SunTec

  For the banking sector, 2020 will be remembered as a difficult year packed with obstacles and lessons learned. While the internet and mobile banking were gaining traction before the pandemic, the worldwide crisis made going ‘digital’ the sole option to reach out to customers, engage them, and service their requirements during lockdowns, making it more about a bank's actual existence than a box to be ticked. Banks must adapt to be relevant, prosper, and grow as customers increasingly turn to digital alternatives. The growth of the API economy is another key trend linked to digitalization. Open banking, facilitated by open APIs, is now firmly established in financial services, giving clients flexibility over what goods and services they consume, including partner products, as well as from other third parties. This indicates that the purchasing decision might come from a third-party source rather than the bank. Third-party service providers, huge IT corporations, and fintech are all...

  A 1% increase in price results in a rise of 8.7% in operational profitability. Despite this, more than 30% of price decisions made by businesses each year fail to achieve optimal results.   Pricing for goods and services is an important part of any go-to-market strategy since it affects revenue, profitability, and brand perception. In the banking industry, proper pricing is critical to increasing profit margins. Fintech competition, shrinking lending margins, and regulatory-driven reductions have all had an impact on banking earnings. The regulatory environment has tightened significantly over time, previous strategies like hidden costs or passing costs on to customers are obsolete. Banks are also dealing with deteriorating client loyalty as well. Customers today have a variety of alternatives to pick from, as well as the ability to compare services and pricing models among banks to make the best decisions for themselves. Banks must focus on adopting data-driven smart pricin...

  Every industry is being transformed by digital innovation, and the financial services industry is no different. The possibilities for banks to reimagine customer experiences are endless, thanks to AI-powered self-service transactions, mobile-based financing, and analytics-driven personalization of services.   Overview of the Changing Landscape The financial services business has seen a considerable digital shift in recent in the last few years. A plethora of fintech and non-traditional businesses are entering the banking industry with simple, customer-centric solutions that aren’t confined to the challenges of legacy systems. Even huge tech firms like GAFAM-BAT (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent) are leveraging their technological expertise, considerable user base, and big data analytics to provide improved financial services experiences.   While regulators are fostering innovation, they are also attempting to create frameworks that...

The introduction of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and the internet of things (IoT) has altered the way the world runs. Customers today expect personalized experiences, and organizations that have not yet digitized must alter in order to compete in this new reality. Banking is one industry that has found it more difficult to change since many institutions are burdened with rigid and f traditional application systems. Large banks and financial institutions continue to be hesitant to adopt innovative technology, limiting them from providing an ideal client experience, creating growth, and remaining relevant in a volatile market. To compete in this changing industry, banks must modernize their legacy banking systems and adopt a modular approach to digital transformation. While there are several ways to modernize core banking systems, success will be difficult to achieve until the current infrastructure is broken down into smaller manageable logical e...

  Organizations that have global operations are required to adhere to different tax reporting standards and regulations in each country that they operate in. Standard Audit File for Tax or SAF-T is the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recommended electronic exchange of reliable accounting data from organizations’ accounting system to the tax authority for compliance purpose. It aims to create a standardized file format (XML) for the exchange of audit data. In a globalized environment, data standardization is crucial to detect tax fraud promptly and effectively. This regulation applies to global organizations or their subsidiaries with a presence in the European Union or any of the 35 member countries under OECD. Following the SAF-T regime is a mandatory requirement in most of these countries. Typically, a SAF-T file includes Accounts Receivable & Payable, Fixed Assets, General Ledger Entries, and Inventory. This regime has been used by many European...