COVID-19 Impact on FIs’ IT Plans in Japan/ APAC
Celent continues to conduct online surveys and individual interviews with financial institutions and IT vendors in order to understand the impact that COVID-19 has had on the financial industry in Japan and APAC. This paper provides the results and analysis of two surveys conducted in April 2020, as well as insights and recommendations for "New Normal Adaptation.”
In the transitional period from the unprecedented emergency to the new normal, the Japanese and APAC financial institutions have stepped up their countermeasures.
In Japan, the responses of survey participants clearly changed after the government declared a state of emergency and the FSA Guidelines for Basic Policies were released. The response of Japanese financial institutions to the crisis has progressed in stages, initially by their changing the “internal IT structure,” then providing “IT support for customers,” and finally “reviewing the entire industry value chain”.
In APAC countries, too, the responses collected after the lockdown or the announcement of IMF’s International Macroeconomics Indicator were greatly different from the responses before them. Many APAC financial institutions, concerned about the stagnation of cross-border transactions, delays and failures in global supply chains, including IT resources, in addition to the slowdown of their own economies, said they were reviewing their IT sourcing models, including how to respond to crises in their IT development and operations.
