SUPERCHARGING RETAIL AND THE NEXT PHASE
OF DIGITAL FINANCE TRANSFORMATION

Banks and financial institutions (FIs) have been accelerating their digital transformation in the last two years. The rise of challenger banks and fintechs, regulatory changes and consumer behaviour shifts have pushed traditional players to modernise their technology architecture and infrastructure. They have started this modernisation by investing in technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), internet of things (IoT), blockchain and Web 3.0. It is becoming more evident in the industry – the retail financial services are driving heavier active digital usage and more revenues. While the world still navigates its way into a post-pandemic and globally tense environment, banks and FIs are focusing on how to prioritise retail financial services in their operations. As the new real-time payment rails and maturing open banking infrastructures lay the foundations for a shift in payments behaviour, the move towards cloud has empowered institutions with greater agility to innovate, as well as more scalable, secure and efficient operations. With open APIs, data and analytics, FIs are leveraging opportunities to collaborate with fintechs and third-party providers to better meet customer needs at lower costs as well as introduce new products and services. Incumbents have now started issuing digital currencies, while regulators are implementing central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) into their systems. These innovations and developments prove that retail finance will play an even bigger role going forward. The Excellence in Retail Financial Services 2022 captures the essence of the current and future banking and finance space and gathers some of the best minds in the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa regions. Taking place virtually this year, the programme is designed for senior executives from banks, insurance, fintech and large technology companies for a day of intense discussions on the key developments in the retail finance sector.