Bangkok--28 Jan--IDC
Leading independent research and advisory firm Financial Insights, an IDC company, today announces the release of a report which discusses the top 10 strategic IT initiatives for banks in the Asia/Pacific region. This year's report discusses how technology priorities are being aligned with newly formulated strategies that allow banks to effectively respond to the current crisis. The report also highlights the counter-cyclical strategies of various Asia/Pacific financial institutions that enable them to blunt the adverse effects of the crisis, build business despite the slowdown, and operate efficiently in a crisis environment.
In this study, Financial Insights observes that the current economic crisis will result in lower demand for banking products, shifts in banking preferences among wary customers, and a rise in delinquencies and defaults. To effectively tame their impact, Financial Insights found that banks are devising counter-cyclical technology initiatives including portfolio analytics, asset-liability management, and credit collections and recovery. More insights are revealed in this new study, “Top Ten Strategic IT Initiatives for Asia/Pacific Banks in 2009: What is Your Counter-Cyclical Strategy?” (Doc# FIN216011, January 2009).
"Importantly, banks have to find ways to generate new demand and find new sources of income. Technology imperatives here include CRM and customer-centric projects, and payments initiatives to generate fee income," says Michael Araneta, Senior Research Manager, Financial Insights Asia/Pacific.
Li-May Chew, CFA, Senior Research Manager, Financial Insights Asia/Pacific adds, "Banks have recognized that the modes of operation during boom times are ineffective in a crisis environment. IT optimization will be the key concern for bank IT leaders as they search for clarity in their existing technology assets, and see how these can be integrated more effectively to meet current and future requirements. The overarching objective is simply to do more with what you have."
Highlights of this report include:
? Asia will continue to be an attractive market for banks due to the region's large domestic economies, recent wealth accumulation, relatively stable economic and corporate fundamentals, as well as pockets of under-served banking segments. However, a confluence of negative factors has transformed the entire industry. In 2007, and throughout the early months of 2008, it was about market-building. In 2009, it is all about survival, protecting the bank's base, and finding untapped areas of opportunity.
? Asia/Pacific banks are still expected to increase technology spending in several overarching priority areas in 2009, albeit with much lower rates of growth compared to those seen in previous years. The 2009 priority list is made up of discrete projects, typically ad-hoc and tactical in nature. These include virtualization, customer loyalty, customer retention, credit collections and recovery, Software as a Service (SaaS), and so forth.
? The crisis has brought new dynamics to the marketplace. In order to succeed, financial technology vendors need to reposition their solution sets by emphasizing counter-cyclical solutions, adjusting pricing models, and building synergistic partnerships.
The top 4 2009 initiatives identified by Financial Insights Asia/Pacific are listed below. They include IT optimization, risk management and compliance, customer centricity, and payments. The 2009 report also sees the debut of new initiatives that reflect a changed environment: deposit-generation, cash and liquidity management and mobile financial services.
For more information on obtaining this report: “Top Ten Strategic IT Initiatives for Asia/Pacific Banks in 2009: What is Your Counter-Cyclical Strategy?” (Doc#FIN216011, January 2009) please contact [email protected]. To set up an interview with Michael Araneta or Li-May Chew, contact Lay-Fang Tan at [email protected].