How AI will fuel ASEAN’s trillion-dollar digital economy

What are the most significant growth opportunities for banks in ASEAN?

As cyber threats become more prevalent and sophisticated, banks are increasingly required to operate in a highly regulated environment that directly impacts productivity, capital and growth. Penalties for non-compliance or customer data breaches through digital banking are exceptionally high in countries like Malaysia. However, these challenges also present opportunities for technology companies to build trust and confidence as they help financial services customers design and build modern IT systems and manage their risks.

And while Kyndryl's latest State of the Mainframe Modernization Survey shows that banks and financial institutions that traditionally rely on mainframes are unlikely to move off the platform entirely, they are transitioning to hybrid IT environments to get the added benefits of cloud architecture. With the onshoring of regional datacenters, there are potent opportunities for IT services providers to help banks scale their resources dynamically - not only to comply with emerging data security regulations but also to handle peak transaction volumes and reduce the costs associated with legacy applications.

^{¹ Google, Temasek, Bain, Fulfilling Its Promise | The future of Southeast Asia's digital financial services, 2019
² World Economic Forum, Digital ASEAN}