Banks slow in going digital: report

MANY banks, including Singapore's traditional retail lenders, are still slow in implementing digital services demanded by customers, even as competition from non-traditional banks is heating up, a Bain & Company report said.

"Paving the way for digital attackers is the fact that banks' classic barriers to entry - personal relationships between bank managers and customers, branch networks' scale economies and a reputation for security - have been crumbling," said the Bain report, which surveyed 78 global banks.

"Even regulation in some countries, such as the UK, has grown more accommodating, as regulators who once frowned on new business models now want to promote competition in banking with new entrants."