Huawei Empowers Global Financial Customers’ Digital Transformation with Mobile-Centric Strategy and Cloud, AI, and 5G Capabilities

Huawei recently held its Global FSI Summit 2020 online with the theme of “Thrive Digitally in a Mobile Future.” Financial institutions and enterprises were invited to share their experiences and insights in dealing with the “new normal” in the post-pandemic era, including accelerated “mobile first” implementations and using FinTech to ensure business continuity and reshape financial services models.

Huawei believes that mobile capabilities are essential to future banks. Supporting this mobile-centric business will require new IT architectures and key capabilities of cloud, AI, and 5G. As a leading tech player, Huawei provides its global financial customers with competitive financial ICT solutions, and works with various world-leading partners on joint innovation.

The summit attracted the world’s leading financial institutions, including Shanghai Pudong Development (SPD) Bank, China Construction Bank, Singapore DBS Bank, Sberbank, BBVA, Isbank; the world’s leading financial solutions provider Temenos; and analyst institution IDC and other global industry participants.

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Financial Institutions that Adopt a ‘Mobile First’ Strategy Will Achieve Greater Success

The COVID-19 pandemic has advanced digital operations in the financial industry with more confidence and determination in such implementation. Moreover, the industry has demonstrated its advantages and value in applying new technologies in digital operations.

Peng Zhongyang, Director of the Board and President of the Enterprise Business Group at Huawei, stated: “Based on cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence, 5G, and other ICT technologies, innovative FinTech will embrace new opportunities and lead the upgrade of financial services. We have combined our 30 years of technical experience, capabilities, and industry insights with customer needs, to provide competitive financial ICT products and solutions that span multiple domains, and collaborate with various partners for joint innovation. We believe that financial institutions that are ready to go digital will probably see greater success.”

Adhering to the “mobile first” principle to achieve smart experience is the foundation for financial institutions’ customer-centric business strategies, said Jason Cao, President of Global Financial Services Business Unit, Enterprise BG at Huawei.

“We do believe that the mobile capability will be the core of the future of the banking industry,” he said. “It not only is applicable to the interface that connects with clients, but also to the internal operations and collaborations with partners. Supporting this mobile-centric business will require new IT architectures and key capabilities of 5G, AI, and cloud. As a leader of these technologies, Huawei has unique advantages that supports the cloud transformation of financial institutions, builds new connecting capabilities, and helps financial institutions improve their agility and innovation capabilities.”

The Transformation Experience of Banks in China Empowers the Global Financial Services Industry

Over the past 10 years, Huawei has accumulated extensive experience globally. Particularly in the China market, Huawei has gained experience in leading banks’ transformation and thriving in the mobile app era. Notably, the banking sector has taken a series of measures to ensure business continuity in different stages of the pandemic. In the post-pandemic era, banks need to proactively reflect on their business model and prepare for any uncertainties in order to ensure an agile business moving forward.

Shanghai Pudong Development (SPD) Bank has applied technologies such as 5G, IoT, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing since 2018. At the beginning of this year, the bank established a three-year action plan, aiming to strengthen open banking, promote full-stack digitalization, and create new development drivers by focusing on customer experience and digital technology. From a strategic perspective, the bank will promote data operations, technology upgrades, and cross-industry collaboration. For example, SPD Bank has developed an AI-powered virtual employee, Xiaopu. Through professional training, Xiaopu is capable of offering risk assessment, financial consulting, investment advice, and news broadcast services online. In the 5G environment, Xiaopu can work perfectly on various devices such as mobile phones, smart watches, and cars, making high-quality, personalized, and intelligent services more convenient and inclusive.

Pan Weidong, President of SPD Bank, expressed this his keynote speech: “Adhering to ‘customer-centricity,’ SPD Bank uses 5G and other technologies to continuously innovate customer experience, business models, and open ecosystems, and expand the breadth, depth, and width of financial services. We will strengthen cross-industry cooperation and innovation. We want to create infinite possibilities with connections, inspire infinite momentum with intelligence, serve the industry ecosystem with FinTech, and jointly promote high-quality social and economic development to embrace a better future.”

China Construction Bank (CCB) launched the “TOP+” strategy for financial digital transformation as early as 2011. It uses technology and data as a two-wheel drive to actively embrace new technologies such as AI, blockchain, cloud computing, and 5G, and embed financial services into the four essential sectors, namely, clothing, food, housing, and transportation. During the pandemic, the application of new technologies allows CCB to provide customers with “no-contact services” correspondingly. An online loans channel, for example, is set to meet customers’ financial needs. In early February, the bank launched a comprehensive service of “anti-epidemic zone” through mobile banking and WeChat Bank, providing real-time data on the epidemic situation, applications for late personal loan repayment, charitable donations, and other services.

Niu Wenchao, Senior Engineer of China Construction Bank, said at the summit: “During the epidemic, while the over-the-counter transactions decreased significantly, CCB’s online transactions increased slightly. Thanks to CCB’s dual cloud strategy, the private cloud provides stable operations, and the public cloud assists with innovation and development. More importantly, we rely on the intelligent data center infrastructure and the highly automated and intelligent network jointly built by Huawei and CCB. Digital transformation has laid the foundation for us to quickly respond to emergencies and maintain continuity of customer services.”

Huawei’s Data Infrastructure Stimulates Digital Transformation in the Financial Sector to Address Mobile Challenges

A strong and powerful real-time connectivity is of the essence when the banking sector enters the digital world, and 5G, IoT, and a flexible network are key technologies.

Accelerated data infrastructure also enables future banking. Joy Huang, Chief Strategy Officer, Cloud & AI BG, at Huawei, thinks some banks have sustaining robust growth because of digital technologies. These growing companies have one thing in common, which is that their good online services capabilities are based on cloud, so that they can be very agile in innovation. Huawei learns from customers that the most effective way is to practice multi-cloud, with separate clouds for different users, and meanwhile pay close attention to customers’ last-mile experience for mobile services and smart branches.

Improving the user experience of financial Apps is an important part of digital transformation. Siri Borsum, VP of Finance Vertical, Global Partnerships & Eco-Development, Consumer BG, at Huawei, commented: “Huawei’s large number of device users, strong HMS capabilities, rich market resources, offline retail resources, and global human resources will help our partners serve users better and improve user experience of mobile apps.”

Network connectivity is one of the core components of the financial data infrastructure. Daniel Tang, CTO of Data Communications Product Line, at Huawei, said: “Huawei’s comprehensively upgraded CloudFabric 2.0 data center network solution, through the high-density 400GE intelligent ultra-wide, zero-packet-loss intelligent connection, and support-differentiated capabilities such as intelligent operation and maintenance of autonomous driving networks, will lead the data center network into the intelligent era, help financial institutions build full-scale financial services, and enhance mobile user experience.”

Huawei helps financial institutions digitally transform in terms of inclusive finance, data-driven business innovation, open banking, and providing customers with inclusive, stable, secure, and convenient financial services. To date, Huawei has served more than 1,600 financial institutions worldwide, including 45 of the world’s top 100 banks. In addition, it has established comprehensive strategic collaboration with 20 large-scale banks, insurers, and securities companies around the world, and has become a trusted strategic partner for customers’ digital transformation.

Huawei’s Global FSI Summit is a global ICT event hosted by Huawei and focused on the financial services industry. The event was first held in 2013 and all attendees are industry elites from financial institutions. Learn more about Huawei Global FSI Summit 2020.

Learn more about Huawei’s Intelligent Finance Solution.