Nevertheless, establishing trust remains an ongoing difficulty for the sector. Although there has been a rise in innovation within g...
Nevertheless, establishing trust remains an ongoing difficulty for the sector.
Although there has been a rise in innovation within global trade payments, panelists cautioned that everything could fail without trust serving as the foundation of the system, they mentioned during theReconfiguring Global Supply Chains: The AI and Payment Systems Twin Engine panel at the Singapore Fintech Festival 2025on 13 November in Singapore
Livia Benisty,The chief external affairs officer at Banking Circle stated that although money starts to flow through an expanding range of compatible payment systems, the main priority is to ensure these transactions occur within secure, reliable, and regulated networks.
She mentioned that the term 'trust' was brought up multiple times across various panels at the 2025 Singapore Fintech Festival, more frequently than the term 'agentic', highlighting its significance in the financial sector.
"You're handling large sums of money, so you must have confidence in the payment process. You also need to trust the AI and its transparency. This is where policy challenges will arise. You have the policies and the regulated organizations. If you can be the organization that combines innovation, trust, and compliance, then you'll be central to the system. That's what we are focusing on," Benisty stated.
Amira Karim, head of public policy, payments & financial services at Amazon, agreed that trust is central to everything, but one aspect she wants to link to trust is the way data can be utilized to enhance and strengthen it.
Karim mentioned that regulators and decision-makers frequently bear the task of establishing trust within international trade systems.
"But is it possible to use data and new technologies to make trust somewhat more decentralised? And I'm not referring only to DLTs (Distributed Ledger Technology), but rather the ability for individuals, small businesses, or organisations to comprehend what's happening within the foundational infrastructure," Karim stated.
Anju Patwardhan, a former banking executive and currently an independent board director at Gulf International Bank, stated that establishing trust will be challenging if banks are unwilling to exchange information and frequently fail to reach consensus on the technology to adopt or the way forward.
"You often require an independent third party to establish that trust in order to collaborate and exchange information," Patwardhan.
Patwardhan mentioned that she has long wondered why the business sector does not have a counterpart to a consumer credit bureau, pointing out that without an impartial, independent system to exchange data, trade finance and corporate loans face difficulties in establishing the trust required for advancement.
Kazuya Ikeda, senior managing executive officer, head of transaction business and AI transformation, and deputy head of global business unit at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, concurred with all professionals in trade finance that developing their own distinct system, particularly those that are incompatible with one another, represents one of the major obstacles in establishing trust.
"For instance, blockchains. We currently have numerous blockchains, yet these do not communicate with one another. However, if this could be achieved securely and reliably, that would be a viable solution," Ikeda mentioned.
Ikeda proposed creating a worldwide, reliable shared network akin to SWIFT, but developed for blockchains. He also recommended employing tokenization to safeguard privacy, enabling confidential information to be exchanged and analyzed by AI without revealing identities.
Building upon Ikeda's perspective, Benisty highlighted that the interoperability she discussed has moved beyond theory, citing JPMorgan's recent initiative that enables value to transfer from its private blockchain to a public chain, where JPM Coin can be exchanged for USDC. She contended that this form of secure cross-chain integration demonstrates the technology's readiness, with the main challenges now being policy, regulatory frameworks, and banks' trust in adopting it.
Namrata Jolly,Head of FSI Asia at Microsoft, Managing Director, redirected attention towards the intelligence that will function above these systems. She emphasized that although blockchain connectivity is almost resolved, the broader ecosystem will not advance unless AI is reliable.
From Microsoft's perspective, she emphasized the importance of Ethical AI systems that ensure fairness, dependability, diversity, and openness in financial technologies.
"Without trust, there can't be adoption," Jolly stated, highlighting that AI-driven decisions, whether in loan processing or risk evaluation, need to be transparent and free from bias for regulators and customers to have confidence in them.
Speaking about the future of finance, Karim mentioned that it's necessary to go beyond connectivity, which he described as "table stakes."
"I believe the future of finance is fundamentally about coherence. I think we must ensure that technology has a way to work in harmony and that we establish common, aligned objectives, along with a shared language to guarantee alignment, thus transitioning from connectivity to coherence through cooperation," Karim stated.
Patwardhan mentioned that her main goal for the next five to ten years is to establish a global or national central organization capable of managing reactions to cyber and ransomware attacks, ensuring that businesses, particularly small and medium enterprises, do not face such challenges alone.
Patwardhan referenced the cyberattack on Japanese beer company Asahi in October, which caused operational disruptions and led to the closure of most of its factories.
"I was wondering, why do all companies have to handle this issue by themselves? I believe that last month, Singapore introduced a legal structure or a central hotline they are establishing for SMEs, so that when they face a cyberattack, [they can receive assistance]," Patwardhan mentioned.
Ikeda concluded by emphasizing the magnitude and the duty associated with AI's role in contemporary commerce.
"He mentioned that there are countless methods to apply AI," he stated, highlighting that the current challenge lies in using it in a responsible manner, which is why he has brought together all financial, insurance, and AI operations under a single team.
For Jolly, there is a significant opportunity in public-private collaborations. "There has been the capacity for public and private entities to utilize technological progress that specific groups are implementing, while others can implement it as well, along with the capability to establish uniform standards to make these issues we're discussing much simpler to address," she mentioned.
Meanwhile, Benisty mentions that she envisions payments eventually becoming invisible. This implies that all transactions are entirely on-chain, completely interoperable, and seamless.
"It shouldn't be important for my clients or their end users whether they're using a stablecoin, tokenized deposits, or traditional currency. They shouldn't even be aware of it. Payments are simply the nervous system. They serve as the foundation. What's truly significant is the data, the insights, and the possibilities that come with it," Benisty stated.
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