Anju Patwardhan

Global Chief Innovation Officer at Standard Charter Bank

Singapore

@Anjupatwardhan | LinkedIn Profile

I lead the Bank’s strategic innovation agenda and I am responsible for driving a strategic and sustainable approach on the use of emerging technologies and data science solutions.

Standard Chartered is a unique organisation – we were one of the first financial services companies to set up an innovation outpost in the Silicon Valley five years ago. We have had pockets of employees across the globe working on different innovation projects and more recently the Bank decided that the time had come to consolidate those initiatives and create a global innovation team.

Our innovation agenda is focused on four main areas:

• First, we’re exploring the use of emerging technologies and advanced data analytics for de-risking or solving business problems and enhancing customer experience.
• Second, we’re focused on thought leadership and industry trends, in order to have an informed view on how to respond – for example, whether to get involved, have a watching brief or do nothing. This also includes engagement with industry partners, universities, accelerators, venture capital firms etc.
• The third area is regulatory engagement. We engage with regulators in many countries, especially as a number are setting up fintech and innovation teams themselves.
• The fourth area is client engagement and providing support to other areas of the bank using emerging technologies. For example, one team in the bank works on financial inclusion and impact investing. Many technology companies, either directly or through their foundation organisations, are working in this arena. As an emerging markets bank, we are exploring ways with our impact investing team to better use technology to support financial inclusion outcomes including access to financial services for the unbanked.

Underpinning all these priorities is the agenda to build a culture of innovation within the organisation.

What led to your initial interest in financial services?

I grew up in a professional, middle-class family in India. In those days, if you were good at academics, you parents expected you to become a doctor or an engineer. The first time we had to dissect a frog at school, I fainted. I figured that medicine was not for me and I ended up becoming an engineer.

While studying for my engineering degree at the Indian Institute of Technology, I did my internship in an oil refinery where women were not allowed on the shop floor. That gave me a flavour of what it would be like to be a female engineer in India. The most likely career path was in R&D. I then decide to enrol for an MBA and completed my MBA from Indian Institute of Management. I then joined Citibank which appeared to have the best graduate programme and the starting pay they offered was very attractive.

In my 18 years at Citibank, I worked in many areas including credit risk management, digital banking, operations, internal audit and re-engineering.

You have a strong risk management background. How does this align with your role as an innovator in the banking space?

In my previous role as Group Head, Risk Innovation, I was already covering innovation globally from a credit, market and operational risk perspective, and this allowed for a smooth transition into my current role as Global Chief Innovation Officer.

My role at Citibank as digital banking (internet and mobile banking) director for Asia-Pacific was also a valuable experience.

Any aspiring innovation leader needs to have intellectual curiosity and determination. In addition, domain expertise is critical as it provides an appreciation of business challenges and issues. Innovation also requires an ability to focus on what not to do and prioritise.

My background in engineering, risk management and digital banking allows me to help drive the strategic innovation agenda. It helps me to review technology solutions and be able to connect the dots.

Innovation is about taking calculated risks and getting comfortable with being somewhat uncomfortable – skills that are also important for risk managers.

The other experiences from my previous roles that are helpful are broad experience across different areas in banking, cross-cultural exposure, international outlook, ability to manage complexity and employee engagement.

Standard Chartered has appointed you as their first Group Head of Innovation, quite the honour. How do approach establishing an innovate culture in a traditionally risk-adverse environment such as banking?

Technology is a key enabler of financial services. The digital revolution and mobility have created greater opportunities for banks to enhance customer experience, reduce costs, mitigate risks and put more decision-making power into the hands of their clients through innovative deployment of technology.

For a culture of innovation to flourish, tone from the top is important and we have a very committed management team.

We believe that innovation is everyone’s responsibility and our innovation lab acts as the nucleus to facilitate innovation and agile development. Innovation is not a department or a strategy. It needs to underpin everything we do. The role of a Group Innovation team is to be a catalyst in facilitating innovation by providing the necessary tools and training, helping build the culture of innovation, and facilitating engagement with external partners.

As part of building the culture of innovation, we also selectively participate in hackathons and accelerators focused on specific business challenges. We recently announced our Supercharger FinTech Accelerator ProgrammeGreater China, jointly with Baidu, China’s internet search engine, and Tuspark Global Network.

You’ve had the opportunity to work in San Francisco, London, and Singapore. How would you describe the difference between the Silicon Valley tech scene as compared to Singapore and London?

Financial technologies have spread from west to east, spurring banks and other market participants in the Asia-Pacific to change the way they operate, as disruptive technologies and new players threaten traditional operating and delivery models.

The speed and ease with which Asians have embraced technological change and smartphones indicates they are ready for more innovative ways to save, grow and protect their wealth – this promises great potential for an international bank like Standard Chartered.

While San Francisco and London are ahead of Singapore in financial technologies, there is a huge potential in Asia-Pacific.

Singapore has the right ecosystem of banks, technology companies, universities, research organisation and a nurturing government to be a vibrant FinTech hub for ASEAN or even Asia.

In June, the Monetary Authority of Singapore announced the new Financial Sector Technology & Innovation scheme that would pump $225 million into the arena during a five-year period to create “a vibrant ecosystem for innovation.”

We are also seeing innovation in financial services in China and India.

