Tag: banking

Singapore – The customer experience (CX) among major banking institutions in Malaysia lacks differentiation in execution, found by the latest index from global research and advisory firm Forrester.

Said index observed the CX environment across Malaysian multichannel banks AmBank, Bank Rakyat, CIMB Bank, Hong Leong Bank, Maybank, Public Bank, and RHB Bank. The index notes that all banks fell under the ‘OK’ category, with all scores falling within a very tight range, indicating a lack of differentiation within the industry, primarily driven by the challenge that the Malaysian banks face with building positive emotional engagement with their customers. 

In terms of CX ranking, Maybank emerged as the leading brand and outperformed all other brands in customer retention, with 41% of customers planning to stay with the bank. Across the three key dimensions of CX quality namely ease, effectiveness, and emotion; customers rated Maybank the most effective and easiest to work with. The bank also received positive emotional feedback from 52% of its customers, just below Bank Rakyat’s 53% mark in that category.

“During this tumultuous year, feeling confident, happy, and valued mattered the most to customers to remain loyal to a brand. In such an undifferentiated market, the ability to invoke positive emotions will be critical to delivering differentiated experiences. Our research indicates that 80% of Malaysian firms will be implementing or expanding their digital transformation by the end of 2021 to provide better experiences,” said Tom Mouhsian, principal analyst at Forrester.

Meanwhile, the index noted that among customers in Malaysia who felt valued by their bank, 41% plan to remain a customer, 61% plan to spend more with it, and 69% will recommend it to family or friends. In contrast, among customers who felt frustrated with their bank, only 10% plan to remain with the brand, with 17% planning to spend ‘more’ with it, and just 14% to recommend it to family or friends.

“This investment is not going to be enough, however, to differentiate CX. In addition to investing in digital experiences, businesses must connect emotionally and empathetically with their customers. To achieve this, CX pros must have a disciplined approach to envisioning, designing, and delivering a consistently high-quality customer experience,” Mouhsian concluded.

Sydney, Australia – Backbase, a banking platform based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, has recently appointed Iman Ghodosi as the new regional vice president for Asia-Pacific, where one of his main responsibilities in the new role is to drive the company’s international expansion, product development, and APAC market growth.

Part of that market growth expansion is centered around small and medium enterprises (SMEs), as well as in the retail, corporate and wealth management banking sectors.

Ghodosi was previously the vice president and general manager for APAC at enterprise software company Zuora. He has also worked at organizations SAP, Oracle, and Netsuite. He holds an MBA from the University of Newcastle in Australia and a Master of e-business from the University of Southern Queensland.

Speaking about his appointment, he said that he is thrilled to join the company, which enables the disruptors of the banking industry and incumbents alike, as well as offering an end-to-end omni-channel banking platform from the ground up using open standards to support the digital transformation journey of any sized bank.

“With over 120 strong team members in the region, we will continue to ramp up investments in the next several months, hiring for key roles in ASEAN, ANZ, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and India,” Ghodosi said.

He added, “In a platform era of Grab, Netflix and Spotify, people today want the same self-service experience with access to their personal financials, anytime, anywhere. Such consumer habits, compounded by the pandemic have disrupted the financial services industry and nowhere in the world do we see it more than in Asia Pacific. Backbase is primed to address this real need, helping banks to adopt and build modern, cloud-native digital banking platforms to keep pace with changing consumer demands, gain a 360-degree view into banking behaviours, and grow market share.”

Meanwhile, Jouk Pleiter, CEO and founder at Backbase, said, “As we continue to make inroads into the global financial services sector, I’m pleased to welcome Iman to our leadership team and look forward to his team capitalizing on the growth opportunities, while supporting banks in orchestrating seamless banking experiences for their customers and employees.”

Backbase has a team of almost 1,500 people spread across 22 countries and 15 offices, including offices in Singapore, Sydney, and Tokyo.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – As part of the bank’s digital banking thrust, OCBC Bank Malaysia has announced the roll out of ‘OCBC eBiz Account’, a new type of business account catered to local SMEs, of which they can apply for entirely remotely without the need to step into a branch. 

Such feature is made possible through the bank’s electronic know your customer platform (eKYC), which is supported by CTOS Data Systems Sdn Bhd (CTOS).

The OCBC eBiz Account is open only to SMEs with two or fewer directors or shareholders, which represents the bulk of OCBC Bank’s typical existing SME customers.

The bank is rolling out the online account at a national scale, following its pilot tests in the Klang Valley in February and then nationwide in April. The account, with a relatively low initial deposit of RM500, comes with complimentary business internet banking services Velocity@ocbc and access to OCBC Mobile Banking.

