Afghanistan International Bank
Afghanistan International Bank (AIB) has continued to show its dedication to bringing dependable and innovative banking to Afghanistan, and in doing so has held onto the Bank of the Year award for another year.
The bank has pushed forwards with its plans for digital modernisation, and has ringfenced a $7m budget to be spent on technical solutions over three years. During 2019, AIB upgraded its digital banking with the Oracle Digital Banking Experience 17.2. The bank also introduced near-field communication, or contactless, technology on its ATM and point-of-sale machines.
As well as upgrading its retail banking systems to create online and mobile banking channels, which will benefit the country’s population as it becomes more prosperous, the bank is also aiming to upgrade its back office systems. AIB is looking to implement the ISO 20022 messaging system and Swift gpi to meet international standards for cross-border payments.
AIB achieved a first in Afghanistan by obtaining a comprehensive licence from Visa covering acquiring, issuing and e-commerce, a process which has taken the bank 14 years to achieve from when it first received a limited acquiring licence in 2006. This required the bank to meet a number of high standards in compliance to gain approval. It is a good move due to the Visa brand recognition, as the card is used by many Afghans travelling to India and Pakistan, as well as Americans in Afghanistan.
While the poorest areas of Afghanistan have been badly hit by Covid-19, AIB’s business has remained strong and the bank has seen an uptick in deposits as customers look for a safe place for their funds. In response to the pandemic, the bank initiated a range of corporate social responsibility responses, including a revolving fund facility to female entrepreneurs with payments up to $3000 and the distribution of food packages to 1000 families that had been affected.
Eastern Bank Limited
Eastern Bank Limited (EBL) has demonstrated its ambition to expand and grow its services both in Bangladesh and beyond, which has helped it to win this year’s award for the best bank in Bangladesh.
Looking to grow its position in international trade routes, EBL opened a representative office in China’s Guangzhou province in September 2019 to bring it closer to the Belt and Road Initiative. The office is focused on providing letter of credit advisory to local beneficiaries and increasing Chinese investment into Bangladesh, among other activities.
In July 2020, the bank has begun upgrading its core banking system to Flexcube UBS version 14. According to the bank, this will be one of its largest and most complex digital projects in terms of both value and functionality. With this new core banking system, the bank will be able to engage in the world of open banking platforms.
To support the development of export financing, the bank became the first in the country to partner with Tradewind to provide trade finance solutions to manufacturers and traders in Bangladesh.
In response to Covid-19, EBL introduced an e-KYC bank account, known as EBL Insta. The system, using real-time face matching technology, helps to reduce the amount of time a customer would have to spend in a branch, allowing them to open a new account in just three minutes; this is down from the three days it usually took previously. The bank also reacted to the floods which hit the country in July 2020 by travelling by boat to the affected areas to help people open bank accounts to access financial assistance.
Ali Reza Iftekhar, managing director and CEO of EBL, says: “During this challenging time we are constantly in touch with our customers through social media channels and are providing innovative solutions through our banking app, which is enriched with augmented reality. We also provided an export factoring solution as part of our efforts to reduce the risks that Bangladeshi exporters face when it comes to collecting their goods’ worth.”
Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam
Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam (BIBD) took the difficulties of 2020 in its stride, pushing forward with innovations and creating new systems that assisted its customers, while keeping in line with its Islamic banking principles.
To support its staff, the bank launched a Digital Academy to improve the digital literacy of its employees. This included developing a digital training programme to create a workplace culture which supports digital transformation. These efforts were furthered by the launch of the ‘Go Digital!’ campaign during the Covid-19 pandemic, to encourage customers to move online and avoid branches. As a result, the corporate segment saw a 47% increase in local inter-bank transfers and a 22% increase in the automation of payroll transactions.
Furthermore, in June 2020 the transformation group commenced work on the creation of a group-wide data warehouse facility. The project will gather proprietary data for business insights, capitalising on the increase in customer data available as more move towards digital banking.
In the consumer space, the bank expanded its existing BIBD NexGen digital ecosystem. During 2019, BIBD Wave was introduced, which made it the first bank in Brunei to offer near-field communication, or contactless, payment services via its mobile app. During the Eid period in June 2020, BIBD introduced an upgrade to the NexGen wallet called e-Duit Raya. This new service allows users to send and receive cash payments via QR code. This was created in direct response to the Covid-19 pandemic, as customers were unable to exchange gifts in person. The aim is to extend this service to a personal QR code, which can be used to exchange funds in daily life.
As an Islamic bank, BIBD follows the principle of paying zakat (contributions to charity) on its profits. In 2019 this amounted to $3.1m, 1.7% of the bank’s profits before tax.
Campu Bank
Campu Bank made strides in improving its customer service functions this year, a refocusing which helped it to win the accolade for the best bank in Cambodia in 2020.