Culture can be one of the biggest barriers to development and adoption of disruptive technologies. Asians tend to be a little bit reluctant to move too quickly and can be inherently cautious. Silicon Valley has the vibe of innovation and collaboration that other centers could learn and benefit from. Also, failure in Silicon Valley is seen as a badge of honor while in Asian cultures, ‘face’ is very important. The Silicon Valley mantra of fail fast and move on is not accepted so well in Asia.

Both the Gates Foundation and the UN recently announced efforts to eradicate poverty and drive financial inclusion to the 2.5 billion global unbanked individuals. What role or responsibilities do you believe the global banks have with respect to these efforts?

Standard Chartered is a founding partner of Project Everyone and we are enthusiastic supporters of the campaign. We believe that raising awareness across the world – one person at a time - will spur individuals, governments, businesses and NGOs into action. After the awareness campaign, however, comes the tough job of implementation. Realising and implementing the program requires everyone to play their parts. Governments of developed countries can help through capacity-building and aid. But aid is not just about handouts, and this is where the private sector comes in. Big companies, including banks, can play a massive role in providing the fuel for progress on many of the Global Goals by creating jobs, harnessing trade, paying taxes and contributing to economic growth.

Businesses have the opportunity to help reach a number of the 17 Goals, such as ending poverty and hunger, and building resilient infrastructure. More investment in infrastructure will fuel economic growth; according to some estimates, a 10 per cent increase in the former leads to a 1 per cent boost to the latter. Good jobs and economic growth do not happen in a vacuum, but flourish in conditions where people can create successful businesses, small, medium or large. Agreement of the Goals at the UN a positive step, but it is just the start. The hard work on implementation remains to be done. It is incumbent on all of us to do what we can.

FinTech can be an “equalising” medium with the potential to introduce financial services to the estimated 2.5 billion people across the globe without access to basic banking accounts. M-Pesa’s success in Kenya is a case which demonstrates the positive economic and social impact that can arise from successful FinTech solutions. The continued push for digitisation of transactions, mobile, and IoT (internet of things) are all driving forward a new age of banking.

You published an article in June 2015 on the impact of the blockchain on banking. Do you believe digital currencies and/or blockchain technology will be integrated into the global banking system?

There is so much hype around bitcoin and its underlying technology, the blockchain, so I wanted to demystify things when I penned the piece.

While potentially the blockchain or distributed ledger technology has the potential for many different applications, such as in trade finance and financial markets, in the near term there are also many challenges associated with it, such as scalability, legal, accounting, regulatory and taxation issues. For an emerging technology to become mainstream, it is not just the underlying technology but also the associated ecosystem that needs to develop before it can be integrated into the mainstream banking system.

How important has mentorship been for your own career growth? Are you an active mentor?

I have never had a mentor in the formal sense but I have had several ‘sponsors’ over the years who have believed in me and given me challenging and exciting career opportunities.

I informally mentor several women in the bank at the middle management level.

Who(m) do you believe has had the most influencing with respect to influencing your own career?

My father and my husband. They have been my biggest supporters in my pursuit of higher education and career choices.

Who do you consider to be strong women leaders in the FinTech space?

I like this quote by Sheryl Sandberg “In the future, there will be no female leaders. There will just be leaders.”

What do you see as the 3 leading future trends for FinTech?

Technology is a key enabler of financial services. The digital revolution and mobility have created greater opportunities for banks to enhance customer experience, reduce costs, mitigate risks and put more decision-making power into the hands of their clients through innovative deployment of technology.

We are seeing several emerging trends which are starting to transform financial services:

• Big data and data science, for analytics for actionable insights
• Payments - digital and mobile payments – in retail and transaction banking
• Peer to peer lending and marketplace lending
• Wealth management – robo-advisory and cognitive learning
• Use of biometrics, digital signatures and digital identities

Many of these fintech areas will have an impact on retail and corporate banking, trade finance, fraud mitigation and credit risk management. The Bank’s strategic innovation agenda aims to harness a range of emerging technologies and rapidly advancing field of data science for business benefit.

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Anju Patwardhan is Group Chief Innovation Officer for Standard Chartered Bank. In this role, she leads the Bank’s strategic innovation agenda and is responsible for driving a strategic and sustainable approach on the use of emerging technologies and data science solutions.

Anju is also a Non-Executive Director on the Board of Standard Chartered Bank Thailand and the credit risk voting member on the approval committee for retail portfolios globally. She is a member of Standard Chartered’s Global Technology and Operations Management Group.

Since joining the Bank in September 2007, she has held various leadership positions including Group Head for Risk Innovation, Global Head for Risk Appetite, Chief Risk Officer for Singapore and Global Chief Operating Officer for Consumer Banking Risk, and has managed large global teams of over 4,500 people across 36 countries.

Prior to joining Standard Chartered, she worked at Citibank for 18 years.

Anju is a Distinguished Fellow of Singapore Institute of Banking and Finance, the highest financial services industry accolade in Singapore, and a Fellow of Singapore Management University. She is listed in SWIFT’s Innotribe 2015 global Power Women in FinTech list of luminaries.

Anju serves on various industry and professional groups. She is a member of Singapore Indian Business Leaders’ Roundtable, Lay Person to the Inquiry Panel of the Law Society of Singapore, and Chair of Board Audit Committee for the Singapore-based NGO Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE).

Anju received a Bachelor of Technology degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and earned a Post-graduate degree in Business Management at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM).