STANDARD CHARTERED SRI LANKA
Q: What are the latest innovations in banking?
A: With regulators in the financial services industry becoming increasingly progressive, cloud computing will be the immediate game changer. Companies that lead in this sphere will have a clear advantage in providing solutions that are sustainable in terms of speed, scale and security.
Standard Chartered announced global strategic partnerships with two major cloud service providers (CSPs) last year and has invested substantially in a cloud first approach. The CSPs have evolved to provide better security, resilience, availability and efficient use of data on the cloud to meet regulator and customer demands.
Our maiden Hong Kong-based virtual bank Mox was completely born on the cloud.
And the banking as a service (BaaS) product Nexus is cloud native and went live in Indonesia. The plan is to replicate this in other Asian countries.
Our global core banking application has migrated to a single version on the cloud to be rolled out to all markets including Sri Lanka. Moving a majority of your workload to the cloud and having a clear API strategy for underlying integration architecture will support flexibility and speed in digital partnerships across countries. This enables us to be nimble and innovative.
Big data analytics and machine learning have also gained considerable popularity over the past decade.
Leveraging the latest trends will enhance the bank’s hyper-personalised offerings and contribute to transforming traditional banking. The expectations of millennials and gen Z for financial services could not be further away from traditional banking.
The new generation does not care to keep a chequebook or fill slips and forms at banks. They also lack the patience to go through traditional credit evaluation criteria.
Hyper-personalisation will redefine the way customers save, borrow, make investment decisions and pay as they go in the ‘new normal.’
Q: Are companies addressing growing cybersecurity concerns?
A: Industry 4.0 enables an inordinate number of devices to serve as touch points for customers and business processes to stay connected in real time. Overpopulation in terms of available devices and touch points invites sophisticated cyber-attackers to put their hacking technologies to the test.
Companies are constantly learning and it would be inappropriate to claim that they have covered all the bases for potential cybersecurity threats. The increase in ransomware attacks and malicious compromises stand as testimony to this notion.
Businesses must constantly invest in cyber-defence strategies and tools. At Standard Chartered, information and cybersecurity remain top risks that are tracked regularly by specialised cyber-defence teams round the clock.
Our technology standards and application onboarding processes are built with inherent strict controls and checks, to ensure secure and resilient speed and convenience for customers.
Q: What are the main challenges faced by institutions of Standard Chartered’s stature?
A: The reality is that the pace of technology advancement is more rapid than that of the transformation in companies.
Organisational structures and people are yet to digest the change. Multinationals and large companies have outdated technologies with interconnected systems, and dependencies that were invested in heavily in the distant past. It is impractical to adapt to change in such instances.
We need to primarily focus on our people, culture and the underlying technological architecture to develop future ready individuals who possess the agility to operate new technologies with an integration strategy to scale in either direction. This enables a company to innovate in the long run.
Standard Chartered Sri Lanka has established a strong Digital Squad of self-organising and cross-functional employees who have come together by removing functional silos. They provide oversight and an amplified focus to drive top priority initiatives that are destined to transform the bank.
The Digital Squad’s strategy focusses on 12 clear priorities that include areas such as people and talent, data strategy and agility.
Q: And what are the bank’s future plans?
A: Standard Chartered recently announced its refreshed ‘Chapter 3’ strategy.
It commits to three stands – accelerating the world on its path towards zero carbon emissions by 2050, lifting participation across every level (especially among women and SMEs) and resetting globalisation. Our four growth pillars are established and integrated in this new strategy.
Technology and innovation is a key enabler in delivering these stands and strategy.
They are focussed on five defined catalysts: a cloud first approach to be resilient and agile by design; global systems to gain economies of scale with cutting-edge service offerings built centrally and replicated in all our markets; open banking and service oriented architecture (SOA) that enables us to have a digital first and asset light API strategy; an employee experience that empowers our people with new ways of working; and enhancing the client experience through customer centric systems embedded with security and resilience.
As leaders, it is our responsibility to have the right infinite mindset and strategies in place to upskill and transform our people and business models.