The bank implemented processes to provide customers with a high quality of service and fast complaints resolution.
In January 2019, the bank introduced its complaint tracking system which ensures all verbal and written complaints are input by staff and resolved within 14 days of the receipt date. Further improvements followed in May 2019 with the introduction of the business referral management system to ensure good leads and referrals are followed up, helping the bank to capitalise on every new business opportunity, regardless of size.
Campu Bank took steps in modernising its payment offerings with the launch of WeChat Pay and Alipay on its merchant terminals, using barcode and QR code technology. The bank also worked with online payment gateway iPay88 to offer Visa and Mastercard e-commerce transactions. By the end of 2019, iPay88 had integrated six e-commerce merchants with the bank’s payments platform.
In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Campu Bank stepped up efforts to support customers by providing concessions on loans, including allowing interest-only payments, partial payments, maturity date extensions, and in some cases a loan moratorium. The bank has pledged to continue supporting its customers for as long as needed.
Tan Sri Dato’ Sri Teh Hong Piow, chairman of Campu Bank, outlines the ambitious plans in place for the year to come: “The bank will continue to focus on its core retail lending business, with priority given to customers to purchase residential and commercial shophouses, to factories for expansion of business, and to SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises] in productive sectors. In addition, the bank will continue its digital transformation drive and initiatives by enhancing its new design and more robust app to include new features, such as the newly launched inter-bank fund transfer and Bakong e-wallet services initiated by the National Bank of Cambodia, to meet customer demand.”
China Merchants Bank
In a market as innovative and ground-breaking as China, it is difficult for a bank to do something which really stands out. This year, China Merchants Bank (CMB) achieved this when setting out its goal to create a market-leading transaction bank.
Steps undertaken by the bank during 2019 included upgrading the internet banking platforms and introducing special digital branches in the CMB Business app, corresponding to each of the bank’s 44 tier-one branches. The bank also focused on improving its supply chain finance channel, introducing an invoice cloud that covers domestic trade financing products. Since launch, it has verified 200,000 invoices, with a combined value of more than Rmb70bn ($10.6bn).
Additionally, the bank built a data warehouse to make better use of available client data. During 2019, CMB developed operational indicators and visualised data displays for products, developed user profiles in specific groups and launched user group labels.
The focus on improving the bank’s digital offering is a theme that will endure and has paid off during the Covid-19 pandemic. A spokesperson for the bank says: “Looking forward, CMB will continue to take fintech as the driving force, accelerating digital transformation and striving to create the best customer experience bank in China. In 2019, our investment in IT reached Rmb9.361bn, an increase of 43.97% year-on-year. We will continue to focus on customer experience and technology, deepening the ongoing strategic transformation and promoting an open-minded and integrated environment within the company.”
The bank responded in the early days of the pandemic in January 2020 with a Rmb200m donation to the Wuhan Charity Association. The following month, the bank created a special credit of Rmb10bn to support enterprises focused on epidemic prevention and control. For customers facing financial issues, the bank promoted the use of its Zhaodai loan application app, which gives users a pre-approved loan amount within one minute.
Standard Chartered
Standard Chartered has scooped the Bank of the Year Award for Hong Kong through its steely focus on improving the customer mobile experience, expanding its mobile app into a fully integrated service.
The bank made further steps in the use of mobile with the creation of its innovative mobile keyboard banking. Installing the keyboard on a mobile device means customers can check their balances or make payments through the Faster Payment System while using messaging or shopping apps.
Customers looking to open a new bank account can now do so in just eight minutes thanks to the Mobile Casa via the Standard Chartered app, and with no minimum balance requirements. The combination of these efforts helped the bank to grow its mobile active client base by 47% during 2019.
Wealth management customers benefited from the launch of the ‘My RM’ tool, allowing customers easy access to their relationship managers. Other bank customers have been given access to virtual assistant ‘Stacy’, which provides information on credit card expenditure and answers questions on products. They can also speak to an adviser through the Live Agents facility.
Mary Huen, CEO of Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), says: “There are a few ingredients for our success that I want to call out. First is our people – and their commitment to going the extra mile to support clients, community and one another. They are our real assets and what makes our franchise unique. Secondly, it is our culture of continuous improvement and learning, where we can constantly unlearn old skills and learn new ones to adapt to a changing environment – this is also what makes us resilient. And last but not the least, our bank’s purpose is our North Star that guides our business decisions so that doing what is right for our staff, clients and community has become part of our operating DNA.”
Bank OCBC NISP
Over the past year, Indonesia’s Bank OCBC NISP has worked to extend its reach into a new consumer market, a move which has both expanded its presence and business within the country.
