Technology companies operating in financial services face a distinct challenge: the market they serve is shaped by institutional dynamics, regulatory cycles, and evolving transformation priorities rather than conventional demand signals. TABInsights helps technology companies conduct market entry studies that include market sizing, competitor analysis and determine market entry strategies for a wide variety of products and services. We support these companies build a deep, evidence-based view of where the market is heading, while also enabling direct engagement with the financial institutions, decision-makers, and senior practitioners driving that change.
What this intelligence is for
Breaking into the financial services market or deepening a position already established requires two things that are difficult to acquire independently: a deep understanding of where the market is heading, and direct access to the people inside institutions who are making the decisions that determine it.
TABInsights provides both. Through our research, we help technology companies understand which transformation priorities banks are actually funding, how mature the market is for a specific capability across different institution types and geographies, and where regulatory developments are opening new opportunities or narrowing existing ones. Through our network built over 25 years across working groups, assessment programmes, and executive forums that bring together the most senior practitioners in global banking we create direct engagement opportunities with the financial institutions, technology officers, and board-level decision-makers that our clients need to reach.
This combination is what distinguishes TABInsights from a conventional market research provider. We do not only deliver intelligence about the market. We connect technology companies to the market through practitioner roundtables, executive briefings, and introductions to institutions that our assessment programmes and long-standing relationships make possible.
This is what this service is not: it is not a vendor selection advisory practice, and it does not help financial institutions choose between technology providers. Instead, it is a dedicated intelligence and market access capability that helps technology companies understand the market they are operating in and engage with the institutions that matter most to their growth.
Talk to us about your requirements
We work directly with financial institutions, technology providers, and development finance institutions that need primary intelligence on technology and market intelligence. Contact us at gzhi@tab.global to discuss your requirements.
What we help technology companies understand
Transformation priorities and investment patterns
Which capabilities are banks prioritising now, and which are being deferred? TABInsights' research draws on direct interviews with the technology and business leaders inside the institutions making these decisions.
Technology adoption patterns across institution types and geographies
Banks across Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa invest an average of close to 5% of their total income on technology annually with leading institutions targeting up to two-thirds of that spend on transformation rather than maintenance. But the pattern is not uniform. Large tier-one banks in Singapore and Australia are at a different stage of core modernisation than mid-sized banks in Vietnam or the Philippines. Understanding where a specific institution type sits on the maturity curve in core banking, cloud adoption, AI deployment, or API ecosystem development is essential for positioning a technology solution accurately and prioritising sales effort effectively. We provide that segmented, institution and market-level view.
Regulatory developments and their technology implications
Regulatory change is one of the most powerful drivers of technology procurement decisions in banking, and one of the least well understood by vendors approaching the market from outside. The MAS's operational resilience framework in Singapore, APRA's governance requirements in Australia, the RBI's data localisation obligations in India, and the evolving digital banking licensing regimes across Southeast Asia and the Middle East each have direct implications for what institutions need to buy, build, or replace and on what timeline. We track these developments and translate them into a practical assessment of what they mean for technology investment priorities.
Competitive and market structure intelligence
Who are the established players in a specific capability area? Where are the genuine white spaces, and where is the market already crowded? Which institutions have recently made significant technology commitments that create either opportunities or constraints for a new entrant? We provide structured competitive intelligence on the technology landscape within financial services not a vendor database, but a strategic assessment of how the market is structured and where the most viable entry points are.
Forward-looking technology trends
Our research tracks the evolution of banking technology from current deployment to emerging adoption. The shift from monolithic to composable core architectures, the move from AI pilots to enterprise-wide AI strategies, the progression from hybrid cloud to cloud-native infrastructure, and the early-stage exploration of agentic AI and quantum computing. All of these represent both opportunities and positioning decisions for technology companies. We help clients understand not just where the market is today, but where the leading institutions are heading and on what timeline.
How we work
Every engagement begins with a scoping call and a written proposal that sets out our understanding of your objectives, our proposed methodology, the deliverable format, timeline, and fee structure. We do not issue generic proposals. The proposal you receive will demonstrate that we have understood your specific requirements — the markets you are targeting, the decisions you need to make, and the competitive or regulatory questions that the research needs to answer.
Our institutional foundation
The intelligence we provide to technology companies rests on research assets that most market intelligence firms cannot replicate.
More than a dozen annual assessment programmes across the full breadth of institutional banking give us a continuously updated view of what leading institutions are doing, why, and how. Our research engagements — including primary survey work with technology and business leaders across APAC, the Middle East, and Africa — produce intelligence on actual transformation priorities and investment decisions, not survey responses about aspirations.
