Umair Hameed

Singaporean information media authority released a very interesting #GenAI governance framework ‘Model AI Governance Framework for Generative AI. It offers some insightful pillars toward safer and trusted GenAi. A recommended read! #AI #framework #security

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OCBC was recognised by The Asian Banker for the 'Best Big Data and Analytics Platform Implementation. At OCBC, we do not just buy data management and analytics software, they are just a part of the larger picture and fairly unremarkable. Our distinction and the Proverbial Tip of the Spear are the OCBC's Data Engineering & Platform Team's ability to go beyond the ordinary, to integrate & operationalise complex data technologies. We do this by leveraging in-house data management frameworks based on #FOSS to bring efficiencies, predictability and manageability to data delivery catering to the ever increasing demand for #Data and #AI use cases Here's acknowledging the Engineers, Leaders, Visionaries and Beneficiaries (a.k.a Users ) and the silent warriors (past and present, numerous to mention) without whom the best in class big data and analytics platform would not be possible. cheers Chandrasekar Alagu, Prabu Kandaswamy, Sankar Shanmugam, ,Jayaprakash Venkateshkumar, Sudhakar MAHAVISHNU, Amarnath Kamaraj ,Low Kang Jiang, Saravana Muthukumar Kasiviswanathan,Gokulanath G R, Leodegario Odulio, Sunil Parida, Suresh Veluswamy,Rajesh Khanijau, Thomas Low, Lavanya Kumar Pabolu Venkata Praveen Raina, Chong Wah Lee, Yen Pheng Lee, Ban Horng Tan, Peter Koh, Wei Ming Lim, Frederick Tang , Donald MacDonald Periyasamy Sivakumar, Rajkumar Murugesan ,Adrien Chenailler

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Digital Banks in Malaysia: Beyond the Rate Race 🇲🇾 As the five digital banks prepare to enter the Malaysian market, the article highlights the anticipated competition for deposits. However, learning from Hong Kong's experience shows that while attractive rates might attract customers initially, long-term success lies in tech innovation and customer differentiation. Digital banks that can build user-friendly platforms, leverage strong data analytics, and target niche segments with unique services & offerings will be the true winners. Exciting times ahead for Malaysia's financial landscape! #digitalbanking #fintech #digitalbanks #Malaysia

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🌟 Operational Optimization Workshop at Bank of Singapore, Asia's Global Private Bank Malaysia office: A Success in Collaboration and Discovery! 🌟 I recently had the privilege of facilitating the Operational Optimization Workshop (OO Workshop) at #BankofSingapore Malaysia office, and I am thrilled to share the positive outcomes with all of you. The workshop provided an invaluable platform for our Malaysia colleagues to break down silos and collaborate more effectively. Through the discovery and uncovering of our product and services workflows, participants gained a deeper understanding of each other's work. This clarity not only fostered better teamwork but also instilled a stronger sense of pride in our collective purpose. By identifying and addressing internal and external inefficiencies, the workshop highlighted key pain points that need to be resolved. Participants engaged in studying both demand and capability, which helped them identify gaps and set more realistic expectations. This, in turn, will enable us to better serve our customers and meet their needs more effectively. Although there were no changes to the existing workflows, the workshop allowed participants to pinpoint areas for improvement. These identified action points are the starting blocks for evolutionary changes, ensuring continuous growth and betterment from where we are now. I am incredibly proud of the dedication and insight shown by all participants. Together, we are on the path to making significant strides in operational excellence. Let's continue to build on this momentum and drive forward with the same collaborative spirit! Thanks to Rozita Awang, SPHRi and Azfar Mahdi PHRi, MyCP for working with me to setup this workshop. 🚀💼 #OperationalOptimization #Collaboration #ContinuousImprovement #BOSWMMY #TeamSuccess #OneTeam #Agile #Kanban #Statik #OO #BOSAgilityStudio #Transformation #Change #EvolutionaryChange #BusinessAgility

