Finastra reveals plans to improve 9m lives with a focus for the APAC region

By Edil Corneille

UK-based Finastra has announced plans to positively impact over nine million lives around the world with key areas of focus in the Asia Pacific region. The company will enable its customers to accelerate through change as part of its ongoing innovation and open cloud platform strategy.

Using Finastra’s solutions, Yoma Bank is said to have become the first bank in Myanmar to launch an online account opening system. Since launching its online account opening process, the bank is said to have been able to provide thousands of new customers with fast, ultra-secure access to their personal accounts across multiple channels.

Bangladesh’s IFIC Bank aims to bring banking services to 100,000 unbanked Bangladeshis using Finastra’s solutions in the next two years. The bank looks to transform its entire operating model from the outside-in – evolving into a customer-centric bank and differentiating itself with innovative products and services, available in branch and through new digital channels.

In the Philippines, another opportunity to facilitate financial inclusion comes from the neobank called TONIK. Powered by Finastra, TONIK aims to provide a route to banking for those who have never been able to open an account and hopes to attract over a million people in the five years after it launches this year.

Wissam Khoury, Head of International at Finastra enunciated, “The pandemic has brought the future forward, driving increased demand for digital transformation in the financial services sector. We’re committed to helping our customers accelerate through this change with our technology and ecosystem. This is also a pivotal moment in which we have the chance to redefine finance for good and create new solutions that put better outcomes for society at the center.”

Finastra is also helping close the trade finance gap in Asia. The company has partnered with Mastercard and the ADB to help build a new digital pathway to credit for wholesalers. Through the application of technology, the program aims to help SMEs digitise trade, making it easier for them to participate in global supply chains. The program will start in Indonesia with 500 retailers and aims to build to 5,000 retailers by the end of Q1 2021.

Finastra’s broad technology product set across lending, payments, treasury and retail banking is powering these initiatives, alongside its FusionFabric.cloud open developer platform. It is all underpinned by a comprehensive suite of data-driven insights applications to improve business intelligence; and a suite of transformational services designed to help customers successfully accelerate through change.