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Harnessing AI, data and the cloud to reshape financial services

Interviewed By Foo Boon Ping

The AWS Financial Services Symposium Singapore 2024 showcased how AI, data, and cloud technologies are revolutionising financial services. Industry leaders from AWS and HSBC shared insights into advancing innovation, regulatory responsibility and resilience, offering a road map for financial transformation.

The inaugural AWS Financial Services Symposium Singapore 2024, organised in association with The Asian Banker, served as a nexus for industry leaders to discuss how technological advancements are reshaping financial services in Singapore and beyond.

Priscilla Chong, Amazon Web Services (AWS)’s country manager for Singapore, opened the event by aligning the company’s SGD12.4 billion ($9.2 billion) investment in Singapore’s cloud infrastructure with the country’s smart nation and digital economy strategies. “This investment accelerates innovation while enhancing Singapore’s global leadership in digital transformation,” she stated, underscoring AWS’s commitment to fostering economic and technological growth.

Arvind Mathur, AWS’s enterprise strategist, delivered a thought-provoking keynote on “Rethinking intelligence in financial services”. He highlighted the interplay of human creativity and machine intelligence: “AI, like a revolutionary engine, holds immense potential, but it requires human ingenuity to deliver transformative and secure outcomes.”

Next frontier in personalisation

Next, the CXO panel delved into how artificial intelligence (AI), data and cloud technologies are driving financial innovation. The panellists, Shayan Hazir, HSBC’s chief digital officer for Southeast Asia; and Michelle Toh, AWS’s head of enterprise business, discussed how financial services are on the cusp of a transformation where AI, data analytics and cloud computing are not just tools but essential drivers of competitive advantage.

Hazir introduced the concept of generative personalisation as a game-changer for customer experience. "This technology allows financial products to adapt dynamically to individual needs, offering hyper-customised solutions," he explained. Hazir highlighted HSBC’s AI-driven initiatives, such as PayMe in Hong Kong, as examples of customer-centric innovation shaping the future of banking.

Toh expanded on the role of cloud technology in enabling such advancements. She discussed AWS’s collaboration with Trust Bank to build a platform that could onboard customers in under three minutes. “The scalability and flexibility of cloud infrastructure are critical in delivering this level of customer focus and agility,” Toh noted.

Exploring the cutting edge

The panellists also deep dived into groundbreaking initiatives with the potential to reshape the future of financial services. Global Layer 1 (GL1), an infrastructure initiative spearheaded by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), was highlighted as a pivotal step towards enhancing cross-border transactions and enabling tokenised assets. The shared ledger infrastructure under GL1 aims to streamline settlement, liquidity management and financial innovation.

Discussions on quantum computing also underscored its potential to revolutionise risk modelling and financial decision-making. Toh emphasised AWS’s Braket service as a tool enabling institutions to explore and leverage quantum computing’s transformative power: “Quantum computing will redefine how we solve complex problems in financial services, setting the stage for a new era of innovation”.

MAS’s Global Financial Technology Network (GFTN) was another topic of interest, showcasing Singapore’s leadership in fostering cross-border partnerships. Panellists described GFTN as a platform for global collaboration, enabling seamless innovation across jurisdictions. Hazir remarked, “GFTN exemplifies how innovation and regulation can coexist, driving progress in ways that benefit both the industry and customers.”

These initiatives illustrate how MAS is at the forefront of enabling cutting-edge technologies while maintaining a robust regulatory environment.

Balancing innovation with regulatory compliance

The next focus of the panel was navigating the delicate balance between innovation and regulatory responsibility. Hazir commended the MAS for its forward-thinking approach to regulation and role in fostering innovation while ensuring trust and systemic integrity.

Toh underscored AWS’s proactive stance on compliance. She described how AWS assisted a Singaporean financial institution in meeting MAS’s stringent technology risk management standards. “Compliance is integral to innovation—it builds trust while creating opportunities for new advancements,” she said, illustrating how AWS’s cloud solutions embed regulatory requirements seamlessly.

“MAS fosters an environment where innovation thrives while maintaining trust in the financial system. It has established a framework where initiatives like GL1 can thrive,” Hazir remarked, referencing HSBC’s involvement in various MAS-led industry initiatives such as Project Guardian, an initiative exploring blockchain for digital assets, and a quantum security collaboration and study of the application of quantum key distribution (QKD) in financial services.

Toh added that AWS actively supports compliance frameworks aligned with MAS’s goals. “By embedding regulatory requirements into cloud solutions, AWS ensures financial institutions not only meet but exceed these standards,” she said. Toh highlighted AWS’s ability to empower clients experimenting with blockchain and shared ledger technologies like GL1, further driving financial innovation.

The panellists highlighted that responsible innovation requires close collaboration between regulators and industry players, ensuring that progress does not come at the expense of trust and security.

Building resilience in an era of disruption

In a rapidly changing world, resilience has become as important as innovation. Hazir emphasised the need for a proactive approach to resilience, sharing HSBC’s efforts in fraud prevention and cybersecurity, including the integration of SingPass facial verification. “Resilience is about embedding adaptability into the organisation, ensuring we can anticipate and address risks before they escalate,” he explained.

Toh shared AWS’s success in enhancing resilience through technology, citing Capital One’s use of AWS tools to reduce false positives in fraud detection by 75%. “Resilience today means creating systems that not only withstand disruption but also evolve with the challenges they face,” she added.

These insights underscored that resilience is no longer a static concept but a dynamic capability that enables organisations to thrive amidst uncertainty.

Looking ahead

The panel concluded with a forward-looking discussion on the future of financial services. Hazir introduced "social banking" as a transformative concept, envisioning a future where financial services integrate seamlessly into daily life. “Generative personalisation will redefine customer interaction, delivering dynamic, intuitive solutions at scale,” he predicted.

Toh emphasised the convergence of generative AI, blockchain, and quantum computing as pivotal forces shaping the industry. “These technologies are not just building blocks—they are the foundation of a financial ecosystem that is transparent, trusted, and transformative,” she said.

Moderator Foo Boon Ping, president and managing editor of The Asian Banker, summarised the session, stating, “The discussions today remind us that technology is not a solution in itself—it’s a tool and catalyst for driving purposeful and value-driven change. The future of financial services will be defined by how we combine innovation with responsibility.”

The inaugural AWS Financial Services Symposium Singapore 2024 offered a clear vision of how cloud technology, AI, and data are transforming the financial services industry in Singapore and globally. From hyper-personalisation to regulatory innovation and resilience, the event highlighted the collaborative efforts of innovators like AWS and its financial services partners such as HSBC in shaping a future that is both innovative and secure.