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[NAI Personal Post] I’VE LEFT MAVCAP right after the launch of this paper. Led & worked on this for the past 8 months. I love reading feedbacks & comments, truly appreciate it. Jeffrey Paine thank you for your support and we’ll catch up soon. Let’s all learn from Jeffery : It is commendable to see Malaysia's MAVCAP taking the lead in partnering with other government agencies to develop a comprehensive roadmap for the venture capital ecosystem in Malaysia from 2024 to 2030. For what it's worth, some comments on the 11 interventions. 1. Smoothening cross-border capital flow > Agree, can be smoother to compete with regional players 2. A centralised platform for VCs > Not especially needed but love to know more in detail about its value proposition 3. A conducive regulatory structure for VCs; harmonising onshore/ offshore legal structures > Agree, definitely in support but be aware of current options as switching costs might already be high. No need to rush here 4. Alignment of onshore/ offshore tax incentives. > Agree but make sure incentives are competitive 5. Increasing VC exit options > engage local families and corporates to be more active partners/investors, but also to actively look at the stock exchange (both locally and regionally). The IPO route is likely to be the most complicated intervention 6. More strategic & efficient allocation of government funds >will be well received, as long as the amount is big enough and the commitment is long term and the process straight forward. More than one centralised FoF maybe better 7. Enhance attractiveness of government’s matching fund-of-funds scheme > definitely agree with different level of terms to achieve various objectives. Key is to let the VCs be able to invest in the region or globally more in order to increase their knowledge, experience and network 8. Increase participation of GLICs, GLCs and corporates in venture investments > start with what you can control but don't expect too much involvement in the near term or for them to sustain for long term 9. Seeding of new fund managers, promoting VC-focused educational programmes and industry immersion for new talents > agree, need a more detailed plan, it is not easy 10. Enhanced visa schemes to facilitate talent attraction > definitely welcomed 11. Facilitate the development and establishment of VC support functions > agree Additional thoughts: 1. Work on the quality of deal flow, not just the VC pillar of the ecosystem. This is where the Achilles Heel is at the moment 2. Schemes, incentives need to also cover the idea/pre seed stage. This stage needs more support. Right now is not enough. This needs to change before no.1 can improve 3. Work on Top 4 in the world product/IP/traction + Increase Founder confidence to go global + Teach them tactics to acquire revenue overseas (before hiring, and raising money elsewhere) in this order All the best. Always here to help and support. Always miss my Nasi Lemak back in M'sia.

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Number of millionaires in S’pore rose to more than 333,000 in 2023; global tally shrank: UBS report. The number of millionaires in Singapore rose to 333,204 in 2023. This was about 0.4 per cent more than the figure of 332,000 in 2022. Conversely, the worldwide tally shrank to 58 million in 2023, from 59.4 million in 2022. Millionaires – referring to those with a net worth of US$1 million and above – made up 1.5 per cent of the world’s population in 2023. https://lnkd.in/gBYpbdND

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Singapore's leaders and systems have demonstrated exceptional foresight and adaptability, ensuring the nation's ability to navigate global challenges and secure prosperity for its people. The emphasis on safe and resilient digital financial services, fair dealing, and building new capabilities in sustainability, AI, and quantum technology underscores Singapore’s commitment to innovation and excellence. The government’s proactive measures, including anti-scam initiatives and the promotion of sustainable finance, position Singapore as a leading international financial hub. The MAS continues to set high standards, ensuring that the nation remains a safe and attractive place for legitimate wealth while upholding rigorous regulatory standards. These achievements and future plans highlight the dedication and vision of Singapore's leaders, ensuring the best outcomes for the country and its people. Newgen Software GovTech Singapore Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) Der Jiun Chia Carrie Tan Gan Kim Yong #PMO

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More than 100 Bytedance employees in its Singapore office fell sick in a recent mass food poisoning incident, with 2 caterers identified to be the source of the food poisoning bacteria. In such times of crisis, the PR and legal teams of the affected businesses would need to come together to work on the following: 🔥 Internal Investigations: Before any official statements are released, all persons responsible need to come together to assist in a thorough investigation to demonstrate transparency and accountability. 🔥 Internal Communications and Engagement: Effective and empathetic internal communication is much needed to keep the employees updated. Before public trust can be restored, the communication and credibility with internal employees need to be prioritised. This provides employees who were directly affected a channel to reach out to and know that their urgent medical needs are taken care of. Employees who are not affected will also be reassured that their basic needs remain an indispensable responsibility in the hands of their organisation and foster a sense of unity and trust. Immediate actions taken to support the employees should also be shared. Any necessary reviews of existing policies should be conducted and new measures that are used to prevent such incidents from recurring should also be announced internally. 🔥 External Communication: A timely, proactive, and transparent communication strategy should be utilised to provide updates. This is to ensure that the organisation’s public statements remain the source of truth and to inform the public and media on new discoveries and measures that are implemented. Clear and consistent messaging is also essential to manage public perception and minimise misinformation. This incident underscores the critical role of effective crisis management and communication in safeguarding a company’s reputation. Crises are very much undesirable, however, an organisation’s effective approach to handle one marks the difference between temporary setback and strong organisational resilience - a start to rebuilding trust. Co-written with Ting Fai Chung 鍾庭輝, PBM #crisispr #legal

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Credit card billings continued to stay above the $20 billion mark in the first quarter of 2024, although there was a slight fall of about 5 per cent from the high of $24.3 billion in the previous quarter. The billings first crossed $20 billion in the third quarter of 2022. The latest amount of $23.1 billion may have been a dip from the previous quarter, but credit card rollover balance and bad debts written off have risen, according to the credit and charge card statistics from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on May 31.