Recognising a gap in the investment market, the bank launched a wealth management campaign aimed at millennials. The bank found that not many people from this demographic were investing due to lack of knowledge or misconceptions about the amount needed to begin investing. In order to educate customers about wealth management, the bank launched a chatbot named ‘Rachel’, which answers questions about investing and offers advice on investment products based on the investment goals of the user.
The virtual assistant was introduced in tandem with the #BeraniCuan wealth management campaign, which presented investment as part of a lifestyle choice and raised awareness through collaborating with a local fashion brand. In addition, the barriers to start investing were low, as accounts could be opened with as little as Rp100,000 ($7).
In the six months from launch to June 2020, the number of new customers coming to the bank’s investment products via the ONe mobile app increased 39%, and the bank is confident that it will be able to double the number by the end of the year. As of June 2020, total assets under management stood at Rp3555bn.
In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Bank OCBC NISP encouraged its customers to move to digital banking. Recognising that not all of its customers were digitally literate, the bank has posted a series of educational videos on its Instagram account twice a week to provide information on managing financial issues. It also provided relief in the form of donations of personal protective equipment to hospitals in Jakarta and Bandung, and distributed 1600 grocery packages to support people in communities close to the bank’s offices in four cities.
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) has stepped up this year to win the Bank of the Year Award for Japan, following collaborations to expand the bank’s reach, as well as providing support in the country’s fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
The bank established a number of partnerships to strengthen its services. For example, in December 2019 SMBC embarked on a partnership with Citigroup, agreeing on introducing clients between SMBC Trust Bank and Citibank. The Japanese bank also partnered with domestic competitor Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group on sharing out-of-branch ATMs, which means customers from either bank are now able to use ATM machines from the other without incurring charges.
SMBC launched its private wealth brand in April 2020, to provide advice for high net worth clients in areas including wealth management, social impact investment, and succession support for companies. With digital broker SBI Securities, the bank focused on helping young customers and beginner investors with asset accumulation.
During the pandemic the bank has used its SMBC at Home digital platform to enable individual and corporate customers to make donations to Covid-19 charities. The bank itself has reached out in the fight against coronavirus with a donation of Y1.5bn ($14.2m) to support medical institutions fighting the virus, and humanitarian organisations providing educational, welfare and cultural activities. A further Y500m has been given to the Centre for iPS Cell Research and Application at Kyoto University for research into drugs to treat the virus.
A spokesperson for the bank says: “Our key principles are the characteristics SMBC must strive to embody. They are principles that we must abide by, as they will guide us on our journey to realise the speedy, sustainable growth of SMBC. They are a bank which sees itself as being at the coal face, a bold and enterprising bank that is not afraid of change, and a bank which is the best for talent.”
ForteBank
ForteBank has seen several years of hard work come to fruition in 2020, with a series of changes that have helped the bank to win the accolade for Kazakhstan in this year’s Bank of the Year Awards. The bank has seen its profits consistently rise, increasing 45% in 2019 from the previous year, and its cost-to-income ratio improve over the past three years.
A focus on increasing the number of payments options available to customers has helped with this growth. Over the past year, the bank has launched services with Apple Pay, Garmin Pay and Samsung Pay, as well as implemented virtual cards to allow customers to pay through their mobile without issuing physical plastic cards.
The pandemic has facilitated a considerable change in working practices at the bank, with around 80% of staff now working remotely. It restructured its processes so that bank staff can perform banking transactions from anywhere in the world.
The move to remote working and shopping has boosted the bank’s digital marketplace, ForteMarket. Originally launched at the end of 2018, the pandemic has driven an incredible 2744% rise in volumes in March 2020 compared with March 2019.
ForteBank has also adapted to support its customers through the challenges faced this year, according to bank spokesperson. “ForteBank has actively supported the state’s initiative aimed at restructuring the customers who have found themselves in trouble,” they say. “More than 90% of the customers who went through restructuring are paying steadily, in accordance with the new schedule. For the legal entities, ForteBank is an active participant of the programmes aimed at supporting the industry sectors affected by Covid-19 with preferential lending at the rate of 6% per annum. Moreover, throughout the quarantine period, the bank has not been charging any fees from the merchants selling their products via the ForteMarket online store, in order to support SMEs.”
Finca Bank
Finca Bank stepped up its game in the past 18 months, focused on meeting the requirements of its customers. The bank identified a need to improve financial literacy in Kyrgyzstan and created a number of services to fill this gap.
In such a large country, developing mobile services has helped to bring those living in rural locations into the formal banking system. The bank now offers tablet-based lending, with 90% of all credit products available digitally. This has helped to reduce the time to loan approval down to just a few minutes, rather than days. Tablet-based operations have been extended to staff members, with all client relationship offices equipped with a tablet device which can be used across the country.
