Serious Bloomberg says GLCs are worse performers and banks dancing at own funeral

Friday, 1 September 2017
[h=2]Singapore banks face creative destruction[/h] by andy mukherjee







The city-state’s enthusiasm for the mobile-readable quick response code can be gauged from a task force set up this week by the central bank’s payments council. The goal is to have the specifications for a common QR code for Singapore ready by the end of 2017. Interestingly, all three local banks – DBS Group Holdings Ltd, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC) and United Overseas Bank Ltd (UOB) – are part of this group, as is FOMO Pay, a startup that helps merchants accept WeChat and Baidu Wallet payments from Chinese customers.







WHEN is something money and not just a cowrie shell? When you can pay taxes with it. Or that’s the argument of chartalists, the folks who see the state’s hand behind the origins of all manner of money.
So don’t be surprised if in a couple of years, the tax authorities in Singapore send a QR (Quick Response) code with their annual bill. Scan this modern-day cowrie shell, and you’ll get a thank-you SMS for contributing to nation-building.


The city-state’s enthusiasm for the mobile-readable quick response code can be gauged from a task force set up this week by the central bank’s payments council. The goal is to have the specifications for a common QR code for Singapore ready by the end of 2017.


Interestingly, all three local banks – DBS Group Holdings Ltd, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC) and United Overseas Bank Ltd (UOB) – are part of this group, as is FOMO Pay, a startup that helps merchants accept WeChat and Baidu Wallet payments from Chinese customers.








Are the Singapore banks being invited to dance at their own funeral? The Chinese today do US$5.5 trillion of mobile payments annually, with bridesmaids wearing codes to collect wedding gifts, according to a report in the South China Morning Post. That world-leading digital payment revolution, however, is driven by Tencent Holdings Ltd, Baidu Inc and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, and not by any bank.


Now that Singapore (population 5.6 million) has decided to follow suit, it’s hard to say if customers will be keen to rebuild their rollover credit-card balances, which peaked at almost S$5.8bil (US$4.3bil) in early 2015, and have tapered off by 10% since then. Easy money isn’t the only thing at risk here: Losing dominance in payments could also mean losing customers to rival offerings in everything from wealth management to insurance.


It’s not as if the authorities have an option, though. A QR code shared by banks has already been established in less financially developed Asian countries like Thailand and India. Merely staying ahead of its traditional rival, Hong Kong, would be a mistake when the latter, too, is at risk of falling behind. (And curiously so, considering that, Hong Kong, unlike Singapore, doesn’t have big banking interests of its own to protect.)


After telecom, media and transport, banking will be the next Singapore industry to be disrupted. StarHub Ltd, the worst-performing stock on the Straits Times Index in the past year, has had its pay-TV business by Netflix Inc. Third from bottom is ComfortDelgro Corp. The fact that Comfort shares jumped the most in almost nine years last week after the city’s biggest taxi operator said it was in talks with Uber Technologies Inc for a partnership shows how seriously investors are taking the threat from ride-hailing apps.


Now the BAT trinity – Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent – is threatening banks with creative destruction. Before Singaporean bridesmaids (or tax bills) start displaying black squares on a white background, DBS, OCBC and UOB need a quick response of their own. — Bloomberg

The local banks like DBS seem to have serious problems. I recently opened a DBS Treasures account & discovered just how bad it is:(

3 weeks after opening the account I still have not received the dongle & internet access account.
I got in touch with the personal banker who was assigned to me & complained about this problem.
2 weeks later I still haven't received anything. Contacted my PB again.
1 week later I contacted her again
I finally made an appointment to collect the items next week.

7 weeks & 3 calls later I hope to finally get internet access

For this account I only have USD$ in the account & the only way to check the account is via internet banking. I hope the USD$ is still in there.

What do you expect when you have an environment where the owners of corporates are allowed the "easy way" out-by retrenching people.

Every time you find the banks bottom line is being threatened- they simply start retrenching people to cut cost. When conditions improve, they start hiring again .These firing and rehiring occur every few years and what happen is that the banks lose all its experienced line people and are staffed by cheaper staff who lacks the experience/expertise to compete.
The top management/main shareholders who are responsible for the direction of the banks and to drive innovation still remain .These entrenched people think they can just go out and get a Bill Gates/Steve Jobs/Jack Ma by paying a few thousand each month and expect them to earn millions in return!

