Fintech firms and banks need to work together instead of competing with each other to help transform the digital banking transformation, Huawei believes.
Huawei’s president for its Southern Pacific Enterprise Group, Wu Gang told FST Media that one of the key challenges for fintech firms was to build trust and credibility among consumers and investors in a highly competitive market.
For banks, Wu said they were facing increasing competitive and profitability pressures from fintech firms offering alternative services in non-banking ecosystems.
“These challenges can be addressed by both parties collaborating and forging partnerships that will lead to robust fintech solutions within a regulated framework,” he said.
“From Huawei’s perspective, the foundation for these solutions will include blockchain, open banking API, mobility, and a high level of security.”
Wu said many banks were encountering challenges in achieving omni-channel convergence, big data processing performance, and open and flexible platform development.
“This digital banking transformation requires ICT infrastructure that integrates leading new ICT technologies to drive agility, efficiency and a seamless customer experience,” he said.
“However, for fintech companies to succeed they must embrace standards that ensure confidentiality and data privacy, enable interoperability with other fintech companies and banks, and define and sustain the ecosystem for the benefit of customers.”
Wu said fintech firms could benefit from banks’ broad product offerings and trustworthy brands gained in a regulated environment, and banks could gain consumer-oriented innovation that opened up new revenue and growth opportunities.
“Fintech firms have an opportunity to help them rethink the way they analyse information and embrace the next generation of big data analytics, which will be based on machine learning, artificial intelligence and robots,” Wu said.
“However fintech firms often focus on one product and one service while banks have the capacity to offer a full package of options, so banks could help them offer a more complete banking service.
“The opportunities are greater when banks and fintech firms cooperate than when they are competing.”
