Losses from cybercrime has increased sharply as ransomware incidents soar, ‘cybercrime as a service’ provides greater access and new threats emerge, forcing banks to implement multilayered and stronger technology enabled IT risk and security frameworks.

MoMo grew into the largest mobile wallet provider in Vietnam by offering a better user experience and forging early partnerships with incumbent players

Chatbots are another example of relatively low-cost advancements in artificial intelligence adoption within the banking industry. These computer programmes are designed to conduct live chats to resolve common queries and carry out specific tasks; and they are proving to be popular among customers.

Traditional banks in China have begun to utilise cutting-edge technologies by collaborating with technology companies, start-ups or emerging financial institutions. While pushing their way in revolution, the vital point is to strike a balance between the digitisation of services and traditional manual banking services.

The Asia Pacific banking industry will continue to see a rise in demand and salary among highly skilled technical workers in the backdrop of ongoing digitalisation.

Spurts in prices of cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings over the last two years, with start-ups raising millions in minutes, have raised excitement and regulatory attention amid fear of “bubble” and potential losses.

With the entry of financial technology disruptors, banks in Asia Pacific are putting greater focus on technology and operational excellence to enhance customer service and the overall transaction banking experience.

As data analytics becomes nearly ubiquitous in most parts of consumers’ digital lives, leading banks are providing digitised solutions that deliver the right offer at the right time, predict fraud so they can reduce risk, and boost cross-sell rates.

The gross retail banking income for the entire region will grow by 8% by the end of 2017 after showing a year-on-year growth of 7.5% in 2016 and 10% in 2015.

Emirates NBD’s efforts towards digitisation have enabled customers to bank with more ease through new account propositions. From Shake n’ Save to Fitness and other new mobile based applications, the bank is putting itself at the forefront of digital services.

Robotics, enabled by artificial intelligence and machine learning, is proving to be a game changer that can bring unique operational efficiencies to the financial services industry.

Financial institutions are starting to use APIs to create important linkages between their products and services and their customers and important third party value providers. Early movers to stand to gain mindshare of both customers and the wider application developer community.