IDC Financial Insights announces winners of the Financial Insights Innovation Awards 2013

Singapore and Hong Kong – 1 March, 2013 – Twelve Asia/Pacific financial institutions were conferred the prestigious Financial Insights Innovation Awards (FIIA) today.

The FIIA award ceremony was held on the second day of Asian Financial Services (AFS) Congress 2013 at the Marina Bay Sands Singapore.

These winners set the new benchmarks for industry best practices by displaying innovation and creativity to fulfill their business objectives.

Out of the 130 high-quality entries submitted by leading financial institutions across the region, the following organizations have impressed the judges with their abilities to tailor effective solutions that meet the challenges of today’s dynamic market conditions:

• AIA Singapore
• ANZ
• CIMB Group
• CIMB Bank
• DBS Bank
• Deutsche Bank
• Krungsri
• Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited
• Pacific Credit Card Center, Bank of Communications
• Siam Commercial Bank Public Company Limited
• UBank
• YES Bank Limited

Every year, IDC Financial Insights invites financial institutions across Asia/Pacific to nominate the initiatives that they believe warrant special recognition in the area of innovation.

The FIIA recognizes and honors top Asia/Pacific financial institutions that have demonstrated innovation and creative thinking in the areas of customer engagement, product development, process reengineering or risk management to fulfill their business goals.

These initiatives are measured by the FIIA Assessment Panel (made up of Financial Insights worldwide analysts and an independent panel of industry practitioners) against a rigorous set of matrices that looks at responsiveness to market needs, effectiveness of rollout, and market take-up and sustainability.

“The FIIA 2013 provides a clear indication of how the Asia/Pacific financial services industry leverages technology as a driver of innovation and competitive differentiation. We saw a common business goal amongst this year’s winners: to improve customer satisfaction and experience. We are also excited about the increase in the number of implementations focusing on mobility and social media. We noticed too that many of these winning projects had greater involvement from top management,” says Ooi Hui Long, Program Director of the FIIA 2013.

Name of institution: AIA Singapore

Name of award: Excellence in Distribution Channel Management

AIA's mobile interactive Point of Sales (iPoS) demonstrates how effective distribution channels can be established by synergizing technologies and process efficiency. Turnaround times of the insurance purchasing process have been effectively halved, thus allowing the financial services consultants to focus on providing better quality financial advices to their clients. This secured checkout point can also be accessed without internet connection, hence increasing the agent's mobility to serve their customer, anytime and anywhere.

Name of institution: ANZ

Name of award: Innovation in Mobile Payments

By combining the ability to accept credit/debit card transactions and same-day settlement, ANZ FastPay further raises the bar in mobile payments by giving SMEs and their customers a handy alternative to cash payments on-the-go. A simple four-digit PIN login ensures card transactions are secure, fast and hassle-free, effectively eliminating the inadvertent need to chase after unpaid invoices and bills.

Name of institution: CIMB Group

Name of award: Excellence in Core Banking Implementation

CIMB Group's regional core banking overhaul brings it another step closer to making high-performance banking a reality for the entire region. The 1Platform (1P) program implemented in CIMB Bank Thai is a game-changing precedent made by the entire group in creating a unified multi-geographical banking platform to answer today's consumer, regulatory and competitive mandates.

Name of institution: CIMB Bank

Name of award: Innovation in Social Banking

OctoPay has extended CIMB's e-banking services in the P2P payments space to create one of today's most contextual and relevant financial service propositions for social media. The simple and intuitive interface leverages on native social website capabilities to securely transfer money between Facebook contacts, as well as create and track virtual saving pools.

Name of institution: DBS Bank

Name of award: Innovation in Customer Experience (Retail)

DBS is one of the first financial institutions to employ speech analytics in deriving customer insights to achieve its client-centricity goals. By identifying subtle behavioral nuances, this solution has allowed the bank to provide accurate and timely responses to support its service level leadership.

