This report helps chart the future of the corporate banking sector across ASEAN and beyond
This report was written by Dan Choi, Chief Technology Officer and Founder; Sally Clarke, Chief Revenue Officer and Founder; Dr Raghuveer Kaur, Research Analyst; and Dr K.T Upadhyaya, Programme Management from Starfish Digital, with research support from Josh D’Addario, Principal Consultant and Olivier Thereaux, Head of Research at the Open Data Institute
The finance sector is in the midst of radical change. Historically a relatively closed sector, and periodically suffering loss of trust – as a result of scandals, data breaches and financial crises – banking and finance have undergone significant regulatory-led disruption in Europe and the UK with the advent of open banking.
Through policies such as open banking and its EU predecessor the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2), we have seen that a more open data infrastructure in the retail banking sector that allows for new businesses, products and services – while retaining security and privacy – can have a strong positive impact on customers, small business and new market entrants.
This phenomenon has spread across the globe, with regional leaders emerging in Australia, Mexico, Nigeria, and Singapore, but the corporate banking sector has only recently started to adopt the ideas that have been transformative in the retail banking sector. Corporate banking is a more complicated field than retail banking. A more sophisticated open infrastructure (including standards, APIs, policies and guidance) is required to securely improve market dynamism and efficiency.
This report, synthesising Starfish Digital’s research in this area, is therefore timely, and helps chart the future of the corporate banking sector across ASEAN and beyond.
Fintechs like Starfish Digital are exploring the role that intermediaries like themselves can play in creating an open and trustworthy corporate banking ecosystem.
This report echoes some of the ODI’s previous research, demonstrating the important role that data intermediaries can play in new markets, and how certain types of intermediaries, like data institutions, can help propel regulator-led innovation in building a more dynamic market.
At the ODI, our work with Starfish Digital has provided insights into this important and growing geographical region for finance data ecosystems. It is important that the corporate banking sector embraces ‘open’. This will ensure that access to financial services, and data in power services and policies, is not just held by the few. ‘Open’ can also help the sector become more trustworthy and can help safeguard against harm.
We hope that this report can serve as a keystone to the development of the digital and data ecosystem of finance and banking. We look forward to seeing how innovative leaders in the ASEAN corporate banking sector tackle the opportunities and challenges identified in this report; and how they can deliver value through more open and trustworthy data ecosystems.