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Well said by Ginni Rometty ! Long term, sustainable economic growth forms an important pillar for society & livelihood progression, but is very difficult to achieve if predictable and committed (to-do-good/correct) long-term policies are not in place. Being open, transparent and doing lifelong skills upgrading are all things that require long term commitments and track records, but if done properly over time should make Singapore continue to be relevant to the region while uplifting our livelihoods.

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While most new tech excites me, GenAI was a level up to say the least! Was very enlightening… presenting and discussing how we will be working, playing, living and loving with GenAI to senior leaders, board members, engineers, partners, clients, customers and employees. Different perspectives and different perceptions. This post was human-intelligence generated. #dbsbank, #dbsinnovates, #teamawesome, #generativeai, #dbsinnovation Stephanie Chu , Shuvro Sen , Adrian Tan , Celeste Goh , Dominic Lim , Tze Jie (TJ) EEY , Sun Lee Siew Loo , wendy neubronner , JianLiang, Ian Low , Soon Jie Thiang (程顺杰） , Nimish Panchmatia , Sameer Gupta , Rajeev Hassamal , Petri Tuomola , Luis Carlos Cruz Huertas , Ronald Chen , John, Jian-An Lu

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SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT CAREER TRANSITION, AND INTERMEDIATES I'm currently going thru career transition. Most of my roles were that of Customer Success, esp in the ICT sphere. I later on went into the banking sector and wealth management. Again, more experience in account management and customer succcess. (Wealth management is really about 2 things, sales and customer success) Over time, now I am learning about data analytics. There has been some success. I'm now able to code and manage data. While I arguably might not be able to do it at a professional level, I daresay my level is not zero. Some thoughts: Some people do think that taking a course (data) enables them to transit and get a role accordingly. This is naivety. It's not real. The real journey is: - take a course (you don't get it) - take another course (you might get it.... somewhat) - start messing around with data around you and training simple AI models (from Kaggle, from Yahoo finance, you could code your own bot to scrape data for you) - take another course(?) - advanced one this time - when in doubt, ask ChatGPT for help - code again - keep applying for roles, not main roles but roles incorporating your skillset. Of course, there are the red herrings and sometimes people will offer you roles you are not interested in or do not offer value to you in the long run. And also there are 'coaches' (I say 'coaches' because.... well.) Do reach out to me, if you are interested in someone having years of experience in customer success, but also able to crunch data as to what makes customer success. #careertransition #data #customersuccess #lbfalumni

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"Excited to share one of our successful collaboration with RHB to promote DuitNow QR with soundbox adoption in rural areas for MSMEs! By leveraging RHB's reach and this innovative solution, we've empowered local businesses with access to cutting-edge technology, fostering growth and resilience in underserved communities. Together, we're bridging digital divides and driving impactful change. #Innovation #MSME #FinancialInclusion #Collaboration"

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My second semester of the Master of Computing at NUS is coming to a close. I had the privilege of gaining first-hand insights from the esteemed Vincent Loy, who was invited to conduct the course on Technology Risk and Cyber Resiliency. For any modern business or organization, its structure can be deconstructed into three fundamental pillars: Technology, Process, and People. That's why, throughout this course, we tackled the nuanced challenges and risks associated with digital transformations across these three pillars. As we stand at the crossroads of an increasingly digital future, it is clear that managing technological risks through these three pillars is not just necessary, but imperative for success. There is no one better positioned than Vincent to underscore the critical importance of managing technological risks and to reveal the tech landscape of the finance industry in Singapore. This course has profoundly impacted my understanding and approach to digital transformations, and I am eager to apply these insights in real-world scenarios. Thank you, Vincent Loy, for this enlightening journey and for preparing us to tackle the challenges of the digital world head-on! #NUS #MComp #DigitalTransformation #CyberResiliency #TechnologyRisk #FinTechSG

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Gen X here too 🙂 A few thoughts come to mind: Can individual experiences with burnout differ? How have societal changes affected burnout perceptions? Does work autonomy reduce burnout risk? Has better mental health awareness led to more burnout reports? What’s the role of personal vs. systemic factors in burnout? I’d be interested to hear your take on these questions. It’s a complex issue, and a multifaceted discussion could provide deeper insights.

