AI tools must be deployed with strong oversight.
HSBC Holdings Plc's approach to technology remains unchanged. Even though the artificial intelligence (AI) landscape is changing at breakneck speed, we only use innovation when it solves real problems for our customers.
Bank executives said: Asian banking and finance Rapidly advancing technology, particularly the rise of more autonomous agent AI, makes human and regulatory oversight more important than ever.
“You can have all the technology, but it has to solve a customer problem.” Winnie YapHSBC Singapore's Head of Global Payment Solutions said this on the sidelines of the Singapore FinTech Festival 2025.
She said serving customers today means looking beyond HSBC's direct customers to the people they serve.
Businesses that transact with consumers may need to process a variety of payment methods, including cards, e-wallets and Singapore's PayNow, and managing that patchwork can be a daunting task for businesses, Yap said.
He said the bank's mission is to provide simplified, integrated solutions that customers can offer to their own customers, and technology alone cannot carry out that responsibility.
“You can have all the technology there, but clients still really value the thought leadership and advice that you bring to the table to help them along the way,” Yap said.
Shayan HajirHSBC's chief digital officer for Asia (excluding Hong Kong), the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey said the bank's innovation is not about releasing as many tools as possible. Strong governance and regulatory guardrails are needed to ensure that AI-driven systems are safe, reliable, and consistent with human values.
“We have to create human guardrails so that we can preserve our creativity, our compassion, our ability to collaborate, and our conscience,” he said. “These are things that cannot be easily translated into AI, bots, and agents, and we need to design them that way.”
Hajir pointed out that as AI systems become more capable, human judgment becomes even more important.
“AI needs to be ethical, responsible, protected and managed,” he said. “This is very important because…you tend to hallucinate. You tend to think logically and produce outcomes that make you happy.”
Hajir said the key is not to prevent the use of agent models and advanced AI tools, but to ensure they are deployed with strong oversight.
“We now need to make sure that humans are involved, and we need to make sure that we are creating these models with the governance and protections that need to be created,” he added. On the payments side, HSBC sees an increasing demand for real-time information.
information and data. Finance personnel, in particular, now play an important role in corporate strategy. Tariffs announced by the United States and China are impacting trade flows and are forcing Treasury officials to make faster, more informed decisions.
“Today's treasurers are no longer the treasurers of the past. Treasurers are strategic decision makers because information is power and data is power,” Yap said.
The guiding questions for HSBC remain. “With available technology, what can banks do to provide faster information?” she asked. A solution is as simple as providing an application programming interface (API).
Blockchain enables HSBC’s tokenized deposit initiative, powering bank’s cross-border real-time transfers
Digital commerce is another major change impacting bank customers. According to HSBC research, more than 80% of business-to-consumer payments in Singapore are now made digitally.
Mr Yap said the bank is ready to assist customers at any stage of their digital maturity. He said some customers are far ahead of the curve, working with banks on things like tokenized deposits and other digital innovations. Some companies are more traditional but still trying to keep up with the latest technology.
Hajir said the goal is to build an organization where ideas can be easily generated.
“It's about how we come together around issues and opportunities, rather than siloing across departments and functions,” he said. “And that's where technology comes into play. Otherwise, we're just learning for the sake of learning.”
