FICO Survey: 3 in 5 APAC Banks Do Not Have Full Digital Account Opening For New Customers

SINGAPORE — June 6, 2019

Highlights:

• 60 percent of Asia Pacific (APAC) banks surveyed either have no digital onboarding process for new customers, or only part of it has gone online
• However, 79 percent of banks have launched or are currently considering a separate digital banking offering to leapfrog challenges in acquiring new customers
• APAC banks see payments (32%) and personal loans (24%) as areas that present the greatest opportunities for the future of digital banking

For more information: https://www.fico.com/en/products/fico-decision-management-suite

A recent survey by analytics software firm FICO has revealed that three in five (60%) banks in Asia Pacific have yet to offer a full digital account opening process for new customers, despite recent reports that nearly 9 in 10 financial institutions in the region embarked on digital transformation.

The region’s changing regulations (28%) and the need to create digital know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) (21%) solutions were cited as the two key challenges for APAC banks looking to acquire new customers online.

“In Asia, the identification processes used for services such as e-government, banking or telecommunications evolved independently of each other, leading to a fragmented approach with inconsistent levels of security,” said Dan McConaghy, president of FICO in Asia Pacific. “Open banking and regulations like Europe’s PSD2 are now bringing regulatory rigor to bear on the issue and forcing banks to comply to certain standards and embrace technologies that will better enable digital onboarding.”

For some established banks, one short-cut to their own existing challenges, incumbent technologies and inefficient silos is to start again. FICO’s survey revealed that 79 percent of the banks have launched or are currently considering a separate digital banking offering to leapfrog challenges in acquiring and retaining new customers.

“Fintechs and challenger banks have disrupted the status quo in the financial services universe,” said McConaghy. “By developing compelling new products, services and experiences, these companies have set a new standard and raised customer expectations. Traditional banks now find themselves needing to rethink and redesign their services, to transform themselves digitally, and meet the market.”

FICO’s survey found that 40 percent of respondents said digital-only banks and fintechs were the greatest competition to their business, with APAC Internet players (20%) and telcos diversifying into lending (20%) coming in equal second place. Conversely, the greatest opportunities for digital banking for the respondents were nominated as digital payments (32%) and personal loans (24%).

APAC banks said they are planning to focus on investing in data science (19%) and improving their customer segmentation for products and services (19%) as their top priorities for their bank transformation.

When asked about the future size of their bank in the year 2030, some 28 percent of the survey respondents predicted that their organisations would need fewer employees (between 5 to 50% decrease). A further 28 percent said they think they will need significantly less staff (a 50% or more decrease) in 2030.

“There is some recognition in the market that the right size for many banks in the near future will be smaller,” said McConaghy. “New technologies, increasing competition and different business models will change the way financial services looks in ten years’ time.”

FICO surveyed 20 chief risk officers from across Asia Pacific in April 2019 at its CRO Forum 2019 event in Bangkok, Thailand.

About FICO
FICO (NYSE: FICO) powers decisions that help people and businesses around the world prosper. Founded in 1956 and based in Silicon Valley, the company is a pioneer in the use of predictive analytics and data science to improve operational decisions. FICO holds more than 190 US and foreign patents on technologies that increase profitability, customer satisfaction and growth for businesses in financial services, telecommunications, health care, retail and many other industries. Using FICO solutions, businesses in more than 100 countries do everything from protecting 2.6 billion payment cards from fraud, to helping people get credit, to ensuring that millions of airplanes and rental cars are in the right place at the right time.

Learn more at www.fico.com.

Join the conversation on Twitter at @FICOnews_APAC.

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Contacts:
Neil Mirano
RICE for FICO
+65 3157 5680
neil.mirano@ricecomms.com

Saxon Shirley
FICO
+65 9171 0965
saxonshirley@fico.com