Skip to main content

Industry Insights: ICBC Standard Bank and Financial Services in the Digital Business Era

For our final Industry Insights talk this year, we were delighted to welcome Mr. Huihong Cai, the CTO of ICBC Standard Bank.

21st March 32

Mr. Cai's talk focused on how digital is changing financial services, drawing on his personal experience of going back to China after a few years working in the UK and finding out that his ICBC credit card was not accepted at the restaurant he ate at - they only took WeChat or Alipay. This demonstrated how fast things can change in the digital business era.

My Cai pointed out that IT has gone from being perceived as a cost centre in businesses (something that had to be implemented but was a cost to the business), to now being seen as a profit centre. In fact there is no point differentiating between technology and the delivery of the products and services a business offers it's customers. This is an important change in the mind-set when technology is deployed.

Just how technology is changing financial services was illustrated with a couple of examples. Investment Banking has traditionally relied upon information asymmetry to profit from understanding complex risks on behalf of customers. This understanding was driven by having close relationships with industry players and having knowledgeable people to analyse the information, but today it is increasingly driven by using technology to gather and process data. Commercial banking has conventionally been based around distributing loans or saving products via branches, but now it is becoming based around selling services via generic channels (internet and cloud based services).

However, Mr. Cai did sound a warning note - too many businesses rush to invest in technology without properly considering the costs and benefits. He emphasised the importance of looking at the management and operational aspects of implementing new technology - conventional business skills rather than digital business skills. He highlighted:

"It is not about the technology – it is about your mind set and methodology.

Ask “What technology shall I invest in?”

−And you will probably be lost in the marketing materials and events by various vendors

Ask “Why am I looking for new technology?”

−And you will be able to make a decision that is meeting your needs."

We're grateful to Mr. Cai for delivering an interesting talk and mixing with students afterwards!

Published 26 March 2018
Topics:
Industry Insights reviews

You might also like

ICMA Centre Celebrates Graduation and More!

10 July 2006
The ICMA Centre celebrated the success of its students in style again this year. 140 students graduated at the ceremony held in the Great Hall at the University of Reading's London Road Campus. One outstanding student not only graduated with a distinction, but was awarded a special prize at the champagne reception held at the Centre prior to the graduation ceremony.

ICMA Centre graduate and senior research fellow publish article in The Moscow Times

17 May 2010
Ian Pryde, a graduate of the MSc International Securities, Investment and Banking in 2000, and Stephen Wells, Senior Research Fellow at the ICMA Centre, Henley Business School have had their article 'Building a Global Finance Center' published in The Moscow Times - Russia's only English Language daily newspaper.

Event: "The Impact of Brexit on the City" - Tim Skeet

20 February 2017
The ICMA Centre hosted another talk as part of the "Industry Insights" series, this time with long-time banking expert and Visiting Fellow Tim Skeet. The talk, entitled ‘The Impact of Brexit’ on the City, proved to be both enlightening and somewhat hopeful for aspiring financial professionals such as myself and my peers. The talk covered many topics, primarily the causes of Brexit, communication deficiencies on the part of politicians and finance specifically, wider instability in the world and the risks all of this poses for finance, and more specifically finance in the City of London.