Richard Harmon, global head of financial services, and Arvind Swami, director for financial institutions for Asia Pacific at Red Hat, discussed the digital transformation of transaction and corporate banking.

They highlighted the importance of operational resilience and how collaboration can generate better insights from synthetic data combined with generative artificial intelligence (AI) to meet the needs of corporate customers.

Harmon described the modernisation of key applications and the shift towards hybrid cloud-enabled architecture. Machine learning and AI are poised to have a lasting impact, seeping into all aspects of corporate and treasury functions—although at a slower pace than consumer banking. Increased regulatory supervision in treasury will hasten the adoption of new technologies to refine cash management analysis.

Swami added that in Asia, real-time cash management capabilities, real-time payments, and quality of regulatory reporting are becoming more important. They also emphasised the rising utility of synthetic data because of compliance and versatility advantages, in stress testing, scenario analysis, and data sharing.

Harmon said synthetic data drastically simplifies data management and usage oversight. Since it contains no real personal or sensitive information, fewer restrictions apply, thereby accelerating internal processes and contributing to more agile operations.