Singapore banks on edge about criminality, tech risks: PwC

They’re also worrying about financial regulators.

Singapore banks are the most anxious about facing criminality, technological risk, and macroeconomic environment, according to PwC’s 2015 Banking Banana Skins, a survey of global banking risks.

Notably, criminality surged in the survey’s ranking of concerns of banking industry players. It surged from tenth place in PwC’s preceding survey, to first place this year. Respondents emphasized apprehensions about issues such as cybercrime and fraud.

“Singapore respondents further emphasized technology risks—the threats posed to banks by increasing prevalence of cybercrime, the need to update legacy IT systems, the challenge posed by fintech competition and possible reputational damage from social media,” said Antony Eldridge, PwC Asia-Pacific Banking Leader, in a video highlighting survey results.

Banks are also wary about the heightened focus that Singapore financial regulators place on third-party trusts.

“The MAS certainly raises the bar and expects financial institutions to have the same level of scrutiny and control over their tech-enabled source providers as they have internally,” noted Eldridge.

He further asserted that regulatory challenges not only create huge operational disruption and imbalance in risk and reward—they also undermine the growth potential of the industry.