Asia Pacific is considered to be the fastest-growing market in the world in digitising the payments landscape. Governments and central banks’ initiatives are driving standardisation and interoperability to help a thriving ecosystem. The hyper-connected digital infrastructure and the penetration of smartphones have enhanced the digital payments by introducing open banking application programming interface (API) ecosystems. For consumers and businesses alike, there’s a continuing upward trend in the adoption of all things digital. Speed, transparency, predictability and low transaction costs are the new drivers of the digital payment landscape.

Fierce competition and challenges in scale have turned payments into a commoditised business for most players, with unsustainable margins. The need to adopt new messaging standards such as ISO 20022, and digital capabilities are also driving financial institutions (FIs) to transform their payment technology and architecture. This open, structured and data-rich payments standard underpins SWIFT’s global payment innovation (gpi) and various national retail payment systems like FAST in Singapore, PromptPay in Thailand, and Faster Payment System (FPS) in Hong Kong.

The evolution of e-payments and the adoption of open banking is a response to customer demand for a better frictionless user experience. With open APIs and micro-services, incumbents and neobanks are leveraging opportunities to move to the cloud, outsource and collaborate with fintechs, as well as third-party providers to offer personalised, secure, scalable and transparent products at lower costs. FIs are also increasing their pace of digitalisation and generating new revenue streams in payments by embedding finance and leveraging data.

In this RadioFinance virtual roundtable, leaders and practitioners will discuss the latest trends in payments transformation and delve into different opportunities to create a more sustainable, customer-centric and profitable business. The session will also discuss banks and embedded finance providers that will also need IT architectures that can scale at a fraction of the cost to succeed in the new era.

The discussion will provide clear insights on:

• Payment-as-a-service - reinforcing the need for an innovative and sustainable digital payment platform
• Create new business models using APIs, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to deliver alternative revenue streams and a seamless customer experience
• Optimising merchant payments opportunities by outsourcing with lower cost and secure data
• Migrating payment services and systems into the cloud
• Making cross-border payments and remittances faster, seamless and cost-effective

Kevin LAM

MD, Head of UOB TMRW & Group Digital Banking

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Neeti Aggarwal

Senior Research and Consulting Manager, The Asian Banker

Neeti Aggarwal manages the financial technology and innovation research at The Asian Banker. With over 18 years’ experience, she specialises in banking, technology and fintech developments across APAC and MEA. She regularly engages the financial services community on critical transformational issues, speaking and moderating at various events. Previously she worked as research analyst with The Economic Times, India. She holds CFA from CFA Institute, USA and MBA (Finance) from India.

 

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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 a discussion facilitated by visual and web-based platforms. Through the use of interactive technology, participants do not have to take time out from their crowded schedules or leave the comfort of their own desks.