There are 56 retail banks; the top 3 challenges for banks in the Asia Pacific are attracting and retaining talent, attracting new customers, and new market entrants. How do you address these challenges in order to retain success?
As a part of attracting and retaining talents, Bank Asia developed in-house training and certification programs to identify and motivate the latent talents. Bank Asia Institute of Training & Development (BAITD) focuses on comprehensive grooming of staff in key banking areas. We in Bank Asia believe that it is important to provide targeted development program that provides hands-on experience to all aspects of banking supported by mentoring and coaching for high-performing and ambitious individuals. In line with that, we launched ‘Be a Future Leader’ program. One of the unique aspects of this development program is Mentorship. A group of officers will be placed under an executive mentor for the duration of the program; officers are expected to interact frequently with the mentors and use them as a sounding board in understanding topics that may be outside their current knowledge base. The mentor will be responsible for developing the officers as future leaders of the Bank. Customers want convenience, personalization, accessibility and ease of use. They want to feel like their bank is anticipating their needs, not bombarding them with product offerings. They want transparency and no surprises in terms of fees. We are working to develop a much deeper, holistic understanding of our customers’ needs and offer solution accordingly. We are simplifying our product sets and redesign our core processes from a customer point of view. As a part of this, we are taking various initiatives to promote new customer friendly products to cope with the market in future. Bank Asia introduced Agent Banking services as the pioneer in Bangladesh with an objective of ensuring greater financial inclusion and increasing the outreach of the services to the unbanked population. As a part of attracting new customers in the new market, we are providing low cost, secured financial services at the doorstep of the unbanked people of Bangladesh through our 870+ agent points located all over the country. We are processing Retail, SME & Agricultural loan from these agent points. We are setting up District/Upazila level back office throughout the country under the same umbrella.
Why must banks take advantage of technological advancements such as mobile banking, setting up a Central Data Repository, generation of Management Information System (MIS) and FinTech? How is technology helping you target and reach the right customer?
Banks must adopt fin-tech much more aggressively, enabling radical productivity improvements such as mobile banking, agent banking etc. It brings low cost and secured financial services by offering technology-driven banking solutions to the doorsteps of unbanked people as a part of financial inclusion. This would happen quickly enough to pass efficiencies on to customers through lower transaction fees. We have established a unique Agent Banking model with technology based banking concept ensuring appropriate security with real-time banking for customers. Our agents are fully equipped with I.T devices like PoS, card reader, the image capturing webcam, biometric identification system, mobile connectivity through internet banking and Tablet PC for applying hassle free loan facilities. Agent Banking Customers are logged through their Biometric authorization which ensures faster and secured financial services. Data analysis could help financial institutions find ways to save money while providing better customer service and building new sources of revenue.
According to Boston Consulting Group (BCG), by 2030, 33% of Bangladesh will belong to the middle-class and this will change demands. What services are you creating in order to cater to this shift?
Bangladesh is emerging as one of the world’s next great growth opportunities for companies with a keen understanding of the nation’s rising consumer class, according to a report released by BCG (Boston Consulting Group). The report focuses on Bangladesh’s middle and affluent class, which the firm defines as individuals with annual household income of around $5,000 or more. That means these consumers earn enough to afford goods and services that offer luxury and convenience. At Bank Asia, we believe that innovation is the key element in providing aggressive top line growth. But doing one or two innovation initiatives a year will not support or sustain innovation. Organizations need to be innovating all the time. Innovation alone is not enough. Organizations need to set the context for innovation; the right people, the right processes, and the right environment. In order to drive innovation, we have focused on developing innovative financial products and services to cater to potential large customers in future. We have built distribution networks all over the country and selling banking products through our Branches, SME service centers, and Agent points. We are building robust mobile and Tab banking platforms for interacting with customers through wireless telecommunication—rather than primarily through computer screens—as well as e-commerce fulfillment capabilities that can meet growing mobile-enabled demand. We are working to get into a position in order to build a sustainable competitive advantage in one of the world’s next important growth markets.
According to PWC, the top three priorities for Banks in our region are enhancing customer service, R&D and innovation and new product development. What are your thoughts on this observation? How are you creating a more customer-centric business model?
The banking industry has come under intense competition in recent years. This is due to new entrance in the market and enforcement of various regulations of the Central Bank. High service quality is therefore required to differentiate offerings in the marketplace. We would like to ensure that our customers leave our premises with a delightful experience. We have created a complaint management system which ensures top quality service to our customers. We encourage our front line staff to listen closely to our customers when they have issues, ask questions, identify what will satisfy them, apologize for the inconvenience and then propose a resolution. We prioritize R&D, innovation, and new product development because success and survival of a bank depend on how well it adapted to new technologies and products. We are also giving highest priority on developing technology driven products for the ease of the customer. These will contribute more values to the society as well as for the betterment of our organization. Our approach is customer centric which provides a positive customer experience in order to drive repeat business, customer loyalty, and profits.
Many banks are attempting to change their deposit mix; are you satisfied with your deposit mix? If not, are there any changes that you would like to implement and how will this change the scenario within your bank?
In the present context, banks’ performance is measured on several indicators, including the deposit mix and the quantum of low-cost deposits in the mix among others. In the present era of competition and with the emergence of private and multinational banks, an ideal mix of deposits is a must to survive. Since the interest paid on deposit forms a big burden on a bank, the mobilization of low-cost deposits, like current account and savings account deposit is the urgent need for the bank. In Bank Asia, we have already taken steps to mobilize low-cost deposits which are key to offering competitive lending rates to customers.
* Fig 01 courtesy of ‘Retail Banking 2020 Evolution or Revolution?’ (online version) from PwC Retail Banking 2020. www.pwc.com