Name of institution: Deutsche Bank

Name of award: Innovation in Customer Experience (Corporate)

The Autobahn App Market from Deutsche Bank is designed to simplify complex processes by providing a central access point to the rich suite of e-services offered, based on individualized client business requirements. Selecting, packaging and delivering customized offerings not only create unique user experiences, but also reduce complexities and inefficiencies for the clients.

Name of institution: Krungsri

Name of award: Excellence in Mobile Banking

The Krungsri Mobile Application is a comprehensive, all-in-one smart phone application that puts financial services solutions and lifestyle content from all of Krungsri Group products at the customer's fingertips. The experience-driven user interface, services simplication and true mobile-wallet-like features are key differentiators that have allowed Krungsri to create an exceptional mobile banking experience.

Name of institution: Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited

Name of award: Excellence in Product Delivery

OCBC’s EasiCredit is a near-instant loan approval and cash disbursement initiative that meets the growing demand by consumers for a fast and hassle-free loan application process. By simplifying the approval and cash disbursement process, the bank has vastly improved their processing efficiency, customer satisfaction, thus effectively creating a unique differentiator to stay ahead of the competition.

Name of institution: Pacific Credit Card Center, Bank of Communications

Name of award: Excellence in Integrated Credit Portfolio Management

To comply with the increasingly tight regulatory standards, it is crucial for Pacific Credit Card Center to achieve profit through effective utilization of credit lines. By combining the initial credit line approval and account management, this initiative has eliminated isolated decisions, unified risk management strategies, increased operational capital income, and ultimately improved customer satisfaction.

Name of institution: Siam Commercial Bank Public Company Limited

Name of award: Excellence in IT Delivery

By adopting industry-wide best practices, Siam Commercial Bank’s Enterprise Lean IT Engagement project has been able to eliminate wasteful activities and in turn improve the overall productivity of their workforce, quality of service, as well as time-to-market for their customers. By injecting a high level of transparency into the entire development process, the technology division has transformed what was once a private ‘black box’ into a lean strategic partner for the business.

Name of institution: UBank

Name of award: Innovation in Customer Analytics and Big Data

By using over one billion de-identified transactions, UBank’s econography tool - Peoplelikeu is able to show the howss and wheres of spending. The online portal allows Big Data to work for both the consumers and the bank by gaining real insights on spending trends and enabling informed decisions.

Name of institution: YES Bank Limited

Name of award: Excellence in Domestic Payments

Yes Bank’s Remittance Knowledge Bridge is a multi-channel, multi-platform banking product suite offering a focused remittance service across the country. By leveraging on the existing infrastructure and technology networks, the bank is able to innovate and offer a convenient domestic remittance service to the masses.

For media enquiries, please contact Emily Chia at echia@idc.com or +65 6829 7731

About The Financial Insights Innovation Awards (FIIA)

Each year, IDC Financial Insights invites banks across Asia/Pacific to nominate initiatives that they believe warrant special recognition in the area of innovation. The FIIA recognizes the successes of these institutions in displaying innovation to achieve business objectives. The FIIA 2013 provides a clear indication of how the Asia/Pacific financial services industry leverages technology as a driver of innovation and competitive differentiation. For more information about past FIIA winners, please visit http://www.ap.afscongress.com/2012/.

About IDC Financial Insights

IDC Financial Insights assists financial service businesses and IT leaders, as well as the suppliers who serve them, in making more effective technology decisions by providing accurate, timely, and insightful fact-based research and consulting services. Staffed by senior analysts with decades of industry experience, our global research analyzes and advises on business and technology issues facing the banking, insurance, and securities and investments industries. International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology market. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world’s leading technology, media, research, and events company. For more information, please visit www.idc-fi.com, email info@idc-fi.com, or call 508-620-5533. Visit the IDC Financial Insights Community at http://idc-insights-community.com/financial.

About IDC

International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based decisions on technology purchases and business strategy. More than 1,000 IDC analysts provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries worldwide. For more than 49 years, IDC has provided strategic insights to help our clients achieve their key business objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technology media, research, and events company. You can learn more about IDC by visiting www.idc.com.

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