Asia Pacific is the leading region for partnerships between banks and fintech firms, according to a survey by financial software provider Finastra.
Around 87 percent of APAC banks are planning to connect with an average of four fintechs in the next 12 to 18 months, according to a survey by co-produced by Finastra and banking market research firm East & Partners, making the region the global leader in demand for such partnerships.
Only 12 percent of APAC respondents plan to build their own in-house solutions.
The top motivating factors for fintech partnerships are to leverage technology expertise not available in-house (52 percent), deploy new tech with greater ease (47 percent) and reduce operational costs.
Digital Transformation
Digital transformation remains a priority with 54 percent of APAC respondents saying that have digitalized their client-facing processes in the last 18 months, second only to Europe’s 73 percent.
Interestingly, despite the fintech demand, APAC institutions invested an average of $293.2 million in transformation in 2023, below the global average of $367.6 million and the average of $886 million at European banks.
Finastra's research was conducted amongst 783 interviewees at 260 banks in APAC (Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan), UK, Europe, Middle East and the Americas alongside 393 interviews with North American community markets banks and financial institutions.
