StraitsBridge: Empowering digital ambitions of financial institutions

Shripad Keni, Head, MEA, StraitsBridge

Shripad Keni, Head - MEA region, StraitsBridge, firmly believes that technology has been a key enabler in the evolution of financial services and continues to bring immense potential to transform the banking industry.
However, to ensure that financial institutions derive optimal value from technology requires a deep understanding of the technologies as well as banking businesses and operations. This is exactly what StraitsBridge strives to harness as an advisor for financial institutions.
Headquartered in Singapore, with offices in UAE and India, StraitsBridge was established in 2010 by former CFO Sanjay Uppal; the firm stands apart with deep knowledge in banking domain, data analytics, robotic process automation (RPA) and artificial intelligence.
Furthermore, it is powered by a team of over 150 professionals that possess a strong background in financial institutions that fortifies its core strength in bringing immediate value to their clients.
"In our journey, we have built subsidiaries and businesses in niche areas that we believe would allow us to develop expertise and solutions to support our clients," says Shripad Keni.
The firm's UAE office serves the Middle East and African markets, Singapore covers Asia-Pacific and South-Asia markets. StraitsBridge has established its Indian office in the vibrant technology hub of Hyderabad from where it delivers specialised services and develops innovative solutions to financial institutions.
StraitsBridge plans to expand its reach in MEA and Asian markets, expanding into the newer Asian markets including Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar, to name a few, for its business growth. "In the next two to three years, we expect to tap into more Middle East markets, such as Bahrain and Kuwait while deepening our presence in markets where we already serve clients," Keni adds.
Keni's journey with StraitsBridge began three years after its inception, and since then, he has been at the helm of its mission to transform banks into efficient entities. Typical projects in financial institutions require a judicious mix of business domain, functional, and technology expertise where the client engages with different vendors - which often poses a problem in getting these parts to work together.
StraitsBridge, offers end-to-end capabilities, which implies that the client works with a single service provider who takes complete end-responsibility for the initiative.
 "When we look at a client, we look at them as a bespoke entity; not every client is the same for us and not every solution is the same. We take leading practices and adapt them suitably for our clients, thereby developing new leading practices.
We also look at our client's objectives to bring value from our multiple specialisations - such as finding growth opportunities for our clients, mitigating their risk environments, and creating efficiencies with specialised skills and solutions," he says.
StraitsBridge's clients range from large global banks, to regional banks, to small local banks. It takes pride in being a niche firm with an all-inclusive team of banking and technology practitioners armed with global experience and deep understanding of these domains.
"Our solution-oriented and technology agnostic approach allows us to successfully leverage our clients' existing technology investments as well as provide unbiased inputs to identify new technologies that will help deliver best outcomes to them. This has resonated well with all our clients and has become a competitive advantage for StraitsBridge," he added.
As financial institutions embark on the digital transformation journey, there is a greater need for data and analytics, as well as in RPA, AI, and machine learning. StraitsBridge is successfully bringing together these capabilities to develop innovative solutions for banks and financial institutions.
"In these areas, we are successfully competing against and partnering with some of the industry goliaths through our innovation and agility," he concludes. 
-farhana@khaleejtimes.com

 

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Farhana Chowdhury

farhana@khaleejtimes.com