Banks need to stay competitive in the new era of fintech, especially as digital banks more technologically savvy and nimble. To nurture this shift, a change in culture is necessary, the chief of DBS Bank said.
Traditional banks are relatively behind the curve of where they need to be with regards to fintech and digitalisation, DBS Chief Piyush Gupta said at the Nikkei Innovation Asia Forum in Singapore on Thursday.
«Today, my own sense is that less than a dozen bank in the world have the capabilities or are up to speed with where WeBank and other fintechs are,» Gupta said during the panel discussion «How Fintech and AI Change Finance in Asia,» where he spoke about the bank's digitalisation journey, including its push into India, where a large segment of its population remain unbanked.
Not That Easy
«While every bank is talking about digitalisation, these are not easy transformations and it takes time. Banks starting this process now have a lot of catching up to do,» he said, pointing out that DBS, which is already 10 years into its digitalisation journey, had to put in a lot of work in its early stages, particularly in terms of cultural transformation.
It's hard for old companies to change because they have legacy technology and a culture that is «backward looking and bureaucratic,» Gupta said. «If you can change the environment inside the company… then you can change the core of the company,» the bank's chief executive said.
Level Playing Field
He said that banks have been «straightjacketed» by regulators, who give them more stringent oversight compared to fintech companies, and that a level playing field is necessary to they both have the same environment in which to operate.
He added, however, that recent efforts to create regulatory sandboxes have given banks the capacity to experiment more than before.
