MAS Managing Director Mr Ravi on Finance, Technology and Trust

Sharing by Mr Ravi Menon, Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, at the Banque de France Lecture, titled “Can the three musketeers click?”.

Focusing on innovation in the financial industry, Mr Ravi likens the 3 musketeers to finance, technology and trust. Each known for a different trait, intelligence, adventurous and faithful.

Finance

Finance is affected by the global economic slowdown, tighter regulation, and greater competition. Consumers start finding the banking process too cumbersome and slow to navigate. Some have also lost trust that banks would act in their best interests. As a result, many starts to turn on alternatives that are more accessible. Banking is what people need, but not banks.

Technology

Technology companies have been able to enhance the customer experience though flexibility and speed. Reacting quickly to changes, building end-to-end products that have the flexibility to be customized. Banks on the other hand have been product-centric, trying to tell customers why the existing products suit them. Even if they wanted to change, they need a lot of time due to the legacy IT systems and company structure.

Beyond improving customer experience, technology can help with risk management. As compliance and risk management become more costly, technology, through automation can help reduce cost, lead time and human error. Technology has also helped reduce the cost of acquiring customers by opening up digital channels.

Trust

The last musketeer represents trust. Trust is key to the success of the financial ecosystem. Cyber attacks continue to become more complex, frequent and damaging. As more actors within the ecosystem collaborate and connect, the stakes are higher. Information risk grows as more data is digitized and shared across more parties, making it harder to secure. Lastly the risk of misuse of data analytics and artificial intelligence. As algorithms grow smarter and faster, we will be able to analyze more and uncover new things. Gaining the public’s trust will be important. Failing to do so will see poor adoption and restrict the benefits such technology will be able to offer.

Conclusion

Finance and technology need to work together, and in the process must maintain the trust they have enjoyed so far.

The full lecture can be found on MAS website.