- Emirates NBD remains at the forefront of leading the region into a digital revolution
- Standard Chartered Bank, Greater China and North Asia puts “Digital Bank with Human Touch” at the core of its operations
- UOB’s strong business helps SMEs to adapt and thrive in the digital economy
Dubai: The Asian Banker Annual Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards Ceremony and Dinner 2019 took place at the Conrad Dubai. Over 200 senior bankers from 40 banks across Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa gathered to recognise institutional best practices and outstanding achievements in 2018.
Taiwan’s CTCB Bank emerged as Best Retail Bank for the Asia Pacific region, Emirates NDB was awarded Best Retail Bank in the Middle East. Other winners include Standard Chartered Bank, Greater China and North Asia, for Best Regional Retail Business in Asia Pacific and UOB was awarded Best SME Bank in Asia Pacific.
Standing from left: Members of the International Advisory Council of Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards Programme; David Gyori, Wilson Chia and Varun Sabhlok with Albert Lee, CEO, Retail Banking; CTBC Bank receiving the Award for Best Retail Bank in Asia Pacific
CTBC Bank’s commitment to digital transformation drove expansion of its retail franchise
CTBC Bank operates the largest private commercial franchise in Taiwan having the lead market position in credit card, mortgages, SME and wealth management. It is also actively expanding overseas and operates a comprehensive and profitable overseas network with over 260 service outlets in 14 countries and territories that include separate subsidiaries in Japan, US, Canada, Philippines and Indonesia, and posted over $1.4 billion in its global retail banking revenue in 2018.
The bank accelerated the digital transformation of its services and implemented major digital technology initiatives to bring operational processes and customer satisfaction to the next level. It is also developing innovative digital services for unique customer experiences. It strengthened its big data analytics platform and rolled out new data-driven services to better meet customer needs.
It expanded its mobile digital services through its collaboration with social platform LINE to offer social media related financial services. Leveraging advancements in financial technology, the bank launched a new suite of digital financial services ranging from investment and insurance to loans and personal financial management. For these market leading initiatives, CTBC Bank emerged as Best Retail Bank in Asia Pacific.
Standing from left: Members of the International Advisory Council of Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards Programme; David Gyori, Wilson Chia and Varun Sabhlok with Sivaram Ramakrishnan, EVP, Head of Retail Banking Products and Khalid Elmi, VP, Head of Branch Sales; Emirates NBD receiving the Award for Best Retail Bank in the Middle East
Emirates NBD remains at the forefront of leading the region into a digital revolution
The bank made significant advancements in its digitisation agenda, streamlining its operations through the launch of teller-less branches, a decision management system for loans, and paperless tablet-based sourcing for all products. The bank also extended support for contactless payments, and rolled out a slew of digital and security enhancements for its mobile applications and e-commerce portal. Given such developments, the bank has been able to process over 70% of requests straight through. On performance metrics, the bank exhibited strong financials in 2018, where retail revenue grew nearly 10% year-on-year, while cost-to-income ratio remained low at under 40%. With the potential to spearhead UAE and the region into a wave of digital transformation, Best Bank in in Middle East was awarded to Emirates NBD.
Standing from left: Members of the International Advisory Council of Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards Programme; David Gyori, Wilson Chia and Varun Sabhlok with Sonny Zulu, Head of Retail Banking, UAE; Standard Chartered Bank receiving the Award for Best Regional Retail Business in Asia Pacific
Standard Chartered Bank, Greater China and North Asia puts “Digital Bank with Human Touch” at the core of its operations
Putting the strategy of ‘Human Banking’ at the heart of its retail operations, Standard Chartered Bank leveraged artificial intelligence and augmented it with natural-learning understanding to launch Stacy, its 24*7 chatbot, trained and equipped to process over 400 banking related queries. Its Mobile CASA service onboards a costumer via eKYC reducing the time to open a bank account from an hour to 8 minutes. Embedding the philosophy of “Think Client” culture, the bank launched Human Service program across its branch networks to sharpen relationship management skills of frontline staff.
The bank also upgraded local ATMs, enhancing it with top features such as voice navigation, and customised transaction options. The bank realised a growth of 12% in its retail revenue, whilst reducing cost to income ratio by 3 percentage points.
For seeking innovation to provide better banking services and client experiences, Best Regional Retail Business in Asia Pacific was awarded to Standard Chartered Bank, Greater China and North Asia.
Standing from left: Members of the International Advisory Council of Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards Programme; David Gyori, Wilson Chia and Varun Sabhlok with Lawrence Loh, Head of Group Business Banking and team, UOB, Singapore; receiving the Award for Best SME Bank in Asia Pacific
UOB’s strong business helps SMEs to adapt and thrive in the digital economy
Implementing a data-driven strategy to cater to the financing needs of SMEs, UOB has leveraged advanced data analytics and its strong ecosystem network to launch unsecured funding for growing businesses, and growing its footprint in Singapore and the region. This resulted in an annual revenue growth of over 80% for its SME business. The bank improved customer experience by introducing a mobile internet banking platform, which enables SMEs to manage currency volatility and track industry developments. UOB additionally allows SMEs to automate business processes, providing them with customised digital investment portfolios, and matching them with technology service providers to integrate digital solutions.
For initiatives leveraging its ecosystem network and data to meet the evolving needs of SMEs, UOB was awarded Best SME Bank in Asia Pacific at the Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards Programme 2019.
About The Asian Banker
The Asian Banker is the region’s most authoritative provider of strategic business intelligence to the financial services community. The Singapore-based company has offices in Singapore, Malaysia, Manila, Hong Kong, Beijing, and Dubai, as well as representatives in London, New York, and San Francisco. It has a business model that revolves around three core business lines: publications, research services and forums. The company’s website is www.theasianbanker.com
About the International Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards
The International Excellence in Retail Financial Services programme is one of the most rigorous, prestigious and transparent awards programme for consumer financial services in the world. Covering all of the Asia Pacific, the Middle East and West Africa, the programme was instituted in 2001 to recognise the pursuit of excellence amongst retail financial institutions. The programme evaluates more than 300 banks and non-bank retail financial services players in more than 42 countries, via a rigorous audit-based approach.
Detailed evaluation criteria for each category may be found at http://awards.asianbankerforums.com/retailfinancial/criteria-country
You may visit the Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards gallery at https://www.facebook.com/pg/TheAsianBanker/photos/?tab=album&album_id=10157080239284804
Winners of Best Retail Bank by Country category can be found below.
- Best Retail Bank in Brunei - Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam
- Best Mega Retail Bank in China - Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
- Best Retail Bank in Hong Kong - Bank of China (Hong Kong)
- Best Retail Bank in India - ICICI Bank
- Best Retail Bank in Indonesia - Bank Rakyat Indonesia
- Best Retail Bank in Malaysia - CIMB
- Best Retail Bank in Pakistan - Habib Bank Limited
- Best Retail Bank in Philippines - Security Bank
- Best Retail Bank in South Korea - Shinhan Bank
- Best Retail Bank in Sri Lanka - People’s Bank
- Best Retail Bank in Thailand - KASIKORNBANK
- Best Retail Bank in Vietnam - BIDV
- Best Retail Bank in Egypt - National Bank of Egypt
- Best Retail Bank in Kuwait - Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait
- Best Retail Bank in Lebanon - BLOM Bank
- Best Retail Bank in Qatar - Commercial Bank
For further media inquiries, please contact:
Mr. Alfred Labiccasi
The Asian Banker
Email: alabiccasi@theasianbanker.com
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