Cross-border payments, embedded finance to be boosted in 2024: analyst

Embedded financial services will become increasingly popular during the year.

Cross-border payments, embedded finance, core banking modernisation will characterize banking in Southeast Asia in 2024.

“In response to the region’s digital and social commerce growth, the sector will increasingly be characterized by instant cross-border payments, embedded finance and core banking modernization,” says EY ASEAN Financial Services Leader Brian Thung.

2024 is shaping up to be the year where cross-border payment connectivity will be boosted across APAC thanks to real-time payments ecosystem taking shape, Thung noted.

“2024 will also see non-FS companies increasingly embedding financial services in their core value propositions. This embedded finance (EmFi) will drive cross-sector convergence as finance components are invisibly integrated into customers’ purchasing experiences,” he added.

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Generative AI is another developing field in 2024, with Thung advising FS chief information security officers (CISO) to add gen AI tech to their cybersecurity armoury.

“We expect investigation copilots will improve the consistency of decisions across volumes of data previously unmanageable for humans alone. Large language models (LLMs) will be used for transaction lookbacks to significantly speed up transaction reviews by extracting relevant information, identifying transaction patterns and flagging suspicious activities,” Thung said.

“We also expect to see FS firms training their own LLMs to increase responsiveness and agility. This will help to remove the burden of regulatory compliance, expedite customer service and fortify security measures. The result will be increased customer satisfaction, reduced risks and operational efficiencies,” he added.