Reflections: Chu Hong Keong, HSBC Bank Malaysia

CIO 1-on-1 Q. List three things that would make your job easier in 2006?
It would be continued clear vision and strategy from the business units, as well as closer partnership and collaboration with them. The other would be maintaining the current winning IT team culture and competitiveness. This is the very formula that has enabled us to achieve technological leadership and numerous industry recognitions, as well as make greater contribution to the overall business.

Chu Hong Keong, HSBC Bank Malaysia's CIO, believes working closely with the business unit will make the lives of the IT folks easier

Q. Which three technologies will be hot in 2006?
One, behavioral neural technology for more sophisticated customer relationship and risk management. Two, ehanced mobile security technology to widen the financial application on mobile devices; and three, mobile technology for greater workforce mobility and to provide better customer service.

Q. What are some of the issues that the industry needs to work on in 2006?
Security and sophisticated fraud detection/prevention continues to be an area of challenge for the industry as a whole.

The banking industry is facing increasingly sophisticated and technologically advanced related fraud attempts in the areas of payments, loan applications and credit cards. It is, therefore, important that each organization has a key focus and a holistic approach towards risk mitigation covering fraud prevention, detection and security preventive measures.

Very often, fraudulent cases involve more than one bank and and the detection and thwarting/recovery activities require collaborative efforts by the banks involved. This problem affects the entire industry and hence requires the industry as a whole to collaborate and more effectively address or arrest it.