A few weeks ago at the Monaco Fund Forum International 2011 I conducted a fireside chat on “The View From Asia”, with the Vice-chair of Franklin Templeton, Vijay Advani, and the Chairman & CEO of Nikko Asset Management, Tim McCarthy.

One of the crucial elements of running a successful Asia-Pacific business (or any business, anywhere), revolved around regaining customer trust and confidence, with pro-active communication and simplicity.

My recent posts focused on asset managers and distributors introducing mobile apps to inform, update and educate customers, among them PIMCO, Franklin Templeton, Putnam, Fidelity and JP Morgan. Last week, Standard Chartered launched a co-branded campaign with Apple around “Multinational bank goes mobile”, with a featured video introducing a series of internal and external apps, for consumers, corporate customers and employees.

Mary Huen, head of consumer banking in Hong Kong, stated that post-crisis the number one priority for the firm was “to regain customer confidence”. The loss of client trust and a generally more emotional overall relationship in the last two years fundamentally changed how SC views relationship management, advice, and fiduciary responsibilities. For relationship management and the day-to-day front line work, everything changed post-crisis with a paramount need for simplicity.

In order to tap into the increasingly mobile world of investors, SC’s San Francisco team developed a set of custom apps for both internal and external needs, including an internal app store for employees to work with.

In Hong Kong, “iNeeds” helps relationship managers in bank branches create client profiles and offer more relevant and customized products for each client.

Corporate clients can use “Straight2Bank,” a platform with a mobile authorization app giving corporate treasurers better control of transactions.

Other apps center around trading (Trade Port), or forex (FX Rates), with more to come. Clearly, we are still in the dark ages of mobile investing and the use of digital and social media to connect with investors and provide advice.

Still, as discussed in my recent book on “Building Bridges”, the largest asset holders (institutions and distributors) worldwide post-crisis see proactive and creative information delivery as on par with investment performance, organizational stability, client service, and brand.

Better not to be late to this party.