Executive Columns

At UOB, we focus on the long-term. This is reflected in our mindset and our approach. We believe in balancing growth with stability to build a sustainable customer franchise in Asia. We do this through a disciplined focus on key...

Innovation has been core to St George over our 75 year history. Some of these include digital signatures in branches way back in 1988, through to introduced savings, and transactional and credit card account opening via mobile late last year.

There are many parallels often explored between the Great Depression and the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) with analysis usually focused on the debt binge that led to the crisis and the contagion effect it had on the global economy. One...

Australia’s financial services market is an economic powerhouse. The largest contributor to our national output, it provided around 11 per cent of real gross value-added in 2010-11, and continues to grow faster than most other sectors of the economy.

The best way to sum up the role of technology and innovation in business today and in the future is to borrow a line from one of the world’s most successful business people, technologist Bill Gates. “Information technology and business...

When I became Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of National Australia Bank (NAB) in 2009, the world was experiencing the biggest global downturn since the great depression. Banks were not viewed favourably in the community, and while we attempted to point...

Banking has often been considered a very traditional business. Monte dei Paschi di Siena is the oldest surviving bank in the world today, some 750 years old. When you walk into Banca Monte dei Paschi’s oldest branch (established 1472), not...

In a competitive industry like ours, where many products are commoditised, banks must continually innovate to stay ahead of the pack. Jack Welch, former Chief Executive Officer of General Electric, put it best when he said: “When the rate of...

With the rapid growth of the wealth management industry in Asia, there is an increasing demand for well qualified professionals. According to a recent BCG Global Wealth Report, private wealth in the Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan, has increased by 10.7...

The advent of technology in recent years has inexorably altered consumer behaviour and expectations. Speed and convenience have become more than just buzzwords and any good innovation must serve one primary purpose: enabling and empowering the customer.

Increasing globalisation and consolidation of industries are fundamentally changing the risk management landscape, and with these changes come new challenges for international risk management.

Co-creation is the perfect recipe for creating innovation. Organisations partnering to bring about change have to put forward their best resources to innovate, leveraging mutual core competencies and their underlying common attributes to create mutual advantages. This is best done...

The Asia-Pacific region is undergoing a momentous shift, with people experiencing change at an unprecedented pace. As old lifestyle and consumption habits die and new ones emerge, the insurance industry, like many others, is faced with the challenge of adapting...

Famous management theorist Peter F. Drucker once said: “The enterprise that does not innovate inevitably ages and declines. And in a period of rapid change such as the present…the decline will be fast.”

Citibank is harnessing technology to serve digitally-savvy consumers in ways they have never seen before. As consumers around the world adopt new and exciting technologies, being at the forefront of innovation is important to remaining relevant, particularly in the increasingly...