The Finca Dan app was launched as a free mobile app to help users keep a record of their incomes and expenses and set financial goals. Using gamification, the bank introduced an educational module to teach the basics of managing personal finance and tips for making informed decisions, with tests to check the user’s knowledge of different financial topics. Participants would receive scores for their activities, as well as bonuses for participating in promotional events.
Recognising there was a need to support women in reaching their savings goals, the bank introduced the Kiyal special deposit product. The bank found 63% of its deposit base was female, but many lacked knowledge around how to save effectively. Finca Bank launched the product for women with salaries or small businesses, such as sewing or market sellers, to help them to meet their savings goals. The fixed-term product is available between six and 24 months with a 10% interest rate. A minimum monthly deposit of Kgs500 ($6) is required, with a 3% bonus paid to depositors who make the payment on time each month.
ICBC (Macau)
ICBC (Macau) enjoyed a strong year of growth, seeing its net profits grow by 18% and Tier 1 capital increase by 10%, while non-performing loans remained stable at a very low 0.11%.
The bank reassessed how it could expand its offerings to cater for all of the needs of its customers. As part of its “Whole Bank Support” strategy, ICBC (Macau) launched its private banking business, offering financial products and integrated financial service packages to its high net worth customers. By collaborating with domestic branches located in the Greater Bay Area, it was able to extend its reach into the market through new products and services. In June 2019, ICBC (Macau) launched a primary guaranteed product for its wealth management customers with ICBC Asset Management (Global) acting as investment advisor. The businesses raised 600m patacas ($75m) and brought incremental loans equivalent to 3bn patacas.
At the beginning of 2020, ICBC (Macau) introduced the “Wisely Deposit” interface to its mobile banking platform, which consolidates several online deposit products into one place, allowing customers to easily complete their deposit activities. This came in conjunction with the launch of the Bay Area Estate Mortgage Service, which allows one-stop mortgage applications via the mobile app.
Jiang Yi Sheng, chairman of ICBC (Macau), says the bank had a robust response to the coronavirus crisis: “In the face of the unexpected Covid-19 pandemic, ICBC (Macau) always put the safety and health of customers and employees as the top priority. The bank has resolutely implemented the decision and deployment of the government to stabilise the local economy and restore social confidence through launching various financial relief measures. At the same time, ICBC (Macau) takes effective measures to reinforce comprehensive risk management to deal with the global financial market turmoil.”
Maybank
Malaysia has been dealing with difficult market conditions recently, with issues ranging from the US-China trade war to the slowing of Malaysia’s gross domestic product growth in 2019 to 4.3% (from 4.7% in 2018). Maybank, however, managed to see a year of record growth in 2019, with net operating income growing 4.6% year-on-year and net fee-based income increasing by almost 11%.
Maybank completed an expansion of its data centre with the completion of its data lake. The CARisMa (Capital Adequacy and Risk Management) system, which allows business units to better manage their assets, is one model that has emerged from using in-house data mining. By expanding the data centre, the bank is also able to accommodate greater transactional volumes as the bank offers increasingly digitised services.
One such service is the MAE, which was developed in-house and launched as part of the Maybank2u mobile app. MAE operates as an e-wallet, but with systems such as QRPay and the ability to purchase travel and movie tickets. Since its launch in March 2019, MAE now has 1.4 million users, including new-to-bank customers. The QRPay system has itself grown considerably, with close to 500,000 participating vendors, including vending machines and websites, now using the platform.
Datuk Abdul Farid Alias, group president and CEO of Maybank, says: “Maybank’s success is underpinned by our mission of humanising financial services. We positioned ourselves to remain strong in terms of capital and liquidity during this volatile economic environment in order to focus on delivering value for our customers and stakeholders.
“Our franchise strength in our home markets allowed us to focus on responsible growth and manage our funding and liquidity to maintain profitability,” he continues. “We innovated new digital solutions for our customers while remaining watchful in containing cost expansion, and these efforts yielded another record profit year for the bank.”
Khan Bank
Mongolia’s digital banking service has been given a boost with the innovative steps taken by Khan Bank in the past year, developments which have helped the bank to take home this year’s Bank of the Year prize.
Khan Bank is well on the way of digital transforming its business, following a raft of automation projects. These new projects have enabled a frictionless experience for customers across laptops, mobile devices and tablets. Thanks to these developments, the bank’s digital channel use grew by 51% by the end of 2019, while it forecast that non-branch transactions will soon account for 99% of all transactions. Khan Bank also saw 47 million digital transactions by the end of 2019, a 16 million increase on the previous year.
This expansion of digital services also covered the adoption of open application programming interface (API) technology to enable faster development of modern banking in Mongolia. Utilising Google’s Apigee API management platform, Khan Bank has been able to roll out more than 30 new APIs, with the expectation that more than 100,000 new online banking transactions per month will pass through the API gateway. This move has also expanded the bank’s business opportunities, with foreign embassies in Mongolia now among its customers for current accounts, payroll and visa escrow services.