According to Wong Chee Seng, head of emerging business at OCBC Bank, the move is part of the bank’s overall digital roadmap to meet the growing needs of SMEs looking to digital banking solutions to further enable them while making things that are more quickly accessible as well.

“Remote account opening was previously the mainstay of consumer banking and tended to benefit only individual customers rather than businesses. The OCBC eBiz Account will benefit SMEs significantly at the very outset of their relationship with us. They can skip the queues at the branches and avoid the crowds altogether. In a matter of minutes, they will be able to complete their application for an online business banking account at their convenience and verify their identity via the OCBC SME eKYC app. Thereafter, and if the application is successful, the Bank will contact the customer to share with them their account number and login ID for business internet banking,” Seng explained.

He also added that they are expecting a good take-up from this offering and hope to see at least 6,000 new business accounts through this digital channel by the end of the year. In addition, he stated that the national rollout of the OCBC eBiz Account is timely given the complications and uncertainties surrounding movement beyond one’s home due to the ongoing pandemic.

Sydney, Australia – Mobiquity, a digital transformation enabler that has helped clients digitize their services such as those of Philippine banking institution BPI, has announced that it will be expanding its services across the Asia Pacific region.

The expansion of Mobiquity’s service offering into APAC is supported by its existing client base in banking and financial services. The company has recently received a Global Banking and Finance Award for its work with the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) – creating a digital banking experience for the bank’s online and mobile platforms.

As part of its APAC expansion, it has also appointed former Microsoft and IBM director, Gustavo Quiroga, as vice president of business development financial services at APAC.

Quiroga will be responsible for strengthening Mobiquity’s global footprint, working with customers across Australia, Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines. He has managed and developed technology, business and customer experience projects from his industry experience from IBM and Microsoft.

“I’m delighted to join Mobiquity and support the company’s rapid expansion across the Asia-Pacific region. I joined Mobiquity to develop, design, and implement digital products and services that create meaningful experiences with customers. Giving customers a ‘Wow’ moment is what drives me, and I look forward to using my expertise to develop partnerships where we can achieve this every day,” he said, regarding his appointment.

Meanwhile, Matthew Williamson, vice president of global financial services at Mobiquity, commented that their appointment of Quiroga demonstrates Mobiquity’s commitment to hiring an ‘A-list’ team of talent that have far-reaching industry expertise.

“Over the last 6 months, we’ve hired over 100 people, including the recent high profile appointments of Howard Moore, senior director of digital banking and Ruby Walia, senior advisor for digital banking for North America. The latest addition to the Mobiquity team supports our vision of global growth in Asia-Pacific, as a recognized partner within the banking and finance ecosystem,” he stated.

Taiwan – Brands and services are often expected to be mind readers. A number of times, consumers don’t always know what they want, until you show it to them, but that brands must also act sly – not all times are consumers willing to ‘cooperate’ and ‘talk’ with brands, and they just want their needs to be handed on their laps–ASAP. 

A new insight from a report done by global analytics firm FICO points out that it might just be the opposite for the said customer-brand relationship. 

First, about 73% of Taiwanese consumers say they are not satisfied with generic credit offers from their bank. With this, it came out that one in five Taiwanese are “very willing” to offer more financial information to be granted preferential pricing, while half are “somewhat willing” to do so.

According to the report, many banks in Taiwan do not have a comprehensive pricing strategy that aligns with the organization’s overall business strategy, yet customers are extremely willing for banks to make them offers that consider their total customer relationship. 

The report notes that innovative pricing strategies have been the name of the game in the industries of airline, ride-sharing service, and insurance and that it’s safe to say that banks are lagging behind.

“Clearly there are opportunities for banks to move past single-product pricing and engage in improved cross-selling and increased product penetration. Banks may have gotten away with this so far due to the high inconvenience cost for customers of moving to a competitor, but with increased competition and the regulatory trend of open banking, we see this changing quickly in the next three years,” said Aashish Sharma, FICO senior director of decision management solutions in Asia Pacific.

Another finding from the report agrees with the call for personalization, where more than half, or 53% of Taiwanese, had a positive reaction to offers that took into consideration their circumstances. 

APAC banking customers are very receptive to personalized credit offers

The study was conducted across 10 countries in Asia Pacific, and it found that there had been broad discontent from consumers in the region with the experience of taking up new products. About 34% said they were not offered any attractive incentives such as better rates, and gifts, while 31% said the bank failed to offer them a superior product to the one they applied. Meanwhile, 28% said the bank failed to offer any additional products to their liking.

“Lenders are cognizant that to compete effectively in today’s retail financing environment, speed to market and pricing features may be insufficient and the greatest value-add is centered on products that are bespoke and tailor-made to meet the specific needs of the customer,” Sharma said.

