Risk & Compliance

With fiduciary duty reforms and audit oversight changes now law, Korean corporates face growing shareholder pressure on capital allocation, dividend policy and financial transparency – placing treasury functions in the spotlight.

Jemi Lam, finance controller at Belton Technology, shares insights into treasurers’ roles in ESG risk management, from insurance policies to preventative measures.

Lucia Ma, head of treasury and inventory controller at Klook, explains how the Hong Kong-based travel firm built its own foreign exchange trading portal to handle a post-pandemic surge in FX exposure.

As investors start pricing sovereign debt risk into long-term yields, corporate treasurers must rethink duration, diversify currency exposure, and prepare for a world where bond markets –not central banks – set the tone.

The pause in rate hikes was meant to bring relief. Instead, Asia’s treasurers are confronting a new kind of uncertainty – one where FX volatility, not funding cost, is driving strategic risk decisions.

Despite a tentative US, China deal, uncertainty around tariffs has increased demand for trade finance products from Asian corporates, as firms look to reroute supply chains, derisk and improve working capital.

Adnan Zaylan Mohamad Zahid, deputy governor at the Bank Negara Malaysia, told an audience at Money 20/20 Asia that Asean is innovating with cross-border payments, QR codes, Project Nexus, sandboxes and Islamic finance.

The so-called ‘BRICS Bridge’ project may have stalled, but efforts to undermine the primacy of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency have received a boost from an unlikely source; although any path to a true alternative will be long and difficult.

The global economy is going through unprecedented times and expert panelists from Baguio Green Group, SF Reit Asset Management and HSBC discussed how to best manage the volatility.

US inflation was lower than expected in February; the 2.8% read came as the US introduced global 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium imports; and then the EU and Canada retaliated; in Apac, Australian and Korean steelmakers are most at risk.

The proposals to boost the Singapore Exchange include tax incentives, streamlining the listing process and efforts to incentivise investors.

A swift change in tone from US president Donald Trump around tariffs show how his words and actions are having a volatile impact on Asia Pacific's currencies; they are likely to be on the defensive this year.