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Eurogiro News 7
Eurogiro community meeting in Asia Pacific highlights
payments growth in the region
Eurogiro members and prospects gather in Tokyo to learn and discuss how to stay ahead of the
fast growing payments curve in Asia Pacific
The Eurogiro Community Meeting
Asia Pacific
held in Tokyo on 13 November was a great op-
portunity to bring together Eurogiro members
and prospective members represented by
postal administrations and banks, to learn
more about the dynamics of Asia Pacific pay-
ments. The meeting also provided existing
Eurogiro members with valuable face-to-face
bilateral talks on how to exchange payments,
as well as for prospective members to learn
first-hand about Eurogiro from the members
themselves.
The senior level attendees from organisations
across 12 countries in the Asia Pacific region,
as well as from the US and Brazil, found the
presentations from Eurogiro staff and industry
experts to be both informative and inspiring.
According to McKinsey, global payment
revenues represent close to Euro 750 billion
in revenues, equivalent to over 25% of total
banking income. It is estimated that Asia
will account for 2/3rds of global payments
growth over the next 5 years and is fore-
casted to reach 40% of global payment
revenues by 2015.
Mr. Fumiaki Katsuki, Associate Principal at
McKinsey in Tokyo, shared a great amount of
data on Asian payments and trends. Research
from McKinsey confirmed that China, Japan
and Korea together form the largest payment
markets in Asia, while China, India and Indo-
nesia are the fastest growing markets. Also,
with more mobile phones than bank accounts
in Asia, other McKinsey research revealed that
Asian consumers are “more excited” about
electronic payments, and the region accounts
for 12 of the top 25 global markets for mobile
payment readiness.
Mr. Daniel I. Ayala, Executive Vice President
and Head of Global Remittance Services
at Wells Fargo Bank in the US, provided a
brief overview of their business model, which
focuses on payments to Asia and Latin
America. In 2011, Wells Fargo initiated over
$1.8 Billion in remittances through Wells Fargo
ExpressSend
®
and its legacy remittance ser-
vices. A number of factors contribute to Wells
Fargo’s success with international remittances,
including management buy-ins to attract and
retain the diverse segments of the population
in the US, a solid remittance network overseas
with well-established players in the remittance
payout business, and grass-roots marketing ef-
forts with the target consumer that complement
the Bank’s traditional marketing approach.
Mr. Ayala also gave an update on the
Dodd-Frank legislation, which provides new
consumer protection rules on US consumer-
initiated transfers and payments. This legisla-
tion includes full fee disclosure at the point and
time of origination, and the right to cancel a
transaction up to 30 minutes after its
submission.
The last speaker at the meeting, Mr. Steve
McGinnes, Asia Regional Managing Director
at Clear, a full service brand consultancy, cap-
tured the audience’s attention with research
results showing how most financial institution
brands look the same. He demonstrated how
successful companies and their brands do
not focus merely on functionality, but have an
understanding of their target market and fulfill
an emotional vision, which ultimately creates
a more profitable and stable business. Mr.
McGinnes provided many examples of how
successful companies and their brands have
clarity of purpose, inspire connections, create
experiences, focus on the future, think bigger
and constantly innovate. The presentation
supported the need for financial institutions to
review their brand image as many old and new
players in the payments market with strong
brands are well positioned to prevail.
3
The Welcome Dinner was hosted by
Yoshiyuki Izawa, CEO and President,
and senior representatives of Japan Post
Bank, who brought together meeting
attendees and senior representatives
from the international banking community
in Tokyo
Fumiaki Katsuki, McKinsey
Daniel I. Ayala, Wells Fargo Bank
Steve McGinnes, Clear