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Digital transformation has emerged as a key focus for corporations across the Asia Pacific region, particularly as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has accelerated the trend. And many of the technologies that have gained prominence in the past two years are likely here to stay.

But digital transformation can be a complex undertaking. Baker McKenzie’s recently released Digital Transformation and Cloud Survey 2021/2022 revealed several key challenges that organisations face in achieving this transformation, including how to balance value creation through digital transformation and how to mitigate associated risks; how governance structures can evolve to address and manage new technology environments; and how to best navigate continually evolving legal and regulatory landscapes.

It is very evident from the survey that the global trend of digital transformation which was accelerated during 2020 as businesses sought to mitigate the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is now a permanent part of the enterprise.

- Anne-Marie Allgrove, partner, Baker McKenzie (Sydney)

“It is very evident from the survey that the global trend of digital transformation which was accelerated during 2020 as businesses sought to mitigate the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is now a permanent part of the enterprise,” says Anne-Marie Allgrove, partner in the Sydney office of Baker McKenzie.

She believes digital transformation will continue to create exciting opportunities for organisations across all sectors and is likely to remain as a key focus going forward.

THE FUTURE BELONGS TO THE BOLD

Baker McKenzie’s research suggests that there are clear opportunities for companies that choose to be strategic and proactive – as opposed to reactive – in their digital transformation journey.

“There are competitive advantages from both an internal organisational efficiency and cost reduction perspective, and in terms of the external market in terms of product offerings and reputation,” says Allgrove, who is also the global chair of the firm’s Intellectual Property (IP), Data and Technology Practice.

Over 50 percent of the organisations surveyed through the Digital Transformation and Cloud Survey said that faster identification and reaction to issues and better management of unexpected third-party costs would have resulted in better outcomes, highlighting the importance of clear and effective governance structures.

Another key lesson from the survey was the need to involve subject matter teams earlier to help manage complex legal and regulatory landscapes.

In a digitally transforming world, another key theme from those surveyed was the importance of people in the development and delivery of products and services.

Allgrove points out that cloud computing and cybersecurity are key elements of the digital transformation focus for large companies driving efficiencies and ensuring security of data and systems.

“This is fuelling concerns for migration of legacy systems and for over a third of the respondents was one of the top three current concerns,” she notes.

“The focus for start-ups is on new technologies and innovative opportunities such as Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI has huge potential and the start-ups are focused on harnessing that potential in developing their offerings,” Allgrove adds.

Large companies, for the most part, need to work with smaller companies to access newer technologies. But this often causes issues with procurement, particularly when procurement processes make it difficult to bring smaller providers onboard quickly and efficiently.

“Consideration needs to be given by large organisations to ways of mitigating the risks and ensuring compliance especially with security requirements without slowing down the transformation process unduly. This need is in part fuelling an increase in M&A activity to enable large companies to build internal skills and provide access to new technologies,” says Allgrove.

Other Baker McKenzie Partners have discussed digital transformation pain points at a number of key events, such as Hong Kong Fintech Week and the Singapore Fintech Festival (SFF).

“During 2021, the financial industry as a whole saw a mix of pain points and opportunities. The most important was a focus by regulators on increasing the pace of digital transformation. This took several forms including the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Securities and Futures Commission taking steps to enable greater flexibility in remote onboarding processes,” says Karen Man, a partner in Baker McKenzie’s financial services practice in Hong Kong.

This means that regulators globally have increased their existing long-term focus on cybersecurity and anti-money laundering. Ensuring more robust security can be very time consuming and costly for financial institutions, so the regulators have been encouraging the use of regtech solutions whilst also exploring suptech solutions to enable them to conduct oversight more efficiently.

 - Karen Man, partner and financial regulatory practice global chair, Baker McKenzie

She notes that fintech firms and market disruptors have benefited from these moves and been able to increase market penetration as part of the significant consumer shift to digital-based banking and other investment services. The pandemic has also resulted in a great increase in cybercrime.

“This means that regulators globally have increased their existing long-term focus on cybersecurity and anti-money laundering. Ensuring more robust security can be very time consuming and costly for financial institutions, so the regulators have been encouraging the use of regtech solutions whilst also exploring suptech solutions to enable them to conduct oversight more efficiently,” says Man, who is also the firm’s global chair of financial services regulatory practice.

“All financial institutions have been required to ensure that they have appropriate resilience in their networks to facilitate increased client/customer demands for digital services at the same time as teams have been working on a split basis or entirely off-site,” Man adds.

