First Global Retail and Digital Finance Rankings launched at Excellence Convention in Hanoi

Hanoi, Vietnam 16 March 2023 – The Asian Banker (TAB) held its first in-person Excellence in Retail Financial Services Convention, incorporating the Heads of Retail Finance Annual Meeting, in three years in Hanoi, Vietnam.

The annual meeting is the largest gathering of senior industry leaders and practitioners to discuss key trends and showcase best practices from the Excellence in Retail Financial Services Programme put together by TABInsights, the research arm of TAB.

Since its inception 22 years ago, it has earned the reputation for being the most rigorous, prestigious and transparent benchmarking programme for the retail financial services industry. 

It is elevated this year to include a global ranking of retail finance institutions based on objective criteria, transparent scorecard and rigorous research to determine the best retail banks and financial institutions in the world. The new ranking also recognised institutions in Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa as among the global best.

This year’s Excellence in Retail Financial Services Convention saw the participation of more than 290 senior bankers and finance executives from 86 institutions and 12 countries, including about 70 from Vietnam. The Heads of Retail Finance Annual Meeting was represented by 12 leaders and institutions from eight countries.

TABInsights published first ever Global Rankings of Best Retail Banks, Best Digital Banks and Best Platforms  

This year, the Excellence in Retail Financial Services benchmarking programme has been elevated into global rankings of the best retail and digital finance institutions in the world. It applies the same rigorous evaluation to leading institutions across the Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa, Europe, and North and South America. 

It fills a void. A worldwide ranking of retail finance institutions—one based on objective criteria, transparent scorecard and rigorous research that truly determines the best—did not exist until now. 

CaixaBank from Spain topped the list with a comprehensive win over more than 20 top-tier peers, including runner-up Itau Unibanco from Brazil, and China Construction Bank in third. 

The Spanish-Portuguese CaixaBank with over 20 million clients, 44,600 employees and 4,400 branches was the only bank in the assessment that demonstrated strong capabilities across financial performance, digital customer base, brand, sales, customer experience and engagement as well as risk. 

CaixaBank focused on a value proposition that revolves around customer needs, which has led to high customer engagement and experience score. It also strengthened digitalised payroll accounts of over half of all its clients. The bank has a net promoter score of close to 60, with digitally-active users logging in 18 times a month on average.

Garanti Bank BBVA in Turkey and Royal Bank of Canada ranked sixth and seventh, while Bank of America was ranked the Best Retail Bank in the US at twelfth overall. 

Follow this link to view the Global Best Retail Banks, and this to view the Global Best Platforms.

Heads of retail finance discussed best practices in personalisation, customer engagement, embedded finance and platform ecosystems

Emmanuel Daniel, TAB founder and co-chairman of the Heads of Retail Finance Annual Meeting, urged leaders to anticipate further disruptions in the future, be prepared to respond, and not to be too enamoured with the status quo.  

Emmanuel Daniel, Founder of The Asian Banker and author of ‘The Great Transition: The Personalization of Finance is Here”

Drawing from his recently-launched book, The Great Transition: The Personalization of Finance is Here, he said: “Can you imagine banking without the deposit business? It was the same with Kodak in 1995—holding up a yellow box of Kodak film and saying to Kodak: can you imagine the day when this yellow box does not exist anymore?”

Philippe Paillart, Chairman of the Excellence in Retail Financial Services Programme, observed that change is constant and banks must be forward-looking. 

He said: “A question that we all have to think about is: what’s our next model and how do we evolve? How do we learn from each other? And how do we work with regulators not only to push them but to learn from them?”

Presenting key insights from the Excellence programme, Christian Kapfer, Research Director of TABInsights, identified personalisation, customer engagement, embedded finance and platform ecosystems as the key trends and best practices that industry players are focused on.

Retail financial services markets have changed dramatically in the last few years. Today, there are more than 100 digital-only banks operating across Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, while payment platforms have become increasingly entrenched in the retail financial services fabric. 

However, the assumption that digital-only banks will weaken the market position of incumbents has turned out to be premature. With the new credit and interest cycle as well as a contraction of funding for the fintech sector, leading retail banks, with their deep-pocketed balance sheets, have seen a strong rebound post pandemic. 

Since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020, consumers have rushed into digital banking in an unprecedented wave of adoption, and banks have had to double down on digital transformation and core modernisation. 

Coming back into focus again this year is financing and digital banking for small and medium-sized enterprises. To create better value propositions around underserved customer segments, banks are embracing open banking, expanding ecosystems and opening new revenue streams.

First time event was held in Vietnam

Vietnam is an important retail finance market to watch—and the reason it was chosen as the venue for the event—specifically for its rapid economic growth, increasing digital adoption, strong demand for financial innovation, supportive regulatory environment, and significant unbanked population with enormous potential.

Dr. Nguyen Quoc Hung, Secretary General of the Vietnam Banks Association (VNBA) and co-host of the event said: “It’s important for banks to have a digital transformation agenda to bring diversified services to consumers.”

Dr. Nguyen Quoc Hung, Secretary General of the Vietnam Banks Association (VNBA)

Mobile banking uptake has grown significantly in Vietnam in 2022, according to Hung. Non-cash transactions rose by 56.6% in terms of quantity and by 39.9% in terms of quality year-on-year. Cash transactions, meanwhile, declined by around 56%. 

About the Excellence in Retail Financial Services Programme