Globally, regulators are each moving ahead with their own AI governance tracks, ranging from voluntary frameworks to draft legislation and sector-specific rules. This growing regulatory fragmentation, if not managed well, could raise the compliance burden for regional fintechs and banks, and ultimately undermine broader goals of achieving integrated digital markets, with multinational financial institutions having to account for different risk-classification, testing, and disclosure regimes in their AI use-cases.

Using Southeast Asia as a case, this roundtable takes stock of how ASEAN member states regulate and supervise AI in financial services, and where closer alignment is within reach. Participants, including ASEAN central banks, banking associations, and regional financial institutions, will discuss the most pressing near-term opportunities to leverage and challenges to address.

Roundtable outputs will feed into efforts to build a long-term implementation roadmap to facilitate greater alignment across AI governance in ASEAN, with lessons relevant to any region working to bring AI rules closer together.

Financial system resilience used to mean strong network security and clear regulation. Both are getting stronger — payment networks are tightening technical standards, and regulators are building oversight of critical infrastructure and third-party risk.

But the newest emerging risks don't fit neatly into either category, from quantum computing, which will eventually break the cryptography most financial infrastructure still relies on, and frontier AI models, which threatens to reshape both sides of the security equation — generating fraud that exploits trust and speed, and finding and exploiting technical vulnerabilities faster than traditional defenses were built to handle. Both demand action well before the risk fully materializes. This session brings together infrastructure providers, technology firms, and regulators to discuss what's still missing from how the industry prepares for risks that haven't fully arrived yet.

The next 24 months could compress a decade of change. For corporate leaders, the opportunity is not simply to understand new technology — it’s to determine where it may help strengthen resilience, accelerate growth and inform decision-making across the organisation.

Analysts estimate that agentic AI and quantum computing could unlock more than $1 trillion in value by 2035. Join us for a 2.5-hour executive session designed to help you translate emerging capabilities into practical business outcomes. We’ll examine whether trust and security, rather than technology alone, may become key constraints and why this may require action now.

You’ll explore the foundations of trust in agentic commerce: from agent identity, permissions and human-in-the-loop design to evidence trails designed to support auditability. Learn how robust controls, accountable human judgement and collaboration across regulators, industry partners and the wider ecosystem can support the safe deployment of autonomous commerce at scale.

We’ll then examine how connected banking may help your business move money, trade and grow internationally. Gain practical insight into where digital money, tokenisation, digital assets and currencies could fit within your operating and treasury flows. We’ll explore how unified connectivity can help your organisation make better decisions and serve customers more effectively.

Throughout the session, we’ll explore how AI, modern platforms and emerging digital rails can support relevant, real-time experiences at scale, with a focus on customer trust, human accountability and responsible decision-making.

3:30pm - 3:40pm

Welcome & Opening Primer: The Case for Urgency

Speaker: Manoj Dugar, Managing Director and Head of Asia, ex Greater China, Global Payments Solutions, HSBC

3:40pm - 4:00pm

Resilience in 2028: When AI and Quantum Redraw the Risk Map

The Agentic AI revolution, driven by the latest frontier models, and quantum computing are on track to unlock over $1 trillion in economic value by 2035. But both these frontier technologies are simultaneously redrawing the risk and resilience paradigm, creating an urgent landscape in which cyber threats can scale faster, attack surfaces can expand and today’s protections may not withstand tomorrow’s capabilities. For organisations with the right capabilities and governance, uncertainty can become a competitive advantage. How can we build the capabilities, controls and foundations to anticipate threats and strengthen resilience?

Speaker: Robert Oates, Chief Risk and Compliance Officer, Singapore, HSBC, Shayan Hazir, HSBC – Chief Digital Officer, Asia (ex. HK) and Middle East, HSBC

4:00pm - 4:30pm

Automated, Always-on and Real Time: Governing Commerce in the Agentic Decade

Autonomous agents will soon be initiating and settling commerce and treasury transactions on behalf of corporates and institutions – the practical question is whether the right guardrails are in place before adoption scales. Our panellists will share how they’ve applied regulatory principles in practice through a proof of concept, including a walkthrough of what was tested and the controls underpinning it. They’ll explore what make agentic AI in payments trusted, from agent identity and permissions to human-in-the-loop design, segregation of duties and evidence trails that stand up to policy and audit scrutiny.

Speaker(s): Koh Tze Yong, Lead Solutions Architect, AXS, Patrick Sze, Chief Technology Officer, Green Link Digital Bank, Dr. Maxim Afanasyev, Financial Services Industry Lead for JAPAC, Global Strategic Industries, Google Cloud, Kenneth Gay, Chief Fintech Officer, Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Gary Liu, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Terminal 3, Amber Henderson-Smart, Global Head of Client Connectivity, Global Payments Solutions, HSBC, Jessie Saw, Head of Product Management, Global Payments Solutions, HSBC (Moderator)

4:30pm - 4:35pm

Break

4:35pm - 5:05pm

Connecting Digital Currency and Digital Asset to Power 24/7 Value Movement at Scale

As digital asset and digital currencies see an increase in momentum in the institutional space, it promises the ability to move funds and deliver assets 24/7 instantly. The panellists will discuss what this means for corporate and institutional players, how this can revolutionalise the way money moves, treasury functions, yield enhancements with tokenised money market funds and value of asset tokenisation. They will share their views on how the different forms of digital currencies and digital assets are fit for purpose, the role of digital ledgers and their views on the road ahead for digital asset and digital currencies.

Speaker(s): Lewis Sun, Global Head of Digital Currencies, Global Payments Solutions, HSBC, Chetan Karkhanis, Franklin Templeton - SVP Digital Asset Client engagement, Selene Chong, Global Head of Digital Assets, Corporate and Institutional Banking, HSBC (Moderator)

5:05pm - 5:20pm

Dynamic banking for a new era of business  

As agents, data, and ERPs coincide – simplified connectivity across channels will be the true enabler behind the flows. Speakers will explain how innovative connectivity links ERPs, bank channels and emerging agentic tools so data, approvals, execution and confirmation are joined up end-to-end.

Speaker: Amber Henderson-Smart, Global Head of Client Connectivity, Global Payments Solutions, HSBC

5:20pm - 5:50pm

Reimagining Trade: From AI to Smarter Working Capital

Explore how AI and digital innovation are transforming trade, simplifying document processing, reducing manual hand-offs and enabling faster processing. The discussion will demonstrate how technology, specialist expertise and appropriate controls are coming together to create simpler, more seamless trade experiences and shape the next generation of digital solutions.

The session will feature HSBC TradeCash, a digital financing solution designed to unlock cash flow and support business growth, with Advanide sharing its experience.

Speaker(s): Holger Roessner, CEO, AdvanIDe Holdings Pte Ltd, Tze Tze Lee, Global Head of Documentary Trade, Global Trade Solutions, HSBC, Vinay Tiwari, Head of Product & Propositions, South East Asia Cluster, Global Trade Solutions, HSBC

5:50pm - 6:00pm

Closing Synthesis – Connecting the Dots: Your Institution's Next Move 

A crisp synthesis of the day’s takeaways – what’s real, what’s next, and what requires action now. We’ll close with sharing of practical 12 month roadmap: priority use cases to pilot, key trust/control guardrails to lock in early, and the collaborations and operating model shifts needed to move from insight to execution.

Speaker: Ruby Ho, Managing Director and Head of Markets and Securities Services, ASEAN, HSBC