Retail Banking Forum 2017 kicks off in Manila with almost 70 attendees

Key executives from the country's major banks graced the event.

Asian Banking and Finance successfully kicked off its 6-city road show with a jam-packed event in Manila last February 15.

This year’s thought leader, Liew Nam Soon, managing partner, financial services ASEAN at Ernst & Young, began with a presentation about the rise of fintechs and how the regulators in Asia Pacific are faced with the challenge of striking a balance between encouraging innovation as well as protecting the financial system. He noted that the Philippine fintech market will be worth US$5.5b by year end.

Liew also sat on a panel with Atty. Mary Joyce Sasan, chief compliance officer of Unionbank; Christian Lauron, lead partner for financial services at EY; Rajiv Madane, director, products & strategy at Fiserv; and Burak Alper, senior consultant, Experian Global Consultancy Practice to discuss the banks’ dilemma of balancing regulatory controls with operational efficiency and good customer experience when it comes to implementing AML prevention processes. The discussion was timely as last month, the Philippine Anti-Money Laundering Council and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas began to allow the use of information and communication technology for banks to complete their KYC processes.

The presentations and panel discussion following the networking break were all about the digital challenges in the country.

Mark Joseph Bantigue, head of e-commerce at Security Bank, talked about how the recent digital and e-commerce trends impact retail banking operations in the country. Margarita Lopez, head of digital banking group at RCBC, also discussed how banks can effectively implement digital transformation strategies to overcome challenges and maximise opportunities that are available for banks.

Bantigue and Lopez sat on a panel with Sujatha Venkatramanan, Experian’s head of consulting, APAC, global consulting practice; Eric Valenzuela, president, Federation of Metro Manila Rural Banks; and Expedito Garcia, SVP, Transaction Banking and Customer Engagement Head, PBCom to discuss the progress the Philippines has made in digital banking.

The Forum was attended by key executives from Bank of the Philippine Islands, Landbank of the Philippines, Philippine National Bank, Maybank, Chinabank, Eastwest Banking Corporation, and Philippine Savings Bank, amongst others.

The 2017 Retail Banking Forum will also be held in Bangkok (March 15), Jakarta (April 5), Singapore (April 26), Kuala Lumpur (May 16), and Hong Kong (July 26). 

Interested speakers and sponsors may contact Nikki Quiniquini at [email protected] or at +65 3158 1386 ext 238.

More information about the event can be found here.