Vincent Magnenat, CEO for Asia at Lombard Odier shared how as a seven-generation family business, the 225-year old institution continues to drive innovation in the wealth management industry with tailored offerings for global clients and partnerships with local incumbents to deepen its presence in the region.

At the Asia Pacific Banking Industry 2022 Outlook virtual session, chief economists and industry experts discussed key challenges and risks confronting the banking sector in the region. The dialogue covered the state of the global economy and financial systems, impact of the COVID-19 pandemic resurgence, and how banks in APAC will perform in 2022.

Lars Holst, founder and CEO of GCEX, and Dusan Stojanovic, founding partner of TGV, recently discussed with me the business model of the UK based FCA regulated digital brokerage, how it works with institutional and professional clients on crypto assets, and expansion into Europe, Middle East and Asia.

J. Christopher Giancarlo, former Commodity Futures Trading Commission chairman and author of “CrypotoDad: The Fight for the Future of Money”, speaks to Emmanuel Daniel on the evolution of US regulation and policymaking on cryptocurrencies and his views on the future of finance, including SEC’s recent responses to stablecoin and Coinbase.

Simon Loong, founder and group CEO of WeLab discussed the company’s plans to build a pan Asia digital banking business, the path to profitability of its first digital bank in Hong Kong and how it is working with lead investor, German multinational insurance and wealth management group, Allianz.

Bernhard Kauer, founder and CEO of Puzzle2Pay, talked about the challenges faced by companies that want to enter the micropayments sector, the use of technology to achieve scalability and profitability, and the payments culture in Germany.

How ready are MEA banks to rethink business model amid digital currency disruption?

At the MEA Annual Heads of Retail Finance and Financial Technology Virtual Dialogue, retail banking heads and senior practitioners, including Adewale Salami, First Bank of Nigeria Limited; Boma Raballa, CRDB Bank Plc; Constantinos Constantinides, QIB Group; Hussein Al-Abdulla, Commercial Bank; Korede Demola-Adeniyi, EcobankNigeria; Marie Christine Liu, Absa Bank Mauritius; Marwan Hadi, Emirates NBD بنك الإمارات دبي الوطني; Reena Mohan, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank; Sanjay Khanna, RAKBANK; Yemisi Edun, First City Monument Bank, and others, discussed how payment is being commoditised and destroyed by fintechs, and how banks have to rethink business models to face potential disruptions from digital currencies. They also debated the impact of technology on the cost to serve that democratises wealth management for retail investors, as well as responses to the second year of the pandemic.

The following key points were also discussed:

The areas of opportunity for banks to develop ESG and sustainable investment products.

● The region’s strategy towards a cashless society by enhancing frictionless peer-to-peer and real-time transactions.

● Banks continue to expand wealth management products and are keeping crypto and digital assets on the radar.

● Banks are offering innovative wealth management services deploying technologies such as artificial intelligence and robo-advisors for a better customer experience.

● The payment business model will be disrupted in the next five years by central bank digital currencies.

The Asian Banker Finance Thailand 2021 Virtual Dialogue and Awards Ceremony

Rottapron Ekabutr, Bank of Ayudhya (Krungsri Simple); Dariusz P. Trocyszyn, Comarch; Vitai Ratanakorn, Government Savings Bank (GSB Society); Supaneewan Chutrakul, Kasikornbank (KBank Live); Rachakorn Chayapirad, TMBThanachart Bank (ttb bank); and other decision makers will discuss:

● Building the next generation digital banks and developing unique experiences

● Delivering frictionless customer journeys through cloud infrastructures

● Overcoming SME financing challenges and gaps to sustain business and economic recovery

The leadership dialogue will be held as part of Finance Thailand in conjunction with Thailand Country Awards Virtual Ceremony 2021.

He Cong, founder at Probe Group, shared his expert view of the development of the blockchain industry in China, which will still be the most promising marketplace for blockchain breakthroughs because of the size of the supply chain, transportation, logistics and other industries. He Cong also talked about their third generation blockchain project and the significant roles of tokens and applications to their business model.

The crypto community wants to work with regulators but there are issues

Eric Anziani, chief operating officer of Crypto.com, and Anson Zeall, founding chairman of International Digital Asset Exchange Association (IDAXA), discuss their perspectives on the risks, challenges and regulatory uncertainties of crypto technologies as well as how it is shaping the payments landscape. They also share their insider view of what is happening behind the scenes in KYC and compliance as banks start to embrace crypto technologies.

Banks and financial institutions as well as regulating bodies are now keeping up with the rising trend of cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and decentralised finance (DeFi). The increased adoption by the consumers of the digital platforms will drive easier access to these digital assets.

In this Masterclass hosted by Emmanuel Daniel, founder of The Asian Banker, the industry experts also discussed how the industry’s activity is primarily driven by trading and payment use cases. NFTs and gaming are gaining traction as the new trends driving the use of digital assets. Anziani pointed out that one of the big use cases to grow the crypto space is in gaming and finance (GameFi). The gaming industry has 3 billion users globally and it can serve as a catalyst to drive the next wave of growth for cryptocurrencies.

Zeall pointed out that to expand crypto spaces globally, the industry players must bridge the knowledge gap among the regulatory arbitrage. In order to be on top of the game, regulators must collaborate with the industry players as the widening of crypto spaces is inevitable.

The following key points were discussed:

● There will be no pure cryptocurrency or other currency that will dominate everything. There will be multiple forms of money as people want the benefits from a variety of options.

● Bringing the crypto technology to the mainstream raises awareness on the importance of the emerging trend in the trading and payments landscape.

● Inflation and money printing helps to drive the growth of crypto.

● Payment use case in crypto is country specific as regulators have different views of crypto and how they want to protect their citizens from financial risk.

● China banned crypto exchanges and payments, but they are still very supportive of the growth of the blockchain ecosystem.

● Stablecoins play an important role in the ecosystem as it allows consumers to go back and forth between assets that are deemed volatile and those that are deemed more stable.

● There are confusions on the definition and impact of stablecoins and CDBCs. Stablecoins leverage on the existing supply of currency, while CDBCs affect the actual money supply.