Digital and cloud a top priority for financial institutions in APAC

Most financial institutions in Asia Pacific see improvements in digital customer experience as a top priority. Other main priorities include migrating to cloud technology and investing into AI tools. That is according to a new survey from digital transformation consultancy Endava.

When asked to self-evaluate in a number of areas, financial institutions revealed the state of technological maturity, strategy, and user experience in the banking world.

Over 75% of the organizations surveyed believe they offer their customers a good user experience and have strong data management practices, a clear omnichannel strategy, and technology superior to their competitors. A top point of pride is good user experience design.

One area that organizations struggle with is cybersecurity, already noted in recent years as a weak spot for large organizations around the world. A previous report showed that cybersecurity is one of the top ten concerns for organizations and governments around the world, with rampant cybercrime hurting businesses in many recent high-profile incidents.

Cloud technology is also very important to financial institutions in Asia Pacific, found the report. The pressure to upgrade legacy systems to more modern, cloud-based systems is immense. But some organizations have struggled to do it right.

“Financial institutions have come a long way in embracing the fact that modern banking and a cloud-based core go hand-in-hand,” said Fred Fuller, global head of banking at Endava.

“Banks also recognize that migrating a legacy monolithic core to the cloud is not modernization. They need to leverage modern digital technology to truly modernize the core to create a flexible and dynamic infrastructure that can quickly respond to customer and market demands.”

Investments on their way

When asked about top priorities going forward, respondents noted open banking (embedded finance), payment gateways, and onboarding or acquiring merchants as most important. Open Banking refers to when a bank uses a third-party access to financial data through the use of application programming interfaces (APIs).

“Although financial institutions think their technology is stronger than their competitors, the reality is that new features and functionality are usually built on old systems, which massively limits their scope for innovation,” noted Fuller.

“Working with technology partners who can implement and manage a new core will help them embrace customer-centric banking. This means being able to quickly roll out new products and services, as well as streamlining and securing their internal processes – all of which will help them hold onto market share.”

Overall, it is very clear that modern technology is key for enabling banks to roll out new products quickly, to interpret large data sets, and to create connections that lead to an omnichannel banking process. “Technology is at the very heart of creating the best user experience possible and building a more loyal customer base, while streamlining processes for optimal efficiency.”