PUBLISHED DATE: 2025-08-14 01:49:12
GLOBAL BANKING BENCHMARK STUDY 2022
Digital Transformation: What’s Next for Banks in Southeast Asia?
The Inside Story from 120 Senior SEA Banking Leaders
How are banks in Southeast Asia progressing with their digital transformation? To find out, we surveyed 120 senior banking leaders across the region to uncover their insights, challenges, and how they’re prioritizing their transformation strategies. Here’s a snapshot of what we found.
Key Stats at a Glance
- 76% claim customer centricity is driving key decisions within their organization.
- 73% say they have a clearly articulated digital transformation strategy.
- 49% admit they have yet to make significant progress implementing their transformation strategy.
Top Priorities for Digital Business Transformation in Southeast Asian Banks:
- 24%: Improving the customer experience
- 22%: Growing revenue with new products and/or service offerings
- 14%: Growing revenue from existing products
- 13%: Reducing costs through improved efficiency
- 11%: Challenging the threat posed by new market entrants (e.g., Google, Apple, Amazon)
- 9%: Enabling greater agility
- 7%: New customer acquisition
Transformation Barriers
COVID-19
- 43% claim the pandemic is their biggest transformation barrier, with many believing the increased use of digital channels during the pandemic will continue over the next 12 months.
Regulatory Challenges
- 43% say challenges around regulation are their top digital transformation barrier.
Legacy Technology
- 37% admit legacy technology is hindering their digital business transformation.
Customer Data: A Key Priority for SEA Banks
Banks are focused on building community engagement and leveraging insights to offer new products and services.
- 42% want to combine their customer data across different systems to better understand their customers.
- 38% say community engagement is a top customer experience priority, with 60% believing they are ahead of their competitors in this regard.
- 38% say offering new financial services and products is among their top priorities, mirroring trends seen in neighboring Australia.
Intelligent Tech for Meaningful Insights
Operational transformation in Southeast Asia is centered on deepening customer understanding.
- 40% said investing in intelligent technologies is their main focus, with 47% citing increasing competition from digital-first challengers as the reason.
- 38% are prioritizing the ability to obtain a richer understanding of their customers through better use of data and analytics.
- 35% are focusing on building modern, cloud-based core banking systems.
Competitive Positioning
- 50% of banks think they’re ahead of the competition on all fronts.
- 36% believe they lag in offering traditional products through new channels and personalized services.
Sustainability and ESG
- 65% say environmental, social, and governance (ESG) is a key driver of their digital transformation plans.
- 69% believe their ESG strategy is giving them a competitive advantage.
- 54% feel significant pressure to improve their ESG credentials.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
Southeast Asian banks are leading the way in driving diversity, equity, and inclusion. 42% of respondents say their organization has made DEI commitments, well ahead of the global mean of 35%.
Contact
Andrew Male
Client Partner, APAC
Andrew.male@publicissapient.com
Sarfraz Khan
Marketing Lead, SEA
sarfraz.khan@publicissapient.com
For More Insights
Found this data useful? Get a global perspective. For more data like this from banks around the world, download our Global Banking Benchmark Study for insights from more than 1,000 global banking leaders.