25 years of primary relationships with banks, regulators, and industry associations across more than 100 markets means that our intelligence is grounded in direct access that are not assembled from public sources or secondary research.
In-market presence in Singapore, Beijing, India and Dubai, provides the regional depth that technology companies entering specific geographies require.
Talk to our team
If you need to understand the financial services market you are operating in the transformation priorities, technology adoption patterns, regulatory dynamics, and competitive structure that will determine where your solutions fit and how to grow — contact Grace Zhi at gzhi@tab.global.
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Mai Kaneko leads international business and marketing at DeCurret DCP, a Japanese fintech firm operating a multi-bank network for tokenized deposit under the DCJPY framework. She oversees international expansion initiatives, bank-fintech partnerships and global go-to-market strategy. She holds a Master’s in International Relations from Georgetown University and a Bachelor’s in Economics from University of Tokyo.
Kinoshita has been involved in product development projects across a wide range of industries in Japan, including e-commerce, retail, banking, insurance, and manufacturing. He joined DeCurret DCP in 2024, where he has been engaged in the development of digital currency infrastructure. In addition to building the underlying infrastructure, he supports digital transformation (DX) initiatives associated with the adoption of digital currency solutions across various industries, and promotes projects aimed at enabling cross-border transactions.
Jason Hunt works within ANZ's Industry & Innovation function, engaging with industry challenges, trends and disruptive technologies across payments, digital assets, platforms and data-driven solutions. ANZ was a participant in Project Acacia, the joint Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC) initiative exploring digital money in wholesale tokenised asset markets, which concluded with its final report in May 2026. ANZ has also previously issued its own Australian dollar-denominated stablecoin, A$DC, to settle a real-money digital asset transaction.
Zhu Kuang Lee leads UOB's Innovation Group, formed in April 2025 to consolidate the bank's work across digital assets, data management, blockchain and enterprise artificial intelligence. He represents UOB in regional digital money and tokenisation initiatives, including collaboration with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), and has described the bank's approach as embedding compliance into system design from the outset rather than adding it later.
Abhinav is currently based in Singapore and leads Client solutions and Sales for Partior. In this capacity, he oversees clients' journeys including commercial and central banks, from defining use cases to product integration. Before taking on this role, Abhinav gained extensive experience working with both global and local banks. He spearheaded transformative initiatives in Payments and Core Banking, requiring him to coordinate efforts across business units, technology teams, and regulatory bodies. Abhinav played a pivotal role in implementing Faster Payments projects throughout Asia, including notable projects like Singapore G3 Fast, Malaysia Duit Now, and Hong Kong FPS. Prior to his tenure in the banking sector, Abhinav served as a Payments Financial Services consultant to various banks and payment fintech companies such as ANZ, Deutsche Bank, and Bank of America. Originally from India, Abhinav holds an Engineering degree and a Postgraduate qualification in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. He is also a dedicated father of two, and he enjoys spending his weekends playing tennis and cherishing moments with his family.
Sakae Hamasaki joined Sanwa Bank (currently MUFG Bank) in April 1993 and worked in corporate banking across five domestic locations. From 2006 onward, he gained extensive experience in the planning, development, and sales of payment-related services for corporate clients in Japan and overseas. He joined DeCurret DCP in 2022, where he has been leading initiatives to support banks in evaluating the adoption of tokenized deposits, as well as collaborating with overseas partners to build cross-border networks utilizing tokenized deposits.
Anouska Ladds is Executive Vice President of Commercial & New Payment Flows, Asia Pacific at Mastercard, based in Singapore. With over 17 years at Mastercard, she has held senior roles across sales, strategy, operations, market development, consultancy, and product development, spanning Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Previously at Barclaycard, she specialised in strategy, customer experience, communications, and SME/acquiring businesses.
David is a seasoned technology executive with significant experience and has over 25 years' experience in CISO and CIO roles across different industries and countries. David has served as a CIO spans across multiple industries and geographies. He was winner Australia CIO of the Year for driving CUA's Transformation. Also, David was CISO for HSBC and Global Head Technology, Cyber and Data Risk Macquarie Group.
A regular conference keynote speaker and thought leader he writes for CIO, CSO, Computerworld and Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD). His best-selling book - the Aspiring CIO & CISO was published in June 2024 and his second book A Day in the Life of a CISO launched in October 2025 and is already best seller in UK, Singapore, Japan and Australia.
Johnson is a seasoned executive and data and AI leader with over 15 years of experience across the public and private sectors. He is currently Assistant Chief Executive at IMDA, where he helps shape Singapore’s digital future and advance the digital economy. He has held senior data and AI roles in regional banking and global consulting, and began his career in defence and critical infrastructure.
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