Talents can get frustrated while working at banks' innovation labs due to the slow speed of implementation. However, they need to understand that banks are required to factor in different risks.
While innovation labs at banks may attract technology talent, some are finding it frustrating to work there due to the slow speed of project implementation and the lower priority assigned to their projects. However, both banks and fintechs need to move away from thinking it is innovation or compliance per se, Damien Wong, vice president of Red Hat Asian Growth and Emerging Markets told finews.asia during a media luncheon.
«Fintech needs to know that the success or failure of their solutions could deeply affect the banks' reputation. If something goes wrong, who will the end user blame?» said Wong. «It cannot be all innovative but not compliant. It cannot be compliant but not innovative. The solutions has to be both in order to work.»
Different Size
Unlike some fintechs that found «initial success» by just serving their first 100,000 customers, banks in the region have to serve millions of customers, says Wong. Therein lies the challenge for both partners – balancing speed to market with scalability and sustainability.
«With cyber crimes on the rise, and banks being heavily regulated entities, they need to make sure new solutions are fairly robust,» explains Wong, whose American-based software firm counts DBS and Indonesian bank BTPN as their customers.
According to a survey by cybersecurity firm Symantec, at least 2 million internet users in Hong Kong were hit by cybercrime in a 12-month period ended September 2017. Victims lost $28 on average and spent 19 hours to deal with the consequences, according to a report on «South China Morning Post».
