Southeast Asia’s digital economy is often described in eye-catching numbers. The most striking is the projection that it could reach as much as US$2 trillion by 2030. However, beneath the headline figure sits a timely question – what kind of financial plumbing must be built, upgraded and connected if that growth is to become reality?

For Winnie Yap, managing director and head of global payment solutions at HSBC in Singapore, the answer is increasingly clear. The next phase of digital growth in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ( Asean ) region will not be unlocked by consumer demand alone. It will depend on whether payments infrastructure, corporate systems and regulatory frameworks can keep pace with consumers who already expect everything to move instantly.

“The consumers are ready,” Yap says. “The payment infrastructure and corporates need to move with them.”

That tension defines the current wider Asian payments landscape. On one side is a digitally fluent population, deeply familiar with wallets, embedded finance and real-time transactions. On the other is a corporate sector still uneven in its transformation, ranging from firms experimenting with tokenized deposits to those still reliant on spreadsheets and fragmented systems.

This gap, as Yap sees it, is the critical battleground for the region’s next phase of growth.

Embedding digital commerce

In Asean, digital commerce is no longer a future trend, it is embedded behaviour. Companies operating in the region must now support a widening mix of payment methods, from cards and wallets to real-time account transfers and embedded credit. Increasingly, this is being driven by consumer expectations rather than corporate readiness.

“You already have consumers who are very digitally savvy,” Yap notes. “If your end customers are using in-app payments and embedded finance, then corporates need to integrate into that infrastructure.”

Among the innovations reshaping the landscape  – programmable money, embedded credit and artificial intelligence ( AI )-driven automation – agentic AI, Yap says, is advancing quickly, even as use cases are still emerging. The driver is immediate necessity rather than long-term ambition.

Treasury teams are under pressure; and, in this environment, the ability to access and act on real-time data has become critical.

“They need visibility, they need control, and they need to know where their cash is,” Yap states. “And they need to move money very quickly.”

This is driving a fundamental shift in the role of the corporate treasurer. Historically focused on operational execution, treasury functions are evolving into strategic centres of decision-making, enabled by real-time data and automation.

“We used to talk about static data,” Yap explains. “Today, it’s real-time treasury. Efficiency is no longer just the end goal: it’s an enabler to be more competitive.”

That transformation is already visible. Corporates that once relied on end-of-day reporting are now accessing balances, payments and liquidity positions in real time through application programming interfaces and integrated platforms. Immediate credit notifications and automated cash flow forecasting are replacing manual reconciliation processes.

Real operational challenges

In a region influenced by geopolitical uncertainty, this shift is not optional. Treasurers must navigate tariffs, sanctions and shifting supply chains while managing multiple currencies across jurisdictions.

“Different currencies are impacted by geopolitics,” Yap says. “So, that active management of liquidity is very crucial.”

At the same time, however, Asia’s relative lack of legacy infrastructure in some markets is proving to be an advantage. In newer economies, companies can adopt modern systems without the burden of decades-old technology.

Still, significant bottlenecks remain. One of the most important is cross-border connectivity. While domestic real-time payment systems are now widespread across Asean, scaling these into seamless, cross-border institutional networks is far more complex.

“The next step is cross-border real-time connectivity,” Yap notes. “Retail is already happening; but, for corporates, there are additional layers, compliance, sanctions and regulations.”

Initiatives, such as multi-country payment linkages and broader network models, are beginning to address this challenge, but the infrastructure is still evolving.

A second bottleneck lies within corporates themselves. Many firms are in the midst of lengthy enterprise resource planning ( ERP ) upgrades, attempting to standardize systems across markets and business units. These transformations are complex, often taking years, and expose a deeper issue – data quality.

“The biggest challenge is your data infrastructure,” Yap states. “If you don’t have clean data, then what goes in and what comes out will not be reliable.”

This has direct implications for AI adoption. While agentic AI and advanced automation are developing rapidly, many CFOs remain cautious. Concerns around governance, data security and investment prioritization continue to shape decision-making.

“Capital is limited,” Yap notes. “You have to decide – do I invest in technology where I may not see immediate gains or do I hire more people?”

Yet, the direction of travel is unmistakable. The evolution of AI, as Yap describes it, is a progression from productivity tools to conversational systems and now further on towards agentic models capable of executing tasks autonomously.

“Agentic AI is moving very fast,” she points out. “The use cases are still developing; but, directionally, that’s where it’s going.”