“This has resulted in heavy investment in user experience and a focus on reducing friction for consumers within digital offerings whether built in-house or through partnering with start-ups. However, risk management and regulatory over-sight within financial institutions means that there are greater challenges for traditional financial institutions developing and partnering with fintechs,”

- Paolo Sbuttoni, partner, Baker McKenzie (Hong Kong)

This has not only required financial investments into digital networks but also the implementation of remote monitoring solutions to guard against employee misconduct and ensure that regulatory requirements to capture and store data are complied with.

Additionally, technology from sectors outside of financial services is changing user expectations about what the financial services experience should be like.

“This has resulted in heavy investment in user experience and a focus on reducing friction for consumers within digital offerings whether built in-house or through partnering with start-ups. However, risk management and regulatory oversight within financial institutions means that there are greater challenges for traditional financial institutions developing and partnering with fintechs,” says Paolo Sbuttoni, a partner in the intellectual property, data and technology practice at Baker McKenzie in Hong Kong.

He sees there are many obstacles from a risk and compliance perspective to bring in new innovations at the proof-of-concept stage in particular, which means that some financial institutions are slower to move to market than the pure fintech or tech providers.

On the flip side, the rise of regtech shows that increased risk and compliance requirements have encouraged innovation to meet growing compliance burdens. This can lead to a challenge of updating legacy systems and a war for talent.

CHANGING REGULATORY LANDSCAPE

The regulatory landscape across Asia Pacific is also adapting to this region-wide digital transformation.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), for example, launched several initiatives at the SFF. Stephanie Magnus, principal and Asia Pacific co-head of the financial institutions group at Baker McKenzie sees them as a herald of things to come.

Within the financial sector, the SFF brought up interesting conversations about the future of money, especially with a rise of crypto tokens and stablecoins, and whether there was a compelling case for central bank digital currencies.

- Stephanie Magnus, principal and Asia Pacific co-head of the Financial Institutions Group, Baker McKenzie

“Within the financial sector, the SFF brought up interesting conversations about the future of money, especially with a rise of crypto tokens and stablecoins, and whether there was a compelling case for central bank digital currencies,” says Magnus, who is also the practice leader for the financial services regulatory team in Baker McKenzie Wong & Leow, the Singapore member firm of Baker McKenzie. “There were also forward-thinking discussions on digital finance and having the right infrastructure and network to both facilitate and support but also to combat increased risk areas such as cybersecurity and money laundering, as well as Web 3.0 and how that will play into the future of financial services.”

“One key takeaway from these discussions is the need to have sufficient infrastructure to ensure that technology and innovation can be developed in a sustainable way - with a need to balance the usage of new and nascent uses of technology with regulation,” she adds.

The MAS-launched initiatives at the SFF seek to provide that infrastructure and balance.

This includes Sandbox Plus which came into effect on 1 Jan 2022; COSMIC, co-created with MAS and six major banks in Singapore to enable seamless data exchange; and the connectivity of Singapore’s real-time payment system, PayNow, with the payment systems of other countries for easy cross-border payments transfers (refer to the feature box article).

Over in Mainland China, the digital transformation of financial institutions is making waves, particularly their cooperation with third parties and outsourcing service institutions.

Kevin Yuan, senior counsel at FenXun Partners, Baker McKenzie’s Joint Operation platform Partner in China, thinks it will make the compliance of financial institutions become the focus of regulatory governance.

“On one hand, the regulators encourage financial institutions to conduct digital transformation at the strategic, organisational and financial product levels and apply the cutting-edge technologies including big data, cloud computing, AI, blockchain, etc. For example, a series of policies were released to support the development of supply chain financial platforms in recent years,” says Yuan.

“On the other hand, they also put forward strict regulatory requirements for the cooperation between financial institutions and third-party technological companies in specific business segments by constantly issuing new regulations and increasing regulatory measures which will have a significant impact on the compliance framework of financial institutions,” he adds.

A SMART SOLUTION

Aware of the numerous challenges that accompany digital transformation, Baker McKenzie has tailored its SMART Framework and emphasizes expertise across the entire Asia Pacific platform as solutions to those issues. The SMART Framework is focused on the following key elements: S (Smart Technologies), M (Mobility), A (Aggregated Data), R (Regulation and Regulators), and T (Transactions).

“Baker McKenzie has taken a holistic approach to our digital transformation services, across the Asia-Pacific region and indeed across the globe. Our deep coverage of the Asia-Pacific region allows us to address digital transformation needs across all areas of law, with experts focused on how (it) is shaping each and every industry sector,” says Adrian Lawrence, a partner in Baker McKenzie’s Sydney office who heads the Asia Pacific technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) group. “At Baker McKenzie, we have created the SMART Framework as a structure for industries and firms to consider and tailor their approach to digital transformation and, in particular, to the legal challenges that they are likely to encounter.”