Online customers have seen an increase to the product suite with the creation of online loans so they don’t have to visit the branch in person to apply for a loan. Once a customer has signed a master loan agreement, they are able to have an immediate response to a loan request, including a loan analysis including the amount, interest and monthly instalment payment. In October 2019, the first online salary loan service was launched, allowing customers to apply for a salary loan up to Tg30m ($10,600) online with no collateral required.
CB Bank
Myanmar continues to go through a period of transition, and the country’s banks look to keep up with the pace of change seen both domestically and the demands of a rapidly modernising international banking sector.
As banking in Myanmar moves away from paper-based transactions and becomes increasingly digital, CB Bank noticed a pain point for customers in trying to transfer funds between banks. In response to this, the bank has enabled local banks to transfer through the CB Bank internet and mobile banking channels. With the new service, customers no longer have to go to a branch to fill in paperwork. Instead they can now send money to any bank directly, including foreign bank accounts in Myanmar.
CB Bank modernised its brand as it launched its first smart bank branches in the Kantharyar Shopping Centre in central Yangon and The Central shopping malls. By setting up the branches in these busy consumer locations, the bank aims to attract a digitally-savvy customer base. Within the branch, customers can now open bank accounts and receive debit and prepaid cards with minimal interactions with staff. Customers can also use laptops and smartphones to test out the bank’s digital banking services.
The move towards digital service has become particularly important during the Covid 19 pandemic. U Kyaw Lynn, executive vice chairman and CEO of CB Bank, says: “To facilitate new normal lifestyles of our customers, CB Bank has launched new digital products such as CB Pay QR payments on POS terminals and CB Card+ application where contactless card payment technology is enabled through digitised cards. To reduce overcrowding at branches, we also dispatched a mini fleet of mobile cars across the country to provide cash in/cash out services, ATM services and other banking services. We also enabled ecommerce payment technology for hundreds of large corporates, SME businesses as well as government agencies.”
NMB Bank
In this hotly-contested country category, NMB Bank took the title of Bank of the Year in Nepal thanks to its strong merger and acquisition activity and its efforts in embracing sustainable banking.
During late 2019, the bank strengthened its domestic presence by signing a memorandum of understanding for the acquisition of Kanchan Development Bank, a bank with a strong presence in western Nepal and a focus on sustainability. NMB also began joint operations with Om Development Bank, which has a strong presence in the country’s economic centres.
New customers now have the opportunity to open accounts via Facebook and Viber, thanks to digital onboarding. Launched at the beginning of 2020, the service was established in response to a sharp increase in new account openings because of the pandemic.
Moving forward in sustainable banking, NMB Bank launched its Green Fixed Deposit product, designed to promote renewable energy. Savers can have their funds matched to a portfolio of renewable energy projects, in funds ranging from one to five years. Each account holder has a tree planted in their name.
Sunil KC, CEO of NMB Bank, says the lender has a series of goals for the coming year. “The bank will focus more on automating internal processes and enhancing client’s digital touch points. By using digital means, the bank aims to reduce crowds at branches and contribute towards creating a paperless environment,” he says. NMB also has plans to introduce AI-based credit approval processes to enhance efficiency and client’s experience.
He continues: “The bank will also focus on full implementation of environmental and social management systems (ESMS). The bank aims to lead on the ESMS front in the country and assist regulators to formulate ESMS policies. The goal is to increase productivity through technology, manage costs through automation, enhance brand value by creating state of the art customer experience through digital means, and improve the work/life balance of our staff.
United Bank Limited
Pakistan’s banking sector still has a number of pitfalls to overcome for consumers looking to open accounts for the first time. In response to this, United Bank Limited (UBL) developed innovative functionality to support its customers, and helped it to scoop the Bank of the Year accolade in 2020.
Pakistan is underbanked, with just 20% of the adult population holding bank accounts. The amount of information required to open a bank account is a barrier to many people, as few have the requisite paper documents needed. Recognising these challenges, UBL launched Self-Serve Digital Onboarding via its app.
Customers are given real-time updates on the status of their application through to the delivery of their debit card. They can also request a full know-your-customer account, with a staff member visiting the customer at a place of their choosing to complete the process. Digital onboarding saw good results in 2019, with 33% of new accounts opened via this method.
The country also has a very low number of people who file tax returns, with only around 2.4 million filed for the financial year 2018-2019, out of a population of over 200 million. UBL launched the Good Citizen account to help reach the government’s goal of increasing this number to five million returns filed in the next tax year. This product provides tax registration and filing services via independent provider Befiler, as well as a tax expert to assist the customer in completing their return. The bank had seen 14,500 Good Citizen accounts opened within two months of launch.