For finance leaders, the message is clear. The priority is not to chase every emerging technology, but to build the foundations that make adoption possible.

That means modernizing ERP systems, cleaning and structuring data, and strengthening integration with banking platforms. It also means focusing on practical applications rather than theoretical innovation.

HSBC’s approach, Yap explains, is often based on co-creation with clients – developing solutions around real operational challenges, rather than abstract use cases.

This is evident in areas like tokenized deposits and blockchain-enabled workflows. In one example, HSBC worked with a real estate client to digitize complex, paper-heavy processes involving contractors, approvals and payments.

“Instead of waiting for paper to move sequentially, everything becomes visible and dynamic,” Yap explains. “There’s much more transparency.”

The same principles underpin the bank’s work on tokenized deposits, enabling real-time, 24/7 cross-border fund transfers using familiar deposit structures in a digital format.

These developments, for Yap, point to a broader shift towards a programmable financial infrastructure in which payments, liquidity and data move seamlessly across systems and borders.

Asia, she suggests, is uniquely positioned to lead this transition. The region combines high digital adoption, supportive regulatory environments and a concentration of regional treasury centres, particularly in Singapore.

“The adoption of digital in this region is well ahead,” Yap shares. “What we invest in Asia can then support other regions that have not yet adopted at the same pace.”

That dynamic is increasingly important. Asia is no longer simply importing financial innovation, it is exporting it.

The gap between consumer expectations and corporate capability is narrowing fast. Those that fail to modernize risk being left behind in a payments ecosystem that is becoming faster, smarter and more interconnected by the day.

The transformation, as Yap puts it, is already underway – and accelerating. “Technology,” she adds, “is moving faster than we can imagine.”

Fintech view

The evolution of corporate treasury in Asia, explains Andrés Choussy, global fintech infrastructure provider FIS’ president of capital markets, is ultimately about architecture, specifically, how technology removes fragmentation and enables real-time decision-making across increasingly complex regional operations.

The next generation of treasury infrastructure, he argues, will be defined by three core elements: cloud-native platforms, integrated data flows and AI-driven decision-making. Together, these shift treasury away from backward-looking reporting towards predictive, forward-looking control.

“Technology should handle the routine so that treasury teams can focus on capital allocation and funding strategy,” Choussy says. For multinational corporates operating across Asia, that means moving away from fragmented legacy systems towards a single, unified platform capable of managing multiple currencies, entities and regulatory regimes.

Fragmentation remains the defining challenge. Across Asia, treasurers must navigate a patchwork of payment rails, settlement cycles, regulatory requirements and currency controls, often managed through separate systems. The result is operational complexity that cannot be addressed manually at scale.

The biggest opportunity in connectivity, according to Choussy, is integrating treasury management systems with ERP platforms, banking portals and market data into a single, trusted view of cash and risk.

“The goal is real-time visibility and proactive liquidity management,” he adds, “rather than reactive firefighting.”

Data sits at the centre of this transformation. Without clean, connected, real-time data, AI cannot deliver meaningful value. Organizations making the fastest progress are those that have already invested in strong data foundations.

AI at Choussy’s firm is delivering the most impact in two areas. The first is in predictive processes, such as cash flow forecasting, liquidity modelling and risk scenario analysis, where AI can process more variables more consistently than manual approaches. The second is in assistive applications, where AI acts as a co-pilot, surfacing insights, flagging exceptions and augmenting human decision-making rather than replacing it.

Convergence

This combination is already reshaping treasury capacity. By automating reconciliation and enhancing forecasting accuracy, AI enables finance teams to operate more strategically without increasing headcount.

Looking further ahead, Choussy sees real momentum building around tokenized deposits, programmable payments and always-on liquidity, but cautions that adoption will be uneven.

“The technology exists,” he explains, “but the ecosystem is still maturing.”

Scaling will depend on regulatory clarity across jurisdictions, interoperability between markets and treasury systems that can natively support tokenized workflows. In the near term, progress is likely to come through targeted corridor-based pilots before broader rollout.

Perhaps most significantly, Choussy does not see innovation coming from any single segment of the industry. Instead, the future of treasury will be shaped by convergence.

Banks will continue to provide liquidity and market access. Fintechs will drive agility and targeted innovation. Infrastructure providers, such as FIS, will supply the underlying technology backbone.

“The next wave of treasury innovation will be collaborative,” he offers, “rather than winner takes all.”

For corporates operating across Asia, that convergence may prove to be the most important development of all.