Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) soars at the ABF Retail Banking Awards 2021

The bank and several of its projects have been recognised by the industry for their remarkable achievements.

Hong Kong’s leading retail bank, Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited (SCBHK), flies high at the recently concluded ABF Retail Banking Awards 2021, bringing home the International Retail Bank of the Year award for its resilience amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The bank has continued to focus on its top three priorities: to grow at scale in affluent segments, to grow mass segments through accelerating digital transformation, and to build client experience as a key differentiator.

It has also won Employer of the Year – Hong Kong and Digital Banking Initiative of the Year awards for its recognition of its people as a key enabler for the bank’s strategic success.

SCBHK’s client base continued to grow despite a challenging year. The affluent base saw an 8% year-on-year growth. SCBHK continued to deliver the best-in-class omnichannel experience in its client engagements, as over two-thirds of the said client base use both digital channels and branches for different interactions.

Moreover, the bank opened its first Priority Private (PP) Centre in Hong Kong. PP is its proposition for high-net-worth clients with HK$8m and above and builds on the strong brand it already has in the affluent segment.

SCBHK also strengthened its wealth management product suites and international banking proposition by launching new solutions and capabilities to help its clients capture opportunities in the market.

Meanwhile, its mass client base also saw steady growth amidst the opening of eight virtual banks in Hong Kong in 2020. Its digital active ratio reached 60%, which is higher than HK Peer at 55%. The bank now has close to one million digital-active clients.

SCBHK has launched several digital banking initiatives both for its affluent and personal clients. 

For its personal clients, SCBHK maximised fast and convenient banking with end-to-end instant onboarding and personalisation, so that its customer base is able to take up and operate on their banking anytime, anywhere.

Amongst the projects it has undertaken in this type are the enhancement of its Mobile CASA, personalised promotions, mobile loans, and credit cards for FPS.

Meanwhile, SCBHK aimed to provide the best digital store tailored with holistic and international banking and wealth solutions for its affluent clients, continuing to increase the range of wealth and payment functions on its digital channels to allow customers to better handle their needs on the go.

The bank has produced initiatives like MyRM, where customers can seek personalised investment advice from their relationship managers and co-browse market views digitally. Many of its services have also been mobile-enabled, such as its stock trading, general insurance, cross-border remittances, and time deposits.

Within the organisation, SCBHK takes pride in being an employee-friendly bank. It exercises a razor-sharp focus on maintaining a high-quality employee base and providing a best-in-class working environment for them. 

It has pioneered inclusive initiatives for its employees, such as rolling out hybrid working and allowing permanent flexible working to 80% of eligible employees ahead of others. It has also launched the intuitive, myHR platform, and AI-based learning platform, diSCover, as part of its focus on innovation and technology.

At the same time, SCBHK is currently redefining overall performance and reward management in a trendsetting way, through starting values-assessment of candidates during the hiring process, as well as introducing interesting ways to promote good conduct in the industry.

The bank has also introduced reskilling and agile ways of working as a way of grooming top talents whilst combatting the gloom brought by the pandemic on a personal level. 

On top of all these undertakings, SCBHK has employed key success factors to withstand the challenging times. Its client centricity, personalisation, cultural, and infrastructural breakthrough became its edge in its digital transformation journey, as well as in ensuring a more inclusive working environment for its employees.

As a market leader, SCBHK goes beyond its goals and sets an example to other organisations with its unwavering commitment to Hong Kong and the whole retail banking industry.