APAC’s banking landscape is entering a phase where intelligence, not scale, defines leadership. The Twimbit Purpose Index 2025, now in its fourth edition, reveals a region rapidly transitioning from traditional banking constructs to intelligent, adaptive financial ecosystems.

This year’s findings underscore a powerful shift:
The bank of tomorrow no longer operates at the boundary of innovation, it lives beyond the known.

Twimbit Purpose Index 2025

The Twimbit Purpose Index benchmarks these banks across five pillars: customer experience (CX), employee experience (EX), partner experience, planet impact, and shareholder value, offer a strategic roadmap for growth in the evolving financial landscape. It emphasizes serving all stakeholders equally:

1. Customer experience: Deliver exceptional customer experiences through digital innovation.
2. Employee experience: Create a fulfilling and supportive workplace for employees.
3. Partner experience: Foster transparent and collaborative partnerships for growth.
4. Planet impact: Promote sustainable practices benefiting society and the environment.
5. Shareholder value: Drive consistent and equitable value for shareholders​

This balanced approach ensures that banks can achieve profitability while making a positive societal impact.

Executive Summary

At the heart of Banking beyond the known is the intelligent architecture powering tomorrow’s finance, a fusion of AI, data, and human-centered design creating systems that learn, adapt, and evolve.

APAC’s leading banks have shown double-digit growth in their net revenues showing progress towards commercial dynamism and resource efficiencies.

This commitment to purpose aligns with the Twimbit Purpose Index, now in its 4th edition, guiding APAC’s top 55 banks in becoming purpose-driven organizations.

1. DBS, Singapore leads with the highest purpose score for the 4th time in a row.
2. ICICI Bank, India has the highest growth score.
3. Chinese banks are the largest banks with the highest revenue size.
4. Hong Leong Bank, Malaysia has the highest EBITDA margin.
5. Malaysia is the leader for ICT spending in 2024.
6. Singapore and Malaysia stand out as leaders for purpose-driven banking.

Financial highlights for FY2024

1. Net revenue of APAC banks recorded a 7.18% YoY growth, increasing from USD 345.22 billion in FY-23 to USD 370.01 billion in FY-24 excluding Chinese banks.
2. Net profit of APAC banks recorded an increase of 4.72% YoY for FY-24.
3. §The average cost-efficiency ratio across leading APAC banks increased slightly by 60 basis points, from 44.76% in FY-23 to 45.36% in FY-24.
4. APAC banks recorded an increase of 0.95% YoY in fee income to USD 104.2 billion in FY-24.
5. The average fee income to revenue for top APAC banks stood at 15.51% in 2024.
6. The average NIM across leading APAC banks decreased slightly by 6 basis points, from 3.1% in FY-23 to 3.04% in FY-24.
7. CASA of APAC banks increased by 168 basis points, rising from 52.96% in FY-23 to 54.64% in FY-24.
8. The total ICT expenditure in the region showed a growth of 12.87% in FY-24.

Empowering a better tomorrow

• #1 The bankless future of CX

We are entering a phase where ‘being banked’ no longer means holding an account with a legacy institution. It means access to modular financial capabilities embedded directly into the tools customers already use. Banking is shifting toward context-aware, API-native, proactive experiences.

1. ICBC’s Business Matchmaker: Introduced Business Matchmaker, a one-stop platform delivering product recommendations, supply–demand matchmaking, and integrated financing services for small and micro enterprises.
2. TTB’s Yindee: Launched an upgraded mobile assistant “Yindee,” the first in Thailand to use Generative AI via Microsoft Azure OpenAI, providing 24/7 mobile banking support and enhancing customer convenience and experience.
3. KB Kookmin’s AI Portfolio service: Introduced its AI Portfolio Service, an AI-powered tool offering market insights, portfolio proposals, and post-investment management.
4. SCB’s PointX: Introduced PointX, a unified SCBX Group loyalty platform that elevates customer retention and engagement by integrating credit card programs into a seamless, cross-business points ecosystem.

• #2 The human + machine advantage in EX

Banks are augmenting, not replacing, human talent. AI-driven employee empowerment is becoming a competitive advantage. The boldest banks won’t replace humans with AI, they’ll amplify them.

