Treasurers may remember that the Association of South East Asian Nation’s (ASEAN) once considered the a single currency, a la the euro, the silver bullet that would kill the beast of currency exchange volatility.

But while the intention announced by the US Federal Reserve to taper bond purchases has awakened that beast again for ASEAN corporates, the concept of a single currency has now all but been dismissed as a solution. “Any hope of an ASEAN unified currency was completely dashed after the eurozone sovereign debt crisis,” said Suan Teck Kin, a senior economist for UOB in Singapore.