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I had the privilege of moderating a dialogue with the Republic of Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam at the Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize Presentation Dinner last evening, the opening act of Singapore International Water Week (SIWW). President Tharman co-chairs the Global Commission on the Economics of Water and is well versed with the challenges, development and solutions to sustain global hydrological cycle. I posed the following questions to the President and his responses were thoughtful and forward looking. A fuller account is found in the Straits Times article appended. Water Scarcity  A World Resource Institute (WRI) report tells us, 51 out of 164 countries expects to suffer high water stress by 2050. Agriculture accounts for 72% of global freshwater withdrawals, its efficiency across the world is poor. Industrialisation too, as 60 largest economies will face serious water shortages. The picture is grim. Are you hopeful that we can safe humanity from a Water Armageddon? Water Innovation and Adaptation  Changes to the global hydrological cycle have led to unprecedented floods, droughts, and heat waves. One child under the age of five dies every 80 seconds from diseases caused by water pollution. 2 billion people have no access to safe water. The Global Commission for the Economic of Water published a report last year, saying we must drive costs of technologies down by adopting them at scale. How can we move from the path of mutually assured destruction to mutually assured prosperity across all fronts of policy, science, innovation, adaptation, and investment? Natural Capital in the Global Commons  The UN's 'Earth Summit' was held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The Summit had many great achievements, notably the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the Convention on Biological Diversity. So, Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss were identified as Nature’s existential threats at the same starting point 32 years ago. Since then, scientific evidence has turned Climate Change from crisis into accounting; accounting then turned into policy, corporate responsibility and consumer behaviour. We are loathed to put our children into financial debt and increasingly climate debt, yet we are nonchalant, to subject our children to nature debt. Why is this, and what must we do? Inter-Generational Investment Two years ago, UN Biodiversity Conference COP15 in Montreal defined objectives to finance biodiversity initiatives, in particular, through private finance. Money gravitates to where the best return is found, but advancing nature is not. How can capital owners, investors, companies, NGOs, and policy makers do to accelerate capital deployment to preserve biodiversity and invigorate nature’s ecosystems? The dialogue is available on YouTube at this link. https://lnkd.in/gPd4cvut #Water #SIWW

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This year is the first year #digitalbanking made their headways into Malaysia, with the launch of GXBank and recently AEON Bank , offering attractive deposit rates to depositors, leading to talks that traditional brick-and-mortar banks could be competing for deposits. But analysts believe that digital bank's early aggressive promotions will not last long - and they didn't - therefore the traditional banks wouldn't lose their sleep over it. What do you think? Will you switch to a digital banking savings product?

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THE CHESS BOARD OF PRIVATE EDUCATION That's now the RM1billion question in the market. Will he take Segi private? There has been a lot of activity recently in an increasingly more competitive private education sector. Taylor's International School, both the university and its schools and those under the "Garden International School" brand (of which I am Alumni from the original Garden School), is a dominant player but has always been private. It's big business, private education brings a higher standard, networking for the future, a solid educational foundation just look at the Doyen of private schools The Alice Smith School (again of which I am Alumni). But I digress. SEGi University & Colleges is one of the few who remain in the public arena. Even HELP University formerly listed has reverted into private hands. A common trend? The PE investors have reached the end of their fund cycle, usually after a handsome return. Is PE still looking at education? Some say yes, some no, because the emergence of edutech, virtual metaverse based universities and the accessibility of learning on apps has dramatically changed the landscape. As they always say, chess is a great game as long as you're not a pawn. Private education has Kings! [Declaration of interest: these are my own views and are unrelated in my employment in any capacity. The information I have is only sourced from the public arena]

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As part of broader financial inclusion for #PlatformWorkers and #GigWorkers in Singapore, government will be rolling out progressive mandatory CPF contribution for them through the platforms they work with. CPF contributions for Platform Workers, including contributions from Platform Companies, will be gradually aligned with that for employees and employers. This will apply for Platform Workers aged below 30 in 2024, while all other Platform Workers can opt in. CPF savings in Platform Workers’ Ordinary Account (OA) can be used for housing purchases When the policy kicks in later this year, platform workers will start contributing an additional 2.5% of their income. The additional contribution will go into their Ordinary and Special Accounts. This will bring their total CPF contributions to between 10.5% and 13%. The CPF contribution rate will increase by about 2.5% each year, until it reaches the same rate as traditional full-time employees for their age group. For example, platform workers aged 60 or younger will eventually contribute 20% of their income into their CPF accounts in 2028. At the same time, platform companies will also make contributions to their workers CPF. The rate will start off with a 3.5% contribution in 2024, increasing about 3.5% a year until 2028. Using the same example, for a platform worker aged 60 or younger, the platform company will make a 17% contribution to the worker’s CPF in 2028. In other words, in 2028, CPF contributions of platform workers aged 60 and below, and CPF contributions by platform companies will be 20% and 17% respectively, just like those of traditional full-time employees. The mandatory requirement to make CPF contributions may result in lower take-home pay for platform workers earning less than $2,500 per month. For this group of workers, the Government will step in to help offset the increase in CPF contribution. The introduction of the Platform Workers CPF Transition Support (PCTS) will offset 75% of the increase in 2024, gradually tapering off to 25% in 2027. h/t Credit Counselling Singapore

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