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China Conference: Southeast Asia
BusinessBanking & Finance

SCMP China Conference: collaboration and innovation set to drive US$240 trillion global payments industry

  • Collaboration and innovation will help build a sustainable ecosystem for the global payments industry, panellists at the China Conference: Southeast Asia said
  • Initiatives such as Nexus, a BIS-led multilateral payment system, are helping to speed up transactions and reduce costs

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Eugene Tang, Business Editor SCMP; Oluchi Ikechi-D’Amico, strategy and transactions partner at EY Parthenon; Kai Wu, group chief revenue officer and general manager for APAC at Airwallex and Shayan Hazir - chief digital officer for Southeast Asia at HSBC, at the China Conference: Southeast Asia, in Singapore, on Wednesday. Photo: SCMP
Iris Ouyang
Collaboration between the private sector and regulators, along with the latest innovation, are needed to fix weaknesses, improve transparency and reduce costs to help build a sustainable ecosystem for the US$240 trillion global payments industry, said panellists at the China Conference: Southeast Asia.
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The different stakeholders should join hands to enhance collaboration, streamline processes and address structural issues to improve speed, transparency and cut costs that have hobbled the sector for at least a decade, the panellists said at the conference organised by the Post on Wednesday.

Initiatives such as the Bank for International Settlements’ Nexus, a multilateral network connecting multiple domestic instant payment systems in many countries, can also help, they said.

“We as an industry need to collaborate further,” said Camilla Bullock, co-founder and chief executive of Emerging Payments Association Asia, which aims to strengthen and expand the payments industry. “It has to be a collaboration between the private sector and the public sector to get closer to align and coordinate targets … and to harmonise and recognise those different regulations.”

Kai Wu (right), group chief revenue officer and general manager for APAC at Airwallex, with Oluchi Ikechi-D’Amico, strategy and transactions partner at EY Parthenon, at the China Conference: Southeast Asia, in Singapore, on Wednesday. Photo: SCMP
Kai Wu (right), group chief revenue officer and general manager for APAC at Airwallex, with Oluchi Ikechi-D’Amico, strategy and transactions partner at EY Parthenon, at the China Conference: Southeast Asia, in Singapore, on Wednesday. Photo: SCMP

The call for closer integration comes as the industry needs to build a more sustainable ecosystem amid challenges brought on by efforts to launch and develop digital currencies in many countries.

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