FST Media: What are the key challenges facing the Malaysian banking and financial services IT sector right now?


Siddiqui: With the varied economic situation, most sectors have continued to adopt a conservative approach, whilst many others have shown highly positive numbers. In terms of technology, Standard Chartered is investing more than ever in technical infrastructure and solutions, and continuously rolling out new and enhanced products and delivery platforms, which will accentuate customer experience.


FST Media: What are the most interesting IT developments and/or trends currently emerging in the wider Asian retail banking market; and why?


Siddiqui: The trends seem to lean towards developing more channels. Most financial institutions are looking at technologies that emphasise customer-centricity, such as mobile and Internet banking, CRM applications, e-Kiosks, retail banking applications, data warehousing and data mining, vendor consolidation and enterprise payments. With technology revolutionising traditional banking methods, customers, especially those in the Gen-X and Gen-Y sets, demand speed, convenience and secure transactions.


FST Media: Scope International has core expertise in credit card management systems, secured lending, as well as channel and wealth management. What new innovative software solutions is Scope planning to deploy over the next year in these areas; and how will these impact your customers banking experience?


Siddiqui: A new standard core banking platform is currently being implemented across the bank globally to enable greater levels of process standardisation and the centralisation of operations. Based on a J2EE software application, it is fully developed and supported in-house. Featuring open architecture, centralised infrastructure, low network utilisation and comprehensive risk triggers, the new platform will drive the speed-to-market of products, and enhance scalability, reliability and security.


On the secured lending front, we are rolling-out our in-house solution to the Middle Eastern market. Discussions are in progress to rollout major mortgage product enhancements in the next 12 to 18 months. This will provide customers with more options for mortgage loans and a simplified operations process will support reduced turnaround time. To manage portfolios better, the bank is working to implement sophisticated customer behaviour-scoring software in major markets. It will feature dynamic scoring which serves to help us manage limits.


In terms of online securities, we are focused on providing an online equity proposition to Consumer Banking Wealth customers globally. Wealth is presently testing a core architecture which will enhance the current cash equity execution infrastructure. Through Project Compass, more robust processes and technologies will be provided  to relationship managers and clients to make the process of providing financial solutions to clients more needs-driven, efficient and compliant. Premium Banking Relationship Managers (RMs) and clients are the project’s primary targets in 2010.


An Electronic Delivery Platform is also being developed to help RMs price and execute wealth products, and the highly resilient architecture will push wealth products out to client-directed channels (i.e. mobile/Internet). Malaysia and Singapore are the two countries first off the ranks, with a rapid rollout of Relationship Management and Consumer Banking Market Sales tools around equity-linked notes and fixed income tranche-based notes and bonds.


FST Media: You have rolled out internet and mobile banking applications to countries within Standard Chartered’s footprint in Asia. What has been the customer response thus far; and what have been the business benefits of this rollout?


Siddiqui: We have completed the rollout to all our key markets and the uptake has been tremendous.  Our future plan is to create a tailored offering for Gen-Y, including deepening our mobile platform to include specially designed applications for the iPhone and any other popular handset.  Breeze, Standard Chartered’s iPhone application, went live in Singapore on 5 May, 2010 and was among the “Top Free” downloads in the Singapore Apps Store. It will give our Consumer business a real competitive advantage across key markets. For the second half of the year, Standard Chartered will continue to deepen our internet banking and mobile banking capabilities and go to market with even more functionalities.


FST Media: Standard Chartered Malaysia is in the midst of implementing a new CRM system. At what stage is this at now; and how has the system helped Standard Chartered in terms of cross-selling opportunities and customer service?   


Siddiqui:   Standard Chartered has deployed a global standard that all users across our franchise are adopting the system. CRM implementation on such a big scale requires a rollout in phases. We have implemented this in our key markets. Over the next two years, it will be rolled-out to all other markets in the region.  We can already see benefits in cross-selling due to the ease of collaboration, while client inquiries can be handled far more efficiently through single-views and straight-through-processing. It has resulted in increased productivity and real-time forecasting of customer needs.