Asia Pacific banks are ready to take advantage of truly digital cores

• New research from IDC and Thought Machine reveals Asia Pacific markets most ready for core banking transformation – outlined in new Digital Core Banking Opportunity Index
• Truly digital cores will deliver numerous benefits for the region’s banks, including agility, migration and cost

SINGAPORE and LONDON, March 24, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Thought Machine, the cloud native technology company with its APAC headquarters in Singapore, and International Data Corporation (IDC), have released their second piece of joint research entitled Truly Digital Core Banking: You Are More Ready Than You Think.  

In this new piece of research, IDC outlines Asia Pacific’s readiness for banking transformation and a clear path for banks in the region to adopt modern core technology and deliver truly digital banking experiences.

IDC’s new proprietary index, the Digital Core Banking Opportunity Index, maps regional markets according to two dimensions: opportunity-to-benefit and execution readiness. Within the opportunity-to-benefit dimension, markets have been measured on customer readiness for digital banking and market infrastructure. In the execution readiness dimension, markets have been measured on their propensity towards changing legacy systems and the maturity of their market infrastructure.

The markets measured in the index are: Australia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Findings from the index show that:

• Singapore and Australia hold the largest opportunity for digital core banking, with the remaining markets ready for digital transformation.
• Some of the oldest core systems are in the Philippines and Malaysia, whereas Vietnam has relatively newer core systems.
• The majority of Asia Pacific markets measured are contained within the ‘Market Acceleration’ segment: primed to take full advantage of digital core offerings
• Indonesia and Thailand have a strong propensity to change their core bank systems, while Malaysia and Philippines have been slow to migrate to a digital core.

The paper also details the reinforcing nature of digital core banking technology – how modern software architecture increases bank delivery capability, and the ability to continuously innovate. This, in effect, accelerates a bank’s overall readiness to execute on full digital transformation.

In the latter half of the paper, IDC has detailed the exact requirements for a modern digital core – outlining 25 distinct attributes the system should possess, including on-demand analytics, intelligent configuration, flexible licensing, cost reduction and more.

Michael Araneta, Head of Advisory and Research, IDC Financial Insights, said: “IDC has examined the new wave of investments into digital core banking systems in the Asia Pacific region and can now reveal that banks are primed to benefit from the capabilities of a new generation of core banking systems. They can finally be more efficient, more customer-centric, and more agile. No market in the region, and no bank for that matter, should wait for the ‘right time down the road’. The time is now.”

Nick Wilde, Managing Director APac, Thought Machine, said: “Asia’s markets are now able to take advantage of the efficiencies of cloud-native architecture, an API-driven framework and low-code enhancement capabilities that are inherent in truly digital core systems. The intersection point has arrived – Asia’s markets are ready to execute, and capture material benefits by migrating to a truly digital core.”

The paper explores Thought Machine’s core banking engine, Vault, in the context of these attributes. An assessment of low-code and no-code development paradigms reveals that Vault’s low-code approach unlocks multiple benefits for banks wishing to be agile in fast-changing environments. Vault’s API-driven, real-time approach, has also been highlighted for its ability to streamline integration with other systems, connect with Open Banking programs,…