1. OCBC’s MOBI: It is an AI-powered platform that maps employees’ skills and growth opportunities. It recommends courses and gigs to create personalised career paths and enhance talent mobility.
2. Canara Bank’s AR-VR system: Introduced an AR- and VR-enabled training system that enhances new-staff onboarding through immersive, skills-focused learning experiences.
3. Union Bank’s EC program: Launched the Engagement Conversation programme, fostering transparency and collaboration through structured dialogues that enable employees to share insights, address concerns, and recognise achievements.
4. Alliance Bank’s Connexion: “Connexion” is a cloud-based Human Experience Management System that enhances employee autonomy with mobile access. It streamlines hiring and resource planning and offers e-Forms, OCR, and bite-sized learning for growth.

• #3 Open finance is redefining how banks partner and innovate

Open finance transforms banks from product providers to ecosystem orchestrators. By connecting with fintechs, corporates, and platforms through open APIs, banks can co-create secure, tailored customer experiences at scale. Partnerships unlock new revenue models, faster innovation cycles, and inclusive financial access.

1. OCBC’s payment solution with Ant: Partnered with Ant International to enable 24/7 cross-border real-time payments between Singapore and Malaysia, leveraging Ant’s Whale treasury platform and joint blockchain capabilities.
2. Bangkok Bank’s e-wallet solution: Piloted an e-wallet white labelling service with a leading fintech partner, enabling corporate clients to meet rising consumer demand for electronic payments over traditional bank account transfers.
3. Union Bank–JuanHand credit solution: UnionDigital Bank partnered with fintech lender JuanHand to expand credit access in the Philippines, combining digital banking and alternative lending to provide faster, inclusive financial solutions.
4. SMBC–MoneyForward financial budgeting solution: Signed an MoU with Money Forward to form a joint venture. It will integrate Olive financial services with Money Forward ME’s tools to create a customer-centric platform offering seamless transfers, budgeting, and AI-driven advice.

• #4 APAC’s net-zero shift is accelerating systemic change

Banks are emerging as key climate financiers, mobilising capital at scale through the expansion of green loans, transition finance, and sustainability-linked products. They are integrating climate-risk intelligence into everyday banking experiences while deepening collaboration with governments, multilaterals and clean-tech innovators to close critical funding gaps and accelerate the region’s sustainability transition.

1. UOB’s suite of green financing platforms: Introduced ASEAN’s first integrated suite of green financing platforms, U-Solar and U-Energy, providing end-to-end support for solar adoption and energy-efficiency improvements to accelerate the region’s sustainability transition.
2. Kasikorn Bank’s green ecosystem: Expanded its green ecosystem through WATT’S UP, an EV bike marketplace offering green financing and insurance, and GreenPass, that enables Renewable Energy Certificate trading and supports solar rooftop adoption for customers.
3. BOC’s Green Bond Index: Launched the ChinaBond-BOC Green Bond Index and a personal carbon account to promote green investment and help customers track and reduce their carbon footprint.
4. BPI’s ERA: Piloted the Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA), the tool to evaluate climate and environmental risks, using DOST-PHIVOLCS’ HazardHunterPH system to address typhoon and seismic threats in the Philippines.

Bank of the beyond

Banking is shifting from institution-centric models to intelligent, adaptive experiences embedded in daily life. By 2030, wallets will replace accounts, AI will automate two in five financial decisions, and non-bank platforms will become primary financial interfaces for younger generations. This future demands a move from efficiency to intelligence, from products to experiences, and from risk avoidance to experimentation. To lead, banks must build learning systems, empower human–machine collaboration, and co-create with fintechs, venture ecosystems, and design partners.

Purpose is no longer philosophy. It’s strategy. It’s architecture. It’s performance.

In essence, Banking Beyond the Known is a call to reimagine finance as fluid, anticipatory, and purpose-led, where intelligence and human insight combine to shape the next decade of value creation.

Explore the full depth of these insights and uncover what’s propelling APAC’s banking leaders beyond the known, download the complete report above.