SMFG said it originally created a business-wide project team in August 2012 to tackle big tech changes affecting financial services, such as using the IBM Watson – the cognitive computer system – in contact centre operations to improve how the firm deals with clients; it also signed a partnership with the Plug & Play Tech Center in California to stay on board with latest fintech trends.

The new IT Innovation Research Department will inherit the functions of the earlier teams but push an “Open Innovation” concept that concentrates on using knowledge outside the business and forge alliances with non-financial firms. Another move is embracing “agile development – accelerating cycles of planning, prototyping and testing for new products and services.

Other banking and wealth management firms are making such moves to boost tech innovation in ways that they hope will lead to beneficial changes in the long run. For example, in September, Citigroup  named partners for a programme to encourage financial technology innovation in the Asian region. IBM and PricewaterhouseCoopers are strategic partners for the Citi Mobile Challenge. IBM will offer mentorship tutorials, and access to Bluemix, its digital innovation platform. Through this, it will help developers participating in the programme to build, test and deploy their fintech. PwC will create an “acceleration programme across the Asia-Pacific region”.

Asia has been an increasingly important centre for fintech development. Credit Suisse, for example, notably chose Singapore, rather than its home country of Switzerland, as the launch site for its mobile private banking platform in March this year.

DBS, the Singapore-headquartered bank, has made digital strategy a core feature of its overall business approach, for example.