Why would anyone who can make millions running their own shop work for a few share options as rewards each year?
So they bring in the Pinoys/Indian FT's to fill up their ranks esp the IT depts. and that's what you get today!
Can these foreign talents from India and Pinoyland so eagerly welcomed by the PAP drive the banking industry to be competitive internationally? Wait long long lah!

johnny333 said:

The local banks like DBS seem to have serious problems. I recently opened a DBS Treasures account & discovered just how bad it is:(

3 weeks after opening the account I still have not received the dongle & internet access account.
I got in touch with the personal banker who was assigned to me & complained about this problem.
2 weeks later I still haven't received anything. Contacted my PB again.
1 week later I contacted her again
I finally made an appointment to collect the items next week.

7 weeks & 3 calls later I hope to finally get internet access

For this account I only have USD$ in the account & the only way to check the account is via internet banking. I hope the USD$ is still in there.

Click to expand...

yr fault.... u should see her and unzip, ask her tua kee anot? then invite her to suck. after that confirm service will improve and her complexion as well.

It's funny though how the people who manage the environment are never retrenched as long as they are obedient to the leeder.

borom said:

What do you expect when you have an environment where the owners of corporates are allowed the "easy way" out-by retrenching people.

Click to expand...

virus said:

yr fault.... u should see her and unzip, ask her tua kee anot? then invite her to suck. after that confirm service will improve and her complexion as well.

Click to expand...

I'm only keeping enough $ in USD$ to Satisfy the minimum requirements for a Treasures account. So I don't think I qualify for freebies

After seeing the poor service given to their Treasures account holders I doubt I'll continue using it because I don't feel that my $ is safe with DBS:(. So thinking about eventually closing the account & moving elsewhere.

It's ok to have small amounts with POSB/DBS because of the convenience of their ATM network in Spore but for large amounts I'm beginning to feel that it is too risky.

borom said:

What do you expect when you have an environment where the owners of corporates are allowed the "easy way" out-by retrenching people.

Every time you find the banks bottom line is being threatened- they simply start retrenching people to cut cost. When conditions improve, they start hiring again .These firing and rehiring occur every few years and what happen is that the banks lose all its experienced line people and are staffed by cheaper staff who lacks the experience/expertise to compete.
The top management/main shareholders who are responsible for the direction of the banks and to drive innovation still remain .These entrenched people think they can just go out and get a Bill Gates/Steve Jobs/Jack Ma by paying a few thousand each month and expect them to earn millions in return!

Why would anyone who can make millions running their own shop work for a few share options as rewards each year?
So they bring in the Pinoys/Indian FT's to fill up their ranks esp the IT depts. and that's what you get today!
Can these foreign talents from India and Pinoyland so eagerly welcomed by the PAP drive the banking industry to be competitive internationally? Wait long long lah!

Click to expand...

"Can these foreign talents from India and Pinoyland so eagerly welcomed by the PAP drive the banking industry to be competitive."

Exactly. They think the can build a high quality society with low quality imports. Short term thinking. Singapore is a dysfunctional country. The effects disastrous policies of the last decade is going to be hard to turn around.

Satyr said:

"Can these foreign talents from India and Pinoyland so eagerly welcomed by the PAP drive the banking industry to be competitive."

Exactly. They think the can build a high quality society with low quality imports. Short term thinking. Singapore is a dysfunctional country. The effects disastrous policies of the last decade is going to be hard to turn around.

Click to expand...

A few years ago I heard of residents in Batam losing money which was deposited in Spore. They didn't follow up with a complaint to the management. They did not regularly visit Spore & did not know when the funds were stolen.

This may only be the tip of the iceberg. When you have all kinds of poor people from The 3rd world working in Spore, there will be bad apples. This is especially true with banks like DBS where controls seem to be lacking.

I can now confirm that DBS is a gone case?
If you have $, better avoid this bank.

I escalated the problem of not getting a dongle/ID/password to my personal relations manager & I got word that I could pick it up at the DBS bank with a Treasures office.

Wasted my time visiting them to pick up the dongle because they could not provide me with the ID or password. 12 weeks since the account was opened & I still can't access my account

I only have USD$ in the account & can't even use my ATM card to check how much is in the account. As a privileged account holder I am suppose to go through my personal account manager & I cannot go through the usual hotline/phone banking.

I'll probably close the account & move the funds to a real bank. The problem is that I will have to incur bank charges to wire the funds to another bank.

So a warning to others, save yourself from some grief & avoid DBS.