WSBI Asia-Pacific Regional Group

The WSBI Asian membership are leading financial service providers in their market. They are serving a large of the population with extensive distribution network.

24

MEMBERS

16

COUNTRIES

35%

MARKET SHARE

Coming from a region that comprises almost third of G20 countries (China, India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Turkey).

The WSBI Asia-Pacific Regional Group represents member banks through advocacy work, promotes exchange on banking innovation and digitisation and facilitated business cooperation.

Who are the WSBI Asian membership?

The WSBI Asia-Pacific regional group brings together 24 members from 16 countries. The WSBI Asian membership are leading financial service providers in their market. They are serving a large of the population with extensive distribution network. Some 1.1 billion people in the Asia region seek banking services from WSBI members there.

This is thanks to the dynamics of the region with its large population and robust economic growth. They serve large part of banked population. The market share of customers among the population is extremely high as illustrated in Graph below. This evidences the fact that the traditional savings and retail banks are the largest financial service providers in some countries.

The WSBI Asia-Pacific Regional Group was established to bring together the members in the region to keep close exchange on specific issues and to promote the exchange of best practices and create business cooperation opportunities. Representing 24 financial institutions from 16 countries, group members meet at least once a year at annual regional group meetings.

Cooperation between WSBI members in the group ranges from contact building and exchanges of information to the development of concrete business opportunities, at bilateral or multilateral level. For example, members host training workshops for other members, sign business cooperation memoranda of understanding, exchange expertise and enter into reciprocal business partnerships.

Leadership

Mr. Isara Wongrung, Senior Executive Vice President of Government Savings Bank (GSB) of Thailand, leads the Asia Regional Group. WSBI regional group presidents are appointed for three-year terms among the top management of member banks in the region. His term ends in 2024.

Why their
work matters

The Asian continent has become more and more important for the world economy and the banking sector has a key role to play in these developments. Experiencing robust economic growth in recent years, the region’s voice has grown on the international scene, with a third of G20 countries coming from Asia. On the policy front, Asia enjoys policymaker support for banking innovation and digitalization.

The region faces challenges, however, as some members are regulated as specialized banks and restricted to certain business activity in areas such as financial products or services and distribution channels. The region faces increasingly cut-throat competition as new financial service providers enter the banking landscape, including internet finance and more diverse banking business models.

Advocacy

The role of regional groups is to provide input to overall WSBI messages provided to G20 leaders. They advocate as necessary with regional parties, authorities and national regulatory bodies. It interacts and promote member best practice with key regional stakeholders, including the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), Business Advisory Council Financial Inclusion Initiative and the Asia Microfinance Forum.

Knowledge Sharing

Knowledge sharing between Asia Regional Group members help boost their business development efforts. The group aims to promote members’ best practices, a powerful way to raise service, quality and reach in member markets. They look to identify best practices and seek to transfer the knowledge among Asian members, fostering regional cooperation – members helping members.

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