Good Citizen account holders are rewarded with low-rate auto, house and business loans, and can use any ATM machine in the country to withdraw cash.
UBL introduced special measures during the pandemic to offer relief with cheap financing options and the ability to open a new account from home. Free life insurance was also added and was applicable to those with Covid-19.
Union Bank
Union Bank’s bold move forward in the creation of its fintech and corporate venture capital arm in 2019 helped the bank to win the title of Bank of the Year in the Philippines.
Named UBX, the spun-off division of the bank has been focused on the development of four new ventures. i2i was developed to bring digital banking to unbanked and rural communities, in conjunction with the Rural Bankers Association of the Philippines. Online lending marketplace SeekCap was established to support small and medium-sized enterprises by providing them with sources of credit without having to fill in lengthy loan applications.
UBX also supported payment gateway Bux and digital shop builder Sentro. Bux can be easily integrated into an online seller’s platform and Sentro helps vendors to set up online shops, with built in protections for both the sellers and buyer and logistics services.
Digital banking customers will now be able to move between devices more easily as Union Bank has combined its two previously separate desktop and mobile banking portals. Customers used to have two sets of login credentials, but now just one. The new service has been upgraded with QR code payments, real-time digital account opening and digital cheque deposits.
The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic highlighted how people in rural areas faced difficulties in obtaining cash due to low numbers of branches and ATMs. In response, Union Bank established a scheme to allow app users to send money for collection from remittance counters. The scheme was used in particular by urban workers sending money home to their families. From the launch on April 6, 2020 to mid-May, the bank saw 92,000 remittance requests with a value of 267m pesos ($5.5m). It also helped the bank to see a 20% uptick in digital account opening.
DBS
DBS continues to cement its reputation as a digitally-forward bank in 2020 by scooping Singapore’s Bank of the Year award for the fifth year in a row.
The bank has further developed its internal operations with the development of its NLP Asset Hub (NAH), which speeds up the time to market for natural language processing (NLP) projects. The system uses a natural language knowledge base and units within the bank building on that core with their own modules. When these modules are applicable within other divisions of the bank, they are added to the central NAH. Since launch, the hub has been adopted by 10 divisions in the bank and has brought about a 20% improvement in digital fulfilment levels for customers between June and September 2019.
During the global pandemic, DBS also put its technology to good use for its staff with the development of contact tracing capabilities, which helped the bank to identify its first member of staff to contract Covid-19 and create lists of possible positive contacts.
Pension savers have been boosted with the launch of the NAV Planner, which allows customers to plan their savings goals via the DBS app. It has been accessed by a million customers since launch.
Tse Koon Shee, country head of DBS Singapore, says: “We are honoured to be recognised as Singapore Bank of the Year for the fifth consecutive year. As the former Development Bank of Singapore, we have always had a mission bigger than ourselves, given our mandate to finance Singapore’s industrialisation. Today, that DNA to be purpose-driven in all that we do continues to guide us, especially in these extraordinarily difficult times.
“We recognise the integral role that banks must continue to play in helping society to emerge stronger from the Covid-19 pandemic,” he continues. “Our investments in digitalisation, and our culture of inclusivity and efficiency, have enabled us to support employees, customers and the wider community in their time of need, and we remain committed to standing by our stakeholders as we ride out the pandemic together.”
Woori Bank
South Korea’s banks have had a difficult time recently, but with its clear message and strong outline for the future of the bank’s business, Woori Bank has shone through to win this year’s Bank of the Year award for South Korea.
Woori Bank has developed its trust, innovation and efficiency model of working to create a customer-centric model of doing business. The bank developed new mobile banking systems, with the launch of Woori WON Baking app in August 2019. The app was created on an open finance framework, with new services provided via partnerships with Samsung and account aggregation service Bank Salad. The app saw 32 tasks transformed through robotic process automation, increasing efficiency.
These upgrades were built upon with the launch of open application programming interface (API) systems in June 2019. Woori Bank has developed APIs for loans, foreign currency exchange, and remittance products, and made the platforms available via global software development platform GitHub.
Kwon Kwang-seok, CEO of Woori Bank, says: “With my inauguration as CEO of Woori Bank [in March 2020], I have pledged to keep our customers as the top priority to deepen customer faith, to stabilise our organisation and to cultivate a business culture faithful to basics and principles. Central to these management guidelines, the bank will tirelessly pursue change and innovation to stay a step ahead of the rapidly-shifting financial world. Furthermore, Woori Bank will endeavour to become the most respected and trusted bank.”
The start of Mr Kwon’s tenure as the bank CEO coincided with the global spread of Covid-19. The bank responded quickly with the creation of a response taskforce team (TFT) on March 3, 2020. The TFT has overseen the distribution of 44,670 face masks to children and the elderly, 3706 hand sanitisers, and KRW500m ($450,000) worth of masks and sanitisers to customers visiting the bank’s branches. The project extended to providing 2000 vulnerable children with laptops to continue home-schooling during lockdown.
