Singapore and Hong Kong – 28 February, 2014 – Ten Asia/Pacific financial institutions were conferred the prestigious Financial Insights Innovation Awards (FIIA) today.
The FIIA award ceremony was held on the second day of Asian Financial Services (AFS) Congress 2014 at the Marina Bay Sands Singapore.
These winners set the new benchmarks for industry best practices by displaying innovation and creativity to fulfill their business objectives.
Out of the 70 high-quality entries submitted by leading financial institutions across the region, the following organizations have impressed the judges with their abilities to tailor effective solutions that meet the challenges of today’s dynamic market conditions:
- Alliance Bank Malaysia Berhad
- CIMB Bank
- Cathay United Bank Co, Ltd
- OCBC Bank
- DBS Bank (Hong Kong) Limited
- DBS Bank
- POSB
- Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII-Maybank)
Every year, IDC Financial Insights invites financial institutions across Asia/Pacific to nominate the initiatives that they believe warrant special recognition in the area of innovation.
The FIIA recognizes and honors top Asia/Pacific financial institutions that have demonstrated innovation and creative thinking in the areas of customer engagement, product development, process reengineering or risk management to fulfill their business goals.
These initiatives are measured by the FIIA Assessment Panel (made up of Financial Insights worldwide analysts and an independent panel of industry practitioners) against a rigorous set of matrices that looks at responsiveness to market needs, effectiveness of rollout, and market take-up and sustainability.
“We are definitely seeing a much more proactive rather than reactive use of technology in the financial industry this year. Innovation seems to have regained its purpose, not just to address common IT trends within the market, but unique requirements of each organization as well,” says Ho Sui-Jon, Associate Market Analyst, IDC Financial Insights.
Name of institution: Alliance Bank Malaysia Berhad
Name of award: Asia’s Most Customer Friendly Bank
Alliance Bank BizSmart Academy is a new brand initiative; a holistic proposition to the SME segment combining business education, coaching and seed funding to young SMEs. There are two tracks under the Academy, catering to both existing SME customers, as well as the wider business community:
•Existing customers: “Help our customers succeed in their business” via business education and training through a structured year-long curriculum covering various management, business and finance topics.
•Wider business community: “Champion the cause of the SME community”, through an annual SME Innovation Challenge open to young SMEs in Malaysia, where the bank selects high potential SMEs to undergo a two-month training and coaching program, from which one winner will be selected and provided with RM250k funding to implement their new business ideas. The Academy also features an “Online Knowledge Bank” (www.BizSmart.com.my); a go-to resource brimming with useful tools and information for both existing and aspiring entrepreneurs.
Name of institution: CIMB Bank
Name of award: Asia’s Best Payments & Remittance Service
OctoSend via CIMB Clicks service was launched on 23 August 2013. This feature allows the bank’s customers to send money to anyone using only their Malaysian mobile number or email address, taking away the hassle of remembering lengthy bank account numbers. This innovative service can be accessed online, via the CIMB Clicks App or even through OctoPay, the bank’s Facebook banking application.
Name of institution: Cathay United Bank
Name of award: Asia’s Leader in Smart Banking
Cathay United Bank has launched its Agile Marketing Transformation program to recalibrate its existing product-centric framework into a customer-centric one. Its phases of implementation began with the use of predictive modeling to better align the right product to the right customer, to greater automation, and culminating in analytics-backed enrichment of new customer data. This initiative is geared towards enabling faster, more relevant relationship marketing initiatives that will prove to be a primary goal for any bank wishing to stay relevant in today’s consumer environment.
Name of institution: OCBC Bank
Name of award: Asia’s Most Dynamic Bank
OCBC Bank embarked on an IT transformation journey to standardize IT platforms between its Singapore and Malaysia business. This transformation journey ended with the successful completion of OneSIBS and FIT Programme which delivered a common core banking platform for Singapore and Malaysia, and consolidated four datacenters into two, with regional production data centre located in Singapore and the regional disaster recovery data centre located in Malaysia.
Name of institution: DBS (HK) Bank
Name of award: Asia’s Best Mobile Banking
DBS understands the needs of loan consumers and initiated a service improvement exercise to expedite the loan application and approval process. The DBS Online Loans Centre offers automated online straight-through loan application processing, where consumers can use either a desktop computer or mobile smart-phone to complete their application and obtain results within minutes, thereby saving time and providing added convenience for consumers.
Name of institution: Alliance Bank Malaysia Berhad
Name of award: Asia’s Best Online Banking
Alliance Bank has launched a truly customer-centric Online Banking solution for the business segment, along with other innovative products such as the Picture Business Credit Card and value-added propositions in the form of Business Education (for SMEs) and Collaboration platforms. The bank will continue to listen to the needs and demands of SMEs, and continually adapt and innovate ahead of its competitors.
Name of institution: DBS Bank
Name of award: Asia’s Best Branch Banking
Transformed DBS branches deliver an easy and convenient banking experience for its customers that is enriching, educational and entertaining. Engaging technology and breakthrough banking infrastructure, the transformed DBS branches have taken the face of banking to new heights in Singapore.
Name of institution: POSB
Name of award: Asia’s Most Accessible Bank
POSB is distinct as it serves the entire spectrum of the Singapore which includes the underserved foreign workforce. While it would have been more expedient to focus on particular customer segment(s), the bank has taken on a mandate to ‘serve all’ as part of its social charter. Driven by the need to innovate with the willingness to challenge status quo, POSB transformed what would have been a cost center into a revenue center.
Name of institution: Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII-Maybank)
Name of award: Asia’s Most Dependable Bank
BII-Maybank created a new Commercial Credit Risk Rating System (CCRRS) as a foundation for the bank to build Basel-II IRB -compliant rating models. The solution provided better efficiency in business processes, by incorporating workflows around automated risk ratings and is is seamlessly integrated with enterprise IT architecture to facilitate credit data traffic with the BII-Maybank Enterprise data warehouse.
About The Financial Insights Innovation Awards (FIIA)
Each year, IDC Financial Insights invites banks across Asia/Pacific to nominate initiatives that they believe warrant special recognition in the area of innovation. The FIIA recognizes the successes of these institutions in displaying innovation to achieve business objectives. The FIIA 2014 provides a clear indication of how the Asia/Pacific financial services industry leverages technology as a driver of innovation and competitive differentiation.
About IDC Financial Insights
IDC Financial Insights assists financial service businesses and IT leaders, as well as the suppliers who serve them, in making more effective technology decisions by providing accurate, timely, and insightful fact-based research and consulting services. Staffed by senior analysts with decades of industry experience, our global research analyzes and advises on business and technology issues facing the banking, insurance, and securities and investments industries. International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology market. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world’s leading technology, media, research, and events company. For more information, please visit www.idc-fi.com, email info@idc-fi.com, or call 508-620-5533. Visit the IDC Financial Insights Community at http://idc-insights-community.com/financial.
About IDC
International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based decisions on technology purchases and business strategy. More than 1,000 IDC analysts provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries worldwide. For more than 50 years, IDC has provided strategic insights to help our clients achieve their key business objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world’s leading technology media, research, and events company. Learn more about IDC by visiting www.idc.com