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How should Asia-Pacific banks push the frontiers of transformation?

Current thinking around innovative transformation and how regional institutions are futureproofing themselves for success.


Three questions to ask
  • How should banks define, measure and report on transformation initiatives?
  • Transformative innovation isn’t once and done — how can banks create a culture of continuous transformation?
  • As tech approaches get bigger, bolder and more innovative, which emerging applications should banks emphasize?

Today's challenging macroeconomic environment and multitude of change drivers are fuelling the need for a strategic reset. This calls for financial institutions in Asia-Pacific to get better at being more agile, responsive and resilient to compete in an ever-changing ecosystem. Consequently, “transformation” is a term volleyed around rather liberally within the sector, with nearly every bank boldly declaring that it is “transforming”.

However, transformation doesn’t mean a band-aid approach of cobbling together disparate systems and applications on aging technologies, but genuinely fortifying infrastructures to provide the truly tailored experiences and integrated service consumers require. Doing so necessitates investing and innovating continually to reimagine all processes and reduce friction. 

Unfortunately, many are struggling with this change agenda. 

To understand the current thinking around transformation, appetites to evolve approaches to transformation, and how institutions can increase their chances of success, EY teams interviewed transformation executives at tier-one banks and canvassed the opinions of its own internal transformation experts.

Download EY Asia-Pacific Strategic Transformation Report 2023

Transform or bust

Findings showcase that despite a more uncertain operating environment, vanguard institutions are not pressing the pause button on their transformation programs. Instead, just like their global counterparts, Asia-Pacific banks are looking beyond maximizing cost takeout or meeting regulatory directives to transform their businesses.

To achieve better transformation outcomes, discussions with their C-suites highlight a three-pronged approach to:

1. Rethink transformation ideation and investment

Incumbent banks need to reinvent themselves to keep up with competition, reduce cost-to-serve and deliver enhanced financial experiences. Leaders are therefore radically rethinking their transformation strategy and making bold, incremental investments to boost their transformation agenda. 

Up to
of banking executives in Asia-Pacific intend to invest more into transformation within the next three years, with 40% factoring over 15% more funding.

With on-ground conversations revealing that the lack of right-fit talent as the primary hurdle in delivering on their transformation vision, sizable investments will be channelled into reskilling staff and transitioning them toward a more transformational, digital-first culture. Equally critical is to refresh legacies to reduce complexities and enhance efficiencies, innovate faster yet ensure regulatory compliance.

 

2. Redefine transformation and place customers at the heart of this change

There is an urgency to transform customer experiences, particularly as customer-savvy entrants proliferate, and customers’ expectations continue to grow exponentially faster than their ability to deliver. Banks that are relentlessly client-centric and develop financial solutions aligned with that mission are best positioned to offer the most differentiated value propositions.

With today’s customers seeking (and expecting) financial services that are not only intelligent, trusted and highly personalized, but also digitally embedded and ubiquitous, Asia-Pacific banks are therefore elevating their distribution outreach to support more seamless access to their offerings via consumers’ everyday activities. 

Self-serve platforms are the channel of choice for 60% over the next three years as they redesign customer engagement journeys with a deeper emphasis toward more cost-effective, time-efficient, seamless options. 

 

3. Reposition for agility at scale by revamping technologies

Traditional banks typically dedicate 15-20% of operating expenses to technology, with these percentages creeping upward annually. However, it is untenable to allocate so much merely to “keep the lights on”, hence the urgency for them to transform to achieve high levels of digital maturity and deeper agility. 

To craft appropriate digital expertise to power the banks of tomorrow, Asia-Pacific respondents are ramping up their cloud and AI budgets, while also placing continued emphasis on big data analysis. In particular, 80% of interviewees would invest in cloud computing within three years (up from 30% at present), enabling them to leverage APIs and modular technology architecture, and engage third-party providers to innovate with more agility, better scalability and reusability.

Seventy percent of transformation leaders also intend to invest in artificial and cognitive intelligence within three years versus 30% at present. Among others, funds would be funnelled to harness the power of data to generate insights on clients’ need, conduct sophisticated modeling to underwrite and approve credit, and offer rapid client onboarding through seamless processes.

Summary

Asia-Pacific banks need to place transformation at the heart of their business as they make strategic moves to build up agility, adaptability and resilience to not only survive, but thrive, as vanguard financial institutions of tomorrow.

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