National Development Bank
Sri Lanka’s crowded banking sector means each institution is pushed to be innovative and respond to changing customer needs in order to keep hold of business. In 2020, the Bank of the Year winner in Sri Lanka is National Development Bank (NDB), which demonstrated how it has modernised its services to stunning effect.
NDB launched the Bank2U provision to take banking services into the homes of their customers. A banking officer is equipped with a tablet device, which they take to the individual to help them with their banking needs. The service has benefited self-employed customers, such as trishaw drivers and seamstresses, as well as market vendors and even professionals. The bank has expanded its operations to cover 12 new localities, taking the number covered to 83, and during 2019 the number of transactions performed via Bank2U increased 256%.
NDB also launched two retail banking products. Tax Caretaker responded to changes to tax implemented by the Inland Revenue Department, and allows customers to pay taxes via the bank’s omnichannel platform, Neos. Reverse Planner, meanwhile, allows customers to deposit a sum for a fixed term, while withdrawing pre-determined funds at set intervals.
Dimantha Seneviratne, group CEO of NDB, says: “The bank has been at the forefront of Sri Lanka’s approach to managing the economic fall out of the pandemic. NDB was one of the first to support impacted clients via a debt moratorium, [as well as] taking payment platforms [and] mobile ATMs to the locked down areas. The bank has been the fourth largest disburser of government-regulated relief loan mechanisms, taking more than its market share. Further, the bank’s efforts to support the micro, small and medium-sized enterprise sector in these challenging times is encapsulated in Jayagamu Sri Lanka (Bringing victory to Sri Lanka).”
Looking forward, the bank aims to build social resilience with its banking on women proposition. The bank’s NDB Araliya savings account for women has been updated with a loan facility, credit cards and customisation to cover the needs of users who fall into the homemaker, salaried female and female entrepreneur categories.
Mega Bank
Taiwan s Bank of the Year award was one of the most hotly-contested this year, meaning the winning bank had to come through with some truly innovative developments to take the title.
Mega Bank did just that, as the bank showed how it has streamlined account opening with the launch of its smart teller machine.
Understanding the aging population in Taiwan, the bank wanted to develop a service to be used in branches, as this is still the preferred method of banking for many of its customers. Combining artificial intelligence and traditional services, the smart teller can help customers through wealth management and loan application processes. The service has also dramatically reduced account opening times from an average of 90 minutes to just 18 minutes. In the year from its launch in June 2019, the smart teller machine opened 53,024 accounts and saved the printing of 159,000 paper documents.
Homebuyers were helped by the creation of Mega Bank’s e-mortgage application process. Linking the government’s My Data Platform, the bank’s robotic process automation system, and the e-Map system, the e-mortgage can provide the customer with price enquiry information and an online application service, while also reducing the amount of time the bank spends on appraisals.
Michael Chang, chairman of Mega Bank, says the move to digital processes is stretching across the whole bank. “In response to the trend for open banking, the bank is promoting the application programming interface transformation of services, which facilitates the co-operation between the bank and various innovative industries. This co-operation allows the bank to expand its services to different industry ecosystems, reach a wider customer base and accelerate the development of digital services,” he says.
“[This also allows the bank] to establish a customer-oriented data collection and analysis framework, which integrates internal transaction data and externally purchased data to provide tailored services to target customers and achieve the goals of digital management and precision marketing,” he adds.
Krungthai Bank
Recognising the importance of moving forward with digital development and how it can best assist its customers post-pandemic, Thailand’s Krungthai Bank looked to revolutionise its operations this year and create a truly modern bank.
The bank embraced the possibilities of open application programming interfaces with the creation of its Pao Tang e-wallet. Through the Chim-Shop-Chai (Taste-Shop-Spend) campaign, the app allows users to keep track of their spending and find any of the 170,000 stores participating in the campaign within a 10km radius. The app links to the government’s g-Wallet, which is used to bring economic stimulus and payments to participating merchants.
Pao Tang has been used to introduce a number of new services to customers, including a health wallet created in conjunction with the National Health Security Office. This allows users to make an appointment and view their medical history via the app. A student loan payment facility was also introduced, allowing students to check their loan balance, payment history and make payments without incurring fees through the Pao Tang app.
“We created an open banking platform for Thais, under the Krungthai vision of ‘Growing Together for Sustainability’, that enables them to be adaptable for the crisis and resilient for the next normal,” explains Payong Srivanich, president and CEO of Krungthai Bank.
