Finastra, IDC Financial Insights chart evolution of banking

In collaboration with fintech company Finastra, IDC Financial Insights has released its latest Asia Pacific (APAC)-focused InfoBrief – How banking has changed for good: Becoming an intelligent financial services player. 

The report examines key trends that are shaping the rapidly-evolving banking business model, including open banking adoption, customer centricity and improved transparency, reporting on research conducted amongst the region’s top 250 banks across Australia, India, Singapore, South Korea, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong and mainland China.

Key highlights include:

- Seven in 10 customers view banking processes as tedious; in the lead up to COVID-19, fewer than half were active on digital banking channels

- Digital adoption among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) varies across the region, with Australia reporting around 45% for online channels, whereas adoption in Thailand is below 10%

- Forty-four percent of APAC banks are focused on completing their “connected core” transformation

- By 2022:

• Seven in 10 banks in APAC will adopt real-time payments, but only 25% will be able to productise them
• Three quarters of tier 1 APAC banks will deploy intelligent automation solutions at scale not only for increased automation, but also to boost decision-making and operational efficiencies

The research also indicates five core themes for winning in the next normal of banking:

Real time

Consumers are embracing personalised, real-time engagements, including payments and risk and fraud management.

Self-service

Customer expectations are now shaped by quality self-managed and self-controlled experiences outside of financial services.

Transparency

Real-time liquidity and management systems are a must for long-term transparency improvements.

Empathy

Understanding customer requirements and offering differentiated experiences is key to driving loyalty.

Connectedness

Leveraging application programming interfaces (APIs), platforms and cloud enables banks to provide data-centric solutions.