The retail banking industry in South Korea has changed dramatically. The advent of virtual banks in the country accelerated the industry’s digital transformation efforts. Today, most local clients access banking services through digital channels. However, Standard Chartered Bank Korea believes this digital trend has so far only focused on transactions.
As the only universal global bank in South Korea, operating both Consumer and Wholesale businesses, Standard Chartered Bank Korea has put in efforts to pioneer digital transformation in another area – wealth management.
Based on three major pillars – client engagement channels, mobile banking, and advisory solution – the bank built an exceptional ecosystem dedicated to wealth solutions. This ecosystem lowered the hurdle of starting the investment journey by providing content related to wealth management, enabling efficient execution, and providing comprehensive portfolio-based advice.
The bank’s initiative to transform its digital channels and enhance its digital capabilities to provide a superior customer experience has been recognised by The Digital Banker, giving Standard Chartered Bank Korea the Best Wealth Manager for Digital CX award at the Digital CX Awards 2024, held in Singapore. Representing the bank was Sachin Bhambani, Managing Director, Head of Affluent & Wealth Solutions, at Standard Chartered Bank Korea.
A Unique Proposition
In 2023, Standard Chartered Bank Korea’s Wealth Management business embarked on a digital transformation project to enhance the unit’s digital ecosystem and fulfil the demand of both internal and external users to deliver a world-class experience.
For internal users, especially the frontline staff, the project focused on improving the Wealth Management unit’s advisory solution, which included a revamp of its portfolio design feature to provide advanced client portfolio metrics, and an upgrade of the customer relationship management (CRM) feature, helping the staff to identify prominent clients and track their status.
Sachin Bhambani
Managing Director, Head of Affluent & Wealth Solutions
For external users – clients – the business enhanced its mobile channel by examining and identifying hurdles and building a seamless client journey through a modification of the mobile user interface and the addition of several new introductory pages and features, based on its analysis.
Standard Chartered Bank Korea’s Wealth Solutions business also improved its mobile banking channel based on each product’s characteristics. For fund products, it introduced new filters and categories to offer a more client-friendly experience, and magazine-type pages for an advanced proposition.
The business also improved its foreign exchange (FX) service, and now offers 24/7 foreign currency cash exchange. Moreover, to enhance client engagement, it collaborated with a leading local virtual bank, and distributed its content on both Standard Chartered Bank Korea and the virtual bank’s channels.
The collaboration enabled the business to engage more with the younger generation – a major portion of virtual bank’s client base – and offer insightful global wealth management content for potential customers.
Digital CX Strategy
The Wealth Management business breaks down the client journey into four phases – client engagement, acquisition, execution, and monitoring – with the aim of making them all client-friendly.
For client engagement, the business focused on expanding its footprint and improving the quality of its content through its collaboration with the local virtual bank. For acquisition, content and product propositions were key, for which it leveraged on the bank’s advisory framework, SC Wealth Select, and enhance its proposition.
For execution, the business targeted offering a seamless client journey. This involved eliminating duplicated processes, minimising manual tasks, and developing a recommendation system for mobile banking.
In terms of monitoring, the project delivered excellent results for both mobile banking and advisory solutions. For mobile banking, it leveraged MyData service, an open API system in Korea, to allow clients to get a comprehensive view of their holdings. For advisory, it enabled the portfolio evaluation feature and engagement metrics for a smoother client experience.
