In the quest to create financial ecosystems, banks believe they can stay relevant to a customer’s financial needs.

Fintech, the latest buzzword in the peer-to-peer lending sector, has carved a niche for itself in a short span of time. As banks tighten their seat belts for the new-age disruption, they are showing strong affinity towards collaboration with the marketplace lenders to secure their customer proposition.

Mobile payments are expected to surge in the next few years, driven by technology and analytics. However, banks are facing tough challenges from non-bank competitors offering more attractive services.

DBS Group’s retail and wealth business has been accelerating income generation since 2013. However, the bank continues to face an uphill struggle with some of its overseas retail markets.

Economies of scale, profitability, and developing a comprehensive service proposition remain major challenges in Vietnam's growing retail banking industry. A long-term sustainable future will depend on how banks execute a right risk-reward balance.

Digitisation in the cross-border money transfer industry might leave fewer opportunities for incumbent banks and operators to grow. How they cultivate alliances and digital innovation to stay ahead of competitive will be critical moving forward.

Piyush Gupta, chief executive officer of DBS Singapore, received the highest remuneration among bank CEOs in the Asia Pacific region in 2016, while top executives of many Chinese banks had high reductions in their compensations.

Wide discontent with conventional banks have led to the emergence of mobile-only fintech banks. However, these challenger banks are struggling to expand their customer reach, putting doubts whether they can stand against bigger traditional banks.

Emerging new competition, changing customer expectations, and reduced profitability are forcing banks in India to revisit their strategic business and operating models as well as their digital transformation and technology innovation strategies.

Vietnam’s banking sector has taken significant steps to comply with Basel II requirements. However, more measures are needed to create an effective and integrated risk management framework in the banks.

The incumbent outlines its response to an increasingly fragmenting payments landscape offering to support old and new customers alike by helping them de-risk major technology investments with the provision of a gateway service.

The Asian Banker recently updated the bank profile of Vietnam Prosperity Bank Joint Stock Commercial Bank (VPBank).