[Digital Daily Reporter Park Gi-rok] Bankware Global, a domestic core banking platform company, presented an example of building a low-cost, high-efficiency core banking system and operating a cloud-based system that it has developed for Southeast Asian markets such as Indonesia and the Philippines. 
 
Specifically, the arrangement is such that not only local banks but also domestic banks and financial companies strengthening their presence in global markets, such as Southeast Asia, can mitigate risks associated with IT infrastructure investments by actively utilizing Bankware Global’s ‘Banking SaaS’. 
 
Bankware Global’s Executive Director Noh Eun-jik appeared as a presenter at the ‘2024 Forecast Financial IT Innovation’ conference held at the Lotte Hotel in Sogong-dong, Seoul on the 7th, and presented ‘Hybrid cloud-based IT infrastructure operation innovation and banking SaaS cases in Southeast Asia’ to attendees. The initiative garnered significant attention from attendees. 
 
In particular, in countries with many islands, such as the Philippines and Indonesia, demand for digital banking has increased rapidly since the COVID-19 pandemic.To address this, establishing a stable and effective IT infrastructure operational strategy is essential to support the banking system adequately. 
 
Accordingly, Bankware Global has propelled the widespread adoption of ‘K-Core Banking’ in global markets, notably Southeast Asia, through the introduction of an optimized core banking platform and proprietary cloud operational methods. 
 
Managing Director Noh said, “Unlike other regions, digitalization in the Southeast Asian market has been led by non-financial businesses such as telecommunications companies and large e-commerce companies, and large banks in each region have responded by improving their own mobile internet banking or affiliated savings banks and “We are pushing to convert small local financial institutions into digital banks,” he said. 
According to Bankware Global, in the Philippines, the biggest change is digital bank licensing along with large and small mergers and acquisitions. There are large banks such as Universal Bank, government and commercial banks, savings banks, private development banks, and rural banks, as well as other loan and online lending companies. 
 
Six digital banks were licensed in 2022 alone. Instead, local banks are rapidly undergoing digitalization within the financial industry structure, with 92 local banks disappearing from 471 at the end of 2016 to 379 at the end of 2022. 
 
In addition, the Philippine government allows foreign bank investment, while the BSP, the Philippine financial authority, announced the RBSP (Rural Bank Strength Program) in 2022 and is encouraging the strengthening of capital ratios and the digitalization and advancement of local banks. 
Meanwhile, Indonesia’s local banks, similar to other Southeast Asian banks, have a history of being established by local wealthy people and local governments to protect farmers and low-income families. Like the Philippines, the role of local banks in each island is very important in Indonesia due to its geographical characteristics. 
 
Existing local banks were operated manually rather than through a system for transactions and processing. However, as mobile banking services based on fintech began to penetrate, local banks’ sense of crisis grew, and they began to work on countermeasures. 
 
In order to compete with these fintech services, local banks had to fundamentally change core banking, but they lacked the capital power to make such IT investments. 
 
Ultimately, after these considerations, small and medium-sized savings banks and regional banks in Southeast Asia took great interest in Bankware Global’s cloud-based ‘banking SaaS solution’. 
Managing Director Noh said, “The banking SaaS solution is gaining significant attention for its online real-time banking and end-to-end processes. It not only targets local banks and savings banks in Southeast Asia, but also appeals to domestic and international financial institutions looking to enter the Southeast Asian market without the risk of significant IT infrastructure investment.”he explained. 
 
Bankware Global’s cloud-based “Banking SaaS” is a multi-tenant solution, highly flexible and capable of adapting as the number of clients increases. It enables the reuse of developed product service applications and provides a core banking system that can be implemented in as little as 1.5 to 3 months. 
 
This explains that if the overall TCO can be reduced and operating costs can be reduced by up to 60 percent, the time and cost of dispatching separate operating personnel or hiring and training them locally can be reduced. 
 
Managing Director Noh said, “As it is developed and operated based on the most up-to-date stack, I believe that if you pay a reasonable subscription fee, you can provide the latest digital bank-level product services to the relevant region, further strengthening the competitiveness of Banks in Korea that expanded their business into Southeast Asia region”,he emphasized. 
 
Bankware Global has already been operating Banko, a subsidiary of BPI (Bank of Philippines Island), a large savings bank in the Philippines, in Korea for four years in a stable manner, providing specialized financial services such as deposits, small loan agent banking, and QR-based payments. We provide products and services at the right place. 
 
The operational effectiveness was encouraging. The number of customers increased by up to 40% in the first year of system development and 77% over the next two years, and the average annual customer growth rate thereafter reached 33%. 
 
Even in the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 100,000 new loans were approved in 2020, and Banko supported the launch of more than 80 desired products over the course of six months, providing products and services tailored to the current market and supporting customer companies. He introduced that he is supporting the growth and expansion of. 
 
Bankware Global is providing ‘banking SaaS’ to local banks in Indonesia together with local partners based on the Philippines’ success story. 
 
Managing Director Noh introduced, “Bankware Global’s banking SaaS can support lending, leasing, and even banking in the form of BaaS,” and added, “The asset finance and lending (loan) solution, which has been strengthened in many ways, is a product suitable for Southeast Asia.” 
 
Meanwhile, Bankware Global announced that it completed the setup for ‘Banking SaaS’ in Indonesia at the end of October this year and began the second phase of work, and at the same time, the largest local bank in Cavite, Philippines plans to start the service in January next year.