Overview:
- Standard Chartered Bank is transforming international banking by drastically reducing account setup time from two months to one week.
- The bank aims to make the client experience fast, simple, and clear through automation and transparency.
- They are leveraging their strong client relationship network to gather feedback and identify pain points.
- Heavy investments are being made in technology platforms to simplify processes for both clients and internal staff.
- Data automation, such as retrieving documents from registries like ACRA, is central to streamlining onboarding and enabling business growth.
Standard Chartered Bank is tackling one of the biggest pain points for international businesses: the lengthy process of opening accounts in new markets. Currently, corporate clients expanding overseas can wait up to two months for account activation, risking missed opportunities. The bank’s transformation aims to cut that timeline to just one week, promising speed, simplicity, and transparency.
“We intend to make that process much faster. Rather than taking upwards of two months today, we would hope that that will happen within a week for your new accounts to be enabled,” Tom Mann, Head of Technology Delivery for SME Banking, Standard Chartered told BackgroundBriefing.news.
The Challenge and the Solution
Corporate treasurers often face mountains of paperwork and little visibility when entering new regions. Standard Chartered plans to automate data collection from sources like ACRA in Singapore, reducing client involvement and accelerating onboarding. The initiative focuses on three pillars: fast, simple, and clear processes.
Investing in Technology and Data
The bank is investing heavily in technology platforms and data automation to support these changes. “We are investing heavily in our technology platform to provide support for these new capabilities to make life easier both for our clients and for our internal staff,” he told BackgroundBriefing.news.
By leveraging its global network and client feedback, Standard Chartered aims to streamline operations across 59 countries, enabling businesses to focus on growth rather than banking delays.
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About the speaker:
Tom Mann
Head of Technology Delivery for SME Banking
Standard Chartered
Tom Mann is Head of Technology Delivery for SME Banking at Standard Chartered Bank. With over two decades of experience in financial services, Mann has built a reputation for leading digital transformation initiatives across retail and investment banking. Based in Singapore, he specializes in FinTech, cloud solutions, and agile leadership, driving innovation to enhance client experiences and streamline operations.
Prior to his current role, Mann held senior positions in Private Banking & Wealth Management Technology, where he led strategy, major programmes, and agile transformation. His career spans global institutions including RBS, ABN AMRO, and PwC, with a consistent focus on integrating technology with business growth.
FAQs:
What is the main goal of Standard Chartered Bank’s transformation?
The goal is to make international banking faster, simpler, and clearer by reducing account setup time from two months to one week.Why is the current account opening process a challenge for businesses?
It requires extensive documentation and offers little visibility, causing delays and missed opportunities for companies expanding globally.How will the bank achieve faster onboarding?
By automating data collection from sources like corporate registries and minimizing manual intervention, the process will be streamlined significantly.What are the three pillars of the client experience?
The transformation focuses on making the process fast, simple, and clear for clients.What role does technology play in this initiative?
The bank is investing heavily in technology platforms to simplify processes for both clients and internal staff, ensuring efficiency and transparency.How will data automation improve the process?
Instead of requesting multiple documents from clients, the bank will gather information from official registries like ACRA, reducing effort and speeding up onboarding.Will clients have visibility during the process?
Yes, clients will have full visibility of the progress throughout the account setup journey.Which markets will benefit from this transformation?
Businesses expanding into any of Standard Chartered’s 59 operating countries will benefit from faster and more efficient banking services.5W1H summary:
| Category | Summary |
|---|---|
| What |
1. Reduce account setup time drastically 2. Automate data collection for onboarding 3. Improve visibility during banking process |
| How |
1. Invest in technology platforms 2. Use data from registries like ACRA 3. Simplify internal and client processes |
| Why |
1. Avoid missed business opportunities 2. Enable faster global expansion 3. Enhance client experience across markets |
| Who |
1. Standard Chartered Bank leadership 2. Corporate treasurers and global businesses 3. Internal technology and relationship teams |
| Where |
1. Singapore headquarters 2. West Africa expansion markets 3. Across 59 countries in ASEAN and beyond |
| When |
1. Current transformation underway 2. Goal within one week onboarding 3. Shift from two months to one week |
Transcript of the interview:
At Standard Chartered Bank, we are on a mission to make banking frictionless for our international customers. To explain that a little bit further, imagine you are a corporate treasurer of a successful business here in Singapore and you want to expand your business into new markets in West Africa.
You are going to need new banking services, new bank accounts over there. Today the problems you might face is that it is going to take a long time to establish those bank accounts.
You might have to provide huge amounts of documentation to make that happen, and you wouldn’t really have much visibility of the progress as that goes along. You might even lose business opportunities as a result of those things.
With the transformation that we are undertaking, we intend to make that process much faster. Rather than taking upwards of two months today, we would hope that that will happen within a week for your new accounts to be enabled.
We will be gathering a lot of that data automatically from other places. We will not have to ask you for as much involvement.
You will have full visibility along the way of how things are going during the process. All of that will enable you to focus on your business growth and development opportunities possibly across Standard Chartered’s other 59 countries that we operate in, rather than worrying about the speed that your banking is operating at.
What are the things that you are putting in place in order to carry on with this transformation?
The three things that we intend to achieve from our client experience will be fast, simple, and clear. As I said, the process will happen much faster, it will be simplified for you, and you will be able to have visibility all the way along.
The way that we are achieving that is using a combination of the strengths that we already have in place. We have a fantastic relationship network with our clients and we are listening to what they are telling us and getting feedback from those clients around what works for them today and what does not.
The strength of our network is important and the locations that we operate in are some of the positives that we are here. We are also well aware that there are some areas that we need to improve, as in the speed of the service and some of the pain points.
- We are getting details from our clients through our relationship network.
- We are investing heavily in our technology platform to provide support for these new capabilities to make life easier both for our clients and for our internal staff so that they have simpler processes to follow and that they are well supported.
- The third area we are really investing in is in data.
Today rather than having to ask you for all of your registration documents, I can easily go and gather that information from corporate registries such as ACRA in Singapore and automate that process to make it simpler for everyone. That will result in the faster speed, ease of doing business, and enablement for our customers so they can focus on their business development rather than on their banking.