The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the world hard, changed people’s lives and pushed contactless services into the mainstream.
The Discovery Channel noticed the rapid digital transformation taking place in Taiwan’s financial industry and took six months to produce the Tomorrow by Taiwan: Virtual World program, which premiered at 10pm on Wednesday.
The program showed how CTBC Bank (中國信託商銀) pays attention to the customer experience and uses artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, cloud technology and big data to provide financial services that are available anytime, anywhere.
Photo courtesy of the Discovery Channel
Tomorrow by Taiwan: Virtual World was hosted by TV personality Janet Hsieh (謝怡芬), who led the audience in exploring the development of financial technology in the post-pandemic era.
The program aired on the Discovery Channel in 13 countries and territories in Asia, including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand.
CTBC has had excellent performance in the digitalization of its financial services.
In particular, the bank has processed more than 360,000 COVID-19 relief loan applications per year over the two years of the pandemic, the highest output among Taiwan’s private banks.
CTBC president James Chen (陳佳文) said that the bank’s online platform for processing relief loans integrates cash data with information data to provide a contactless application service.
A crucial step for digital innovation at the bank was its adoption of a “mobile first” approach six years ago, which it has invested in ever since.
The pandemic has also helped to accelerate the digital transformation, making it more acceptable to the public.
In the next stage, the challenge for the financial industry will be to increase the capabilities of digital services, Chen said.
Only firms that can provide high-quality remote digital services will remain competitive, he added.
CTBC has been using blockchain technology to provide corporate customers with a smoother trade finance process.
In 2016, the bank took the lead in joining the R3 Alliance, the largest international financial blockchain ecosystem, becoming the first R3 Alliance member in Taiwan.
By adopting blockchain technology to replace the complicated and time-consuming issuance of letters of credit, and using AI technology to automatically identify traditional Chinese documents, the bank has optimized the international trade finance process.
CTBC has made good use of big data, and is implementing end-to-end digitization to build a personalized smart financial environment for its customers and provide them with a better experience.
To extend the reach of its financial services, the bank has been working with partners such as Line Pay, CPC Pay and Hotai Pay to build a more convenient financial ecosystem.
CTBC has also taken the lead in adopting Apple Inc’s Business Chat financial service, which is integrated directly into Apple’s Messages app.
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