In a differentiated approach, Alibaba Group announced a waiver of certain platform fees to merchants, which is akin to one's landlord waiving the rent for his tenants during this uncertain economic climate. As such a move directly dents the group's revenues from day one, the message of «suffering with you» becomes loud and clear for all its clients.

Helping Customers' Customers

Common forms of relief measures by banks include a six to twelve-month mortgage principal payment holiday, additional coverage for life insurance plans, waiver of credit card late charge fees, as well as loan extensions. The measures, while laudable, may not enable their clients to stay afloat past the crisis. How about helping customers diversify their revenue streams or helping their customers' customers?

They could take a leaf from China's leading tech giants, which extend help to the entire ecosystem of users. For example, Tencent's insurance arm – WeSure – launched the Covid-19 coverage to all WeChat users with a minimum 10,000 yuan cash compensation. Users can sign up for the universal insurance for free by accessing WeSure's service within WeChat, according to its website. Through WeSure's Mini-Program on WeChat, the insured users can submit claims online.

Beyond Financial Help

Alibaba Group created flexible job openings and an employee-sharing scheme among its affiliates, aside from interest-free loans via its banking arm MYBank. Businesses also have access to various resources from the Alibaba ecosystem free of charge. These include Taobao Livestream services for all offline merchants, online courses from Taobao University, and proprietary services from its logistics provider Cainiao.

In comparison, earlier responses by two local banks in Singapore have been lukewarm, saying they would help retail clients only on a case-by-case basis. 

Time to Put Partnerships to the Test?

As two of Singapore's banks proudly announced their handshakes with commerce platforms such as Carousell and sgCarmart in the last two years, we have yet to see integrated efforts to provide relief or products that could help the merchants or end-users. 

Instead, each partner went about their own relief and contingency measures and continued as if the partnership could not yield more beyond the initial signature. Perhaps, it is time to study the overlap of customers, so as maximize the reach of their efforts.

Economics of Mutuality

Big tech giants such as Tencent and Alibaba Group each have ambitions to become banks in the region as governments in Singapore and Malaysia are set to hand out digital bank licenses within two years, following Hong Kong's and Taiwan's move last year. More Southeast-Asian governments are likely to follow.

As more technology companies gain digital banking licenses, banks can no longer operate as they used to. They also cannot claim to be the source of vital 'life-lines' for their customers, if they do not demonstrate the timeliness of actions during critical times.  If incumbent banks want to have a place in their clients' hearts, they must respond in the way that big techs do, and see themselves as part of the ecosystems they serve.