The recent Asian Business Series webinar featured Dr Stefan Hoops, Head of Corporate Bank, Deutsche Bank who discussed the various developments in the finance landscape.
Organised by Strategic Relations, the Series showcases Asian thought leadership for the NUS Biz community. Topics cover business trends and global issues that impact Asia.
Dr Stefan discussed some of the latest trends in corporate banking, for instance, there is an increasing demand for ESG (environmental, social and governance) products. The corporate customers are looking at diversifying their supply chains even more than before with today’s geopolitical issues, he added.
Commenting on the webinar’s topic “Financial services now and in the future”, Dr Stefan said: “The biggest difference is how financial services are being consumed.” Increasingly, financial services are not conducted through a physical bank but embedded through transactions where the bank is in the backend, he pointed out. One example would be consumers using app platforms for various activities such as transportation.
A bank’s functions remain the same
Dr Stefan also highlighted a bank’s key functions that would remain unchanged — holding assets safely, allowing transfer of value and enabling time travelling of value (such as loans).
Looking back at the webinar, the session’s co-moderators, MSc Finance candidates Jeroemy Ng and Martin Escobar, felt that the above mentioned key functions enable banks to remain relevant in today’s technology-driven world.
