The US-ASEAN Business Council is celebrating its 20th consecutive meeting with the ASEAN Finance Ministers in 2019. Its Financial Services Committee (FSC) delegation to the 5th ASEAN Finance Ministers’ and Central Bank Governors’ Meeting (AFMGM) seeks to expand upon past collaboration with ASEAN governments and present policy recommendations in support of a stable, integrated and open financial sector which support sustainable growth in ASEAN. The U.S. financial services industry is committed to working with stakeholders in supporting innovations which make services more inclusive and attract more partners and resources into ASEAN’s financial systems, benefiting the economies of the ASEAN members and ultimately the people of ASEAN. In addition, we are committed to continued engagement with ASEAN Member States (AMS) to strengthen the consumer safety, institutional
soundness, cybersecurity and systemic resilience of financial ecosystems to help governments address innovation-generated disruptions and related public policy challenges.
As we celebrate ASEAN’s 52nd anniversary and the 35th anniversary of the US-ASEAN Business Council, the current global environment contains both external economic headwinds and economic opportunities for ASEAN. We look forward to working with Thailand on its over-arching theme of Advancing Partnership for Sustainability and the themes of advancing a digital, seamless and sustainable ASEAN. As ASEAN continues its ongoing regional capital markets development and financial sector integration efforts, we note the Government of Thailand’s focus on deepening regional cross-border e-payments frameworks and the ASEAN Capital Market Forum’s Roadmap on ASEAN Sustainable Capital Markets and Financial Professional Mobility Framework initiatives. In thinking about areas for continued collaboration with AMS in 2019 and beyond, this document offers our ideas and recommendations on the following four themes: Promoting Sustainable Finance; Enabling Digital Finance; Strengthening Cybersecurity; and Enhancing the Competitiveness of AMS to Attract Foreign Investment.
Each of the above areas represent important dimensions in the evolution of financial sector ecosystems to better enable financial services institutions, services providers and other stakeholders to operate efficiently in competitive markets and help financial sectors to play their role in supporting inclusive and sustainable growth. On behalf of a cross-section of US-ASEAN Business Council members, we have included detailed content in each section of the following paper.
