Key issues:

• Technology-based personalisation of customer experience
• Fostering a culture of customer focus in businesses
• Streamlining complicated procedures by practising a design-first strategy
• Creating customised goods and services
• Machine learning and artificial intelligence in customer experience
• Data and technology infrastructure for seamless services

During a recent Radio Finance session, panellists shared their insights and analysis on how financial institutions improve customer experience, and explored future trends to expect. Industry experts on the panel included Martin Buchholz of CIMB Thai, Dipen Mehta of Microsoft and Frankie Wai of Temenos. The session was moderated by Chris Kapfer, director of research at The Asian Banker.

The session opened with observations that banks are enhancing customer experience in a more disciplined and holistic way. Mehta said that the focus is on human-centered design that prioritised customer journeys across different business lines, and that customer engagement involves the entire organisation.

Bucholz stressed the need for a diverse, non-banking customer experience team to spark innovation. He said that while the initial focus was on improving user interface and user experience, the scope of customer experience has expanded.

He said: “The team that we built is responsible for more than just digital user interface and user experience, and the tools for turning us into a more customer-centric organisation. Digital isn’t digital only. You always have the human interface in the customer journey.”

Wai explained that a design-first approach is all about simplifying complex processes. The Temenos Design Center of Excellence adheres to seven principles: customer centricity, intuitive design, human interface guidelines, visually-appealing designs, functional capability, innovative thinking, and consistency. He said: “These principles aim to enhance user engagement and foster customer loyalty.”

The panel also talked about the importance of having a unified data lake that consolidates data to enable effective analytics, and the need to combine structured data—such as risk appetite, and account details—with unstructured data from interactions across multiple platforms to achieve hyper-personalisation.

Wai added: “The platform needs to be able to capture all forms of financial and non-financial information available for a customer and make it ready as insights in a digital format to front-end users.”

The panel also discussed the potential of conversational artificial intelligence (AI) to further enhance customer experience. Mehta explained that Generative Pre-training Transformer or GPT-based AI technology, often used for chat interfaces, can also be used internally in business operations. Generative AI can provide financial advisors with summarised and actionable insights from extensive data, including from external sources, enhancing rather than replacing their job functions.

Mehta also talked about using AI for hyper-personalised marketing, combining transactional data analysis and campaign creation, and even customising email imagery based on customer profiles that can deliver a highly personalised user experience.

Guests include:

• Manohar Chadalavada, MD, Global Head AI, Ecosystems and Open Banking, Standard Chartered Bank
• Rottapron Ekabutr, EVP, Head of Consumer Digital Solution Division, Bank of Ayudhya
• John Howard D. Medina, Chief Operations Officer, PBCOM
• Lucose Erali, Executive Vice President, Head, Enterprise Technology & Operations, Security Bank
• Queenie Chan, Executive Director, Head of Strategy and Transformation, Standard Chartered
• Boon Khee LIM, MD, Group Head of Consumer Banking Technology & Core Banking, DBS Bank
• Sharon Khua, Head, API Technology Platform, OCBC Bank
• Daniel Li, Chief Digital Officer (CDO) - Personal Banking, Bank of China (Hong Kong)
• Melissa Craig, Head of Digital & Innovation, HSBC

Guests include:

Dipen Mehta

GM, Financial Services, Asia Pacific, Microsoft

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Martin Buchholz

Head, Digital Consumer Banking, CIMB Thai Bank

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Frankie Wai

Business Solution Director APAC, Temenos

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Dipen Mehta

GM, Financial Services, Asia Pacific, Microsoft

Dipen Mehta is the General Manager, Financial Services, Asia Pacific at Microsoft. As the leader of the newly formed Financial Services Industry team, he is responsible for working with Microsoft’s financial services clients across the region to develop and deliver digital transformation initiatives across banking, insurance, and capital markets. He joins Microsoft from Amazon Web Services (AWS) where he was responsible for developing initiatives that helped customers drive top line growth by leveraging emerging technologies and trends powered by cloud based platforms. Mehta has over 25 years of experience as an entrepreneur, advisor and investor in numerous startups across the US and Asia Pacific.

 

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Martin Buchholz

Head, Digital Consumer Banking, CIMB Thai Bank

Martin Buchholz joined CIMB in January of 2018 as Programme Manager in CIMB Fintech delivering solutions across the CIMB Group. Shortly afterward he moved to be Head CIMB Thai Consumer Digital Bank responsible for Digital initiatives as part of five-year transformation programme. He spent most of his career in the Financial Services and IT Services space in Asia Pacific pioneering through several waves of digital transformations. He went on to be an advisor and managing consultant in the Financial Service and Telco industries with major engagements with banks in Singapore and Thailand as well as leading the technical build of the Continuous Link Settlement (CLS) utility for the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

 

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Frankie Wai

Business Solution Director APAC, Temenos

As a solution-oriented person with strategic thinking and strong interpersonal skills, Frankie Wai defines the region's solution strategy, advises the bank on technologically advanced solutions, and executes decisions to facilitate organizational growth. He has been actively investigating emerging technologies and formulating software solutions that help banks deliver innovative banking services. He led from the front and crafted the brand new digital banking architecture for the 1st batch of the virtual bank in Hong Kong. He continues to construct the solution for subsequent digital bank licensees across the Asia Pacific region.

 

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Christian Kapfer

Research Director, The Asian Banker

Christian Kapfer is research director at The Asian Banker, leading research and consulting engagement with top-tier financial institutions in benchmarking business and strategic capabilities across leadership, commercial, retail and transaction finance, financial markets, risk management, financial technology, and wealth management. Kapfer joined The Asian Banker in 2014 and was responsible for starting many of the company's research programmes, such as Excellence in Retail Financial Services, AB 500 Strongest Banks Ranking and Working Groups.

 

Session Host:

Christian Kapfer

Research Director,
The Asian Banker

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About The Asian Banker RadioFinance:

The Asian Banker RadioFinance aims to enhance understanding of the finance industry globally by bringing together thought leaders, industry experts, practitioners and futurists to examine current, critical issues through discussions facilitated by visual and web-based platforms. Through the use of interactive technology, participants do not have to take time out from their busy schedules or leave the comfort of their own desks.