Sector's development poised to open more doors for Asian financial centers

Financial technology is essentially borderless, and this key characteristic is strengthening links between global financial centers and producing more opportunities for collaboration and integration.

Chen Lurong, an economist with the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia, or ERIA, based in Jakarta, Indonesia, said, "Technological progress brings everyone closer and makes the world 'flatter' than ever before."

The ability of financial centers to remain competitive in the digital era depends on how quickly they can take advantage of the latest tools, such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, big data and machine learning, and properly adjust to the new business environment, Chen said.