Jakarta, Indonesia – PT. Bank Commonwealth (PTBC) in Indonesia, the subsidiary of Commonwealth Bank of Australia, has partnered with lifestyle marketing platform Perx Technologies, to further drive its customer growth and engagement through digitalization.

The partnership comes after the recent launch of PTBC’s new mobile banking app, CommBank Mobile, which was designed to help its users better manage their finances and achieve their goals through features such as an easy-to-use expense tracking function and goal saver product. 

Through the partnership, PTBC will be leveraging Perx Technologies’ lifestyle marketing platform to deliver personalized and gamified engagements that reward customers for specific actions and interactions. Perx Technologies will also enable PTBC to run multiple reward campaigns that appeal to their customers and efficiently meet business objectives.

“The Perx platform was purpose-built for large enterprises, investing in mobile-led and data-driven approaches. The primary driver has been to creatively connect with customers and drive change in customer behavior through dynamic last-mile engagements while boosting revenue and improving customer experience through instant gratification. This has been a key differentiator for us, and we are thrilled to support PTBC in its journey to further improve its engagement with its customers,” said Anna Gong, the founder and CEO of Perx Technologies. 

Meanwhile, PT. Bank Commonwealth’s Director of Digital and Strategy Ming Chen believes that Perx Technologies will help them achieve their customer acquisition targets, and its deep domain expertise in the banking and financial services sector, and end-to-end customer data and engagement platform will be a great match for PTBC’s customer acquisition and retention needs.

“As we demonstrated in the past with our digital innovations, which has included the digital e-Kiosk, and the SmartWealth app – our award-winning wealth management mobile application, PTBC is committed to continuing its digital transformation journey. The CommBank Mobile app is the next evolution of that journey and will ensure Commonwealth Bank continues moving towards its purpose, which is to improve the financial well-being of our customers and communities,” said Chen.

Hong Kong – Bank of China in Hong Kong (BOCHK) has launched a new premium Private Wealth service, which offers prestigious and personalized wealth management solutions to high net worth customers. 

BOCHK said that its high-end customer base has been expanding steadily in recent years as the number of customers with a net asset value of over HK$8M grows more than 10% each year. 

The new service aims to help these clients maximize their wealth and preserve their legacy, offering asset allocation solutions that include investment, insurance, equities, cross-border wealth management, mortgage, among others. 

Through the premium service, BOCHK also aims to assist customers in planning for their children’s finances, offering a variety of legacy planning and protection solutions, including consultation services for wealth inheritance and exclusive life insurance offerings. 

Stephen Chan, general manager of Personal Banking and Wealth Management Department of BOCHK, said that wealth management has always been one of the key businesses for BOCHK.

“We see a greater need for professional investment and insurance services as well as financial management analysis among this particular customer group. Their asset allocation mix consists of about 40% investment products, of which the majority are securities and funds,” he said.

The service is compose of an exclusive team of wealth management experts. The cross-border component of the service includes addressing customers’ needs for traveling, property purchase, and investment, including cross-border mortgage consultation services and Greater Bay Area financing solutions.

BOCHK has also shared that it will soon launch RM Chat, a service that enables customers to communicate with BOCHK service team through mobile banking, allowing designated relationship managers to address customers’ transaction requests.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia ー United Overseas Bank (UOB) Malaysia has launched Mighty Insights, a mobile banking app based on artificial intelligence (AI)ーa first in the countryーto create simpler banking transactions for customers of the said bank.

Said app features a dashboard for the customer’s monthly expenses based on their credit card spending, app alerts for third-party subscriptions, merchant payments, or insufficient balance. A Quick Response (QR) code payment function has been also added to the app to ensure safer fund transfers or payments. 

The app also features advanced data analytics, machine learning, and pattern recognition algorithms to help customers provide financial guidance in terms of spending, life age, and lifestyle priority variances. 

Driven with the same analytics as UOB’s AI-driven predictive analytics engine and TMRW, a mobile-only bank designed for ASEAN millennials, Mighty Insights is second in the line which launched AI-driven mobile banking.

Ronnie Lim, managing director and country head of personal financial services for UOB Malaysia, expressed that the recent mobile banking app launch is just one of the bank’s strategies to further harness the technological capabilities for banking and finance for customer-centric experience.

“As technology continues to improve the way we manage our finances, we designed Mighty Insights to anticipate our customers’ banking needs and to offer them the most suitable financial solutions to help them save and spend wisely. Each insight is personalised based on the customer’s spending habits and banking behaviour. Driven by AI and machine learning, Mighty Insights enables customers to track their day-to-day spending conveniently and to view easily the categories they have been spending on the most,” Lim stated.

The app is available for download at the Google Play Store, the Apple App Store, or at Huawei AppGallery.