2020 Asia Pacific Regulatory Outlook

The International Monetary Fund forecast 5.1% growth in 2020 for the Asia Pacific region. Although slightly down on 2019, the outlook is relatively rosier than in other parts of the world. However, while the higher regulatory standards that are expected to be completed by end 2022 have helped bolster public confidence in the stability of the financial system, trust continues to remain low.

To this end, APAC regulators are shining a light on culture, accountability and governance to ensure financial institutions are demonstrating the right behaviours. This focus is about ensuring organisations do right by their customers, including properly protecting their personal data, and using it ethically as inputs into emerging technologies like artificial intelligence.

Regulators have also described the need to forge stronger communities and societies through forward-looking initiatives like financial inclusion and sustainable finance. These aspects of ‘customer-centricity’ add up to a financial institution’s social licence to operate. This will impact Asia Pac’s financial institutions’ internal operations in the years ahead, as well as how they harness technology, and how they engage with their customers and society as a whole.

In a comprehensive discussion on both regulatory licence and social licence to operate, Deloitte’s 2020 Asia Pacific Regulatory Outlook shares case studies and timetables for the more stringent requirements across the multi-jurisdictions that comprise the region – from Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, to Thailand.

Published: January 2020