Bangkok--14 Feb--IDC Financial Insights Asia/Pacific Releases its 2008 Top 10 Strategic Initiatives for Banks : The Customer has Re-emerged as the Focus of Asia's Banks Leading independent research and advisory firm Financial Insights, an IDC company, today announces the release of a new report presenting its top 10 strategic initiatives for banks in Asia/Pacific in 2008. The report highlights the growing maturity and sophistication of the region's banking sector. This maturity is likely to be tested in the year ahead, considering the threat of economic slowdown. Financial Insights believes institutions will focus on a number of strategic areas to drive growth and capture market share, as well as to batten down the hatches in expectation of possible economic difficulties. Highlights of our analysis include: The customer and the channel through which the customer is serviced have become the primary focus areas for Asia's banks. This is a reflection of banks’ realization that customers, be they in the retail banking or corporate banking space, expect differentiated service and product offerings. In 2008, we expect greater discipline and a focus on metrics and benchmarking to appear in many banks across the region. This move to a more quantitative assessment process will add a welcome degree of professionalism to the "gut feel" manner in which many decisions are made. The financial technology landscape will continue to shrink as consolidation reduces the number of players to a handful of giants. While there will continue to be room for niche providers, major, multi-year projects will increasingly go to the largest players. While the difficulties of 1997 are unlikely to be replicated, banks will do need to give more thought to how they might operate in a difficult economic environment and this means focusing on risk, operational excellence and human capital. The top 4 initiatives are listed below and they cover strategic areas of investment for Asia's banks. These are: customer centricity, performance benchmarking, risk management and compliance, and transforming core banking systems. Table 1: Top 4 Strategic Initiatives for Banks in Asia/Pacific in 2008 Source: Financial Insights, 2008 While uncertainty is adding an air of caution to bank strategies, the reality is that growth remains on the agenda and this is reflected in positive spending trends among banks in the region. As seen in Figure 1, a number of leading banks have indicated that they intend to ramp up IT spending. Figure 1: Asian Banks’ Estimated IT Spending Growth, 2008 Q: By how much is your bank planning to increase IT spending in 2008? N= 16 Selected Bank CIOs in the Asia/Pacific region Source: Financial Insights, 2008 “Asia looks set to continue its strong growth into 2008, but it is certainly not immune if an economic slowdown were to hit the rest of the world," notes Douglas A. Jaffe, research director, Financial Insights Asia/Pacific. "This puts an added impetus on banks to invest in the necessary people, processes, and technologies to ensure they can function as effectively in bad times, as well as good." Michael Araneta, senior consulting and research manager of Financial Insights' Asia/Pacific IT Benchmarking Advisory Service, adds, "We note the growing sophistication of Asia/Pacific banks as they have gone beyond infrastructure investments to embrace more business-focused objectives. This year, banks will focus on customer centricity. Major initiatives ranging from channels, CRM, product management, payments and business process improvements will be justified --- and measured --- by how the bank is better able to serve the customer." For more information on obtaining this report: “Top 10 Strategic Banking Initiatives in Asia/Pacific for 2008: The Return of The Customer” (Doc#FIN210337, Financial Insights, January 2008) please contact: [email protected]. Financial Insights is providing online briefings on the Top 10s throughout January and February. The following is a list of complimentary upcoming webinars: Asia/Pacific Top 10 Strategic Initiatives for Banking Webcast — January 31, 2008 Registration is required via this weblink: http://www.financial-insights.com/FI/getdoc.jsp?containerId=FIN_0466 Asia/Pacific Top 10 Strategic Initiatives for Insurance Webcast — February 5, 2008 Registration is required via this weblink: http://www.financial-insights.com/FI/getdoc.jsp?containerId=FIN_0467 About Financial Insights, an IDC Company Financial Insights provides independent research, custom consulting, and detailed multiclient studies on the technology issues and challenges facing the financial services industry. Our global research covers topics of strategic importance to corporate and retail banks, insurance carriers, asset management firms, securities and brokerage firms. Our local practices in Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America and Canada add an in-depth regional viewpoint. Financial Insights, an IDC company, is headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts, USA. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading IT media, research, and exposition company. Visit www.financial-insights.com for more information. About IDC 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 make fact-based decisions on technology purchases and business strategy. Over 900 IDC analysts in 90 countries provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends. For more than 43 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. You can learn more about IDC by visiting http://www.idc.com/ .