the exigencies of the day, and those that are able to do so will be amply rewarded. This holds true for all banks, even those operating in Southeast Asia (SEA).

In general, an API refers to a technical specification for operating a specific program by another program, and it defines command statements (commands and functions) used when the program is operated, a format of data to be transmitted and received, and the like. For example, many businesses today display a Google map when publishing their location on the website. This is realised by outputting map data (Google Maps) using Google's API (Google Maps API).

This is now an inflection point for foreign asset managers as China vows to allow foreign players to take controlling stakes and operate domestically in the private securities fund management (PFM) and even mutual fund management markets.

As we move into 2018, Asia-Pacific banks are facing a range of challenges — from implementing Basel III reforms and keeping pace with technology advancements, to responding to the disruption and opportunities posed by new, non-traditional market entrants. Pressure is also coming from investors, who are demanding that banks improve returns on capital in an environment where economic growth continues to be modest and competition fierce.

Chinese banks seem to have made meaningful progress in the resolution of problem loans. The aggregate amount of the announced debt-to-equity (D/E) swaps has reached 1 RMB trillion, to 19.5% of problem loans by the end of 2017. However, words are louder than actions as only 15.7% of the total announced D/E swaps have been executed. Banks clearly need to move faster in their cleanup and Chinese regulators are not only aware but also increasingly supportive. To this end, the big five banks have established their own asset management companies (AMCs) to help carry out debt-to- equity swaps. The way in which banks and their asset management companies will operate for the loan cleanup was clarified in a new guideline jointly published by regulators last January.

Banking is considered by most as the business of money. However, talk to a banking veteran and he or she will categorically instruct you that banking is a business of customers. This realisation is what ensured that customer centricity is an important value adopted by banks; and it has stood us in good stead. It then follows, that if we are in the business of customer, then our business is shaped by evolving changes in customer behaviour.

In just decades, digital advancement has enabled technology to shift from being a business enabler to being THE business.

In the banking sector, we take a broad view of digital—one that transcends new apps and the deployment of new and different channels. Moreover, we believe that digital is making it imperative for financial institutions to review and transform their organisational structures to ensure success and survival.

Banks need to narrow the distance with customers, to offer them an array of contact points, and to better understand their behavior and needs. New banking models start with establishing frictionless relationships with customers.

Robust economic growth and, especially, higher industrial prices have pushed up Chinese corporates’ profits since 2016. This comes as an upturn after a horrible 2015. Indirectly, this has also helped banks as it has increased companies’ cash flows to repay their large debt burden. However, this improvement in asset quality cannot mask other growing concerns in China’s banking sector.

Since the BCBS 239 principles on risk data aggregation and risk reporting were published by the Basel Committee in 2013, globally systemically important banks (GSIBs) have invested significant time and budget to reach compliance. However, four years on, the great majority are still not yet fully compliant, as updated by BCBS in March 2017.

The rapid advance of technology has created the impression that the entire banking industry will soon be digitised. Yet whilst much of traditional banking has gone the way of the abacus, we’ve learned something interesting along the way: people still want to speak to people. When my credit card was rejected recently, my first reaction was to call the bank. My app won’t tell me what the problem is, at least not today. And when it comes to a decision about my own money, that human touch becomes even more important and reassuring. Not everything will be online and clients don’t want it to be.