How the Information Age Affects Asian Banking

The McKinsey Quarterly writes, (bold emphasis mine)

Banks doing business in Asia face rapidly changing consumer behavior, with big consequences for both local and multinational institutions. Consumers increasingly prefer local banks over multinationals, are less loyal to existing banking relationships, are much more cautious about borrowing, and are more open to Internet and mobile banking. These shifts in the nature of banking relationships, product and service needs, and channels are reflected in a 2011 McKinsey survey of 20,000 consumers in 13 Asian markets...

Asian consumers are being weaned from brick-and-mortar branches: for the first time since McKinsey began conducting the survey, 13 years ago, bank branch usage has dropped, plunging by 27 percent on average across Asia between 2007 and 2011.

This drop has been matched by an uptick in Internet and mobile banking, a trend particularly pronounced in developed Asian markets, such as Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan. There, consumers now use new channels, such as the Internet and mobile devices, for their banking more often than traditional ones, such as telephones and branches: the use of new channels rose to 3.2 times a month in 2011, from 2.35 in 2007, while that of traditional channels dropped to 2.57 times a month, from 3.5. In China, about 18 percent of all people who patronize banks now use Internet banking, compared with only 3 percent in 2007.

That shift arises largely from the increased penetration of remote channels. A growing number of customers across income segments are getting accustomed to and comfortable with them for both sales and service. The multichannel environment has thus become a reality: our research highlights the fact that, on average, Asian consumers are using as many as 5 channels for research and 1.8 channels for maintenance.

Some comments

The rapid shift in the preferences of Asian consumers reveals of the increasing personalization or specialization of markets. This extrapolates to an intensifying trend of de-massification of financial services towards niche markets or a transition from products and services designed for the masses towards decentralization or localization. Providers who cannot cope will this seismic development will perish. This is the forces of creative destruction at work.

And this paradigm shift is being enabled and facilitated by the internet which again exhibits how the web revolution has immensely been affecting people’s lifestyle.

In addition, this is another proof that people are getting to be more sophisticated with an extended reach or access to information.

This also means more value added services for the increasingly discriminate consumers.

The forces of centralization seems to be paving way for reign of the forces of decentralization.

The great F. A. Hayek’s knowledge revolution is underway.

P.S. My computer hasn't normalized yet so my post will remain limited