These developments also included working with the government on the creation of blockchain services. Working with the Public Debt Management Office, the bank launched a new bond offering. The Blockchain Savings Bond on Pao Tang sold Bt200m ($6.6m) of government savings bonds, each with a face value of just Bt1. The total amount sold out in 99 seconds to 1374 retail investors in June 2020.
The State Bank for Foreign Economic Affairs of Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan’s The State Bank for Foreign Economic Affairs of Turkmenistan has undertaken a number of steps over the past year to modernise the bank, a move that has helped the bank win the country’s Bank of the Year award.
The bank recorded solid financial results in 2019, seeing a 150% increase in net profits and a 112% increase in Tier 1 capital, alongside a non-performing loan ratio of only 1.2%.
To create a robust business model, the bank worked with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) on a plan to digitise its operations, and improve expertise and management practices. Changes introduced including expanding the ATM and point-of-sale (POS) networks and bringing in state-of-the-art servers. Measures were introduced to improve cybersecurity, bringing in an independent external audit agency to ensure the bank’s card systems were meeting international standards. As well as bringing the technology up to date, the plan also focused on developing the capabilities of the bank’s workforce.
Consumers benefited from the introduction of new products, including an overdraft credit card loan and online loan applications, which removed the need to visit a branch. The bank also adopted ‘Milli Visa’ branded bank card, which will bring the bank’s national payment system in line with international payment systems, such as contactless payment technology.
The State Bank for Foreign Economic Affairs of Turkmenistan was quick to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic, providing support for small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) customers, with a revised loan schedule for clients that were struggling with repayments. Loans were also made available to companies for settling salaries and maintaining operating costs, to enable production and manufacturing to continue throughout the pandemic.
SME support forms part of the bank’s future plans as it is working in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank and the Islamic Development Bank to provide financing to support these companies and expand Turkmenistan’s export sector.
Orient Finans Bank
Orient Finans Bank has realigned its focus to expand its business across the retail and mortgage segment in Uzbekistan, and in doing so developed an impressive new suite of services for consumers.
The changes have had a noticeable impact on the bank’s financials, which saw its net profits increase by 50% and Tier 1 capital rising by 47% in 2019. Meanwhile, its non-performing loan ratio remains tiny, accounting for just 0.017%.
Recognising its previous focus on corporate banking, the bank worked to expand its retail portfolio. This included enhancing its mobile banking services in 2019. Working alongside the Uzbek government, Orient Finans Bank joined a mortgage lending programme backed by the Ministry of Finance.
Bobur Parpiev, chairman of the supervisory board at Orient Finans Bank, says the bank has ambitious plans for the future. “In the coming year, the bank plans to further expand and develop its bilateral relations (including trade finance and Islamic banking facilities) with leading foreign banks and partners and, subject to a favourable economic environment, to attract a syndicated loan facility from international financial institutions.”
He continues: “The bank plans to further increase the share of retail business in its portfolio. The growth of the high-quality retail client base, as in previous years, is also planned to be carried out by expanding the base of corporate clients, small and medium-sized businesses and their employees. Also, next year, the bank will significantly strengthen its risk management team with foreign expats, in order to introduce an effective risk management culture in the bank.”
Recognising the impact the Covid-19 pandemic was having on its clients’ ability to repay loans, the bank introduced a grace period and extended the repayment period of loans to October 1, 2020. In addition, no fees were charged for the rescheduling of payments.
Saigon-Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank
Supporting the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) segment has been at the forefront of the operations of Saigon-Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SHB) in recent months, showing a level of dedication that has helped it win the Bank of the Year award for Vietnam.
During December 2019, the bank agreed a partnership with Amazon Vietnam to help finance online sellers, with the goal of assisting companies to explore online exporting during 2020. By signing a memorandum of understanding with Amazon, it pledged to help Vietnamese companies build their brands online, develop an e-commerce workforce in the country and work together on the development of policy. Under the agreement, SHB acted as the sole bank to finance and provide banking solutions to Vietnamese SME sellers on the Amazon platform. The creation of the partnership proved to be timely, as the emergence of Covid-19 pushed many Vietnamese consumers to shop online.
Customers were also helped through the pandemic with the launch of a VND25,000bn ($1.1bn) credit package, and the reduction of interest rates to 2% per year applicable to existing loans held by customers experiencing issues caused by coronavirus. Fees were also removed for electronic interbank payments, and the removal of fees for customers making payments to the Fund for Fighting Covid-19.
Depositing customers were given the opportunity to join the An Phuc savings product, in conjunction with Dai-ichi Life Insurance. All customers who opened a savings account with a minimum of VND100m and a minimum term of six months were given an interest rate of 0.5% for the first year. Customers can then receive a gift voucher to pay the first premium of a life insurance policy from Dai-ichi Life Vietnam, covering accident, critical illness and healthcare. The voucher is not tied to the individual holding the account and can be gifted to friends and relatives.
