Event Details:
Date: 22 October 2025 (Wednesday)
Time: 9:30am – 11:30am
Venue: Marina Bay Financial Centre (Tower 1), 8 Marina Boulevard, Level 21, Singapore 018981
This is an event organised by IMAS, in collaboration with Standard Chartered Bank, where industry leaders discuss the transformative impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on operations, and the future of the fund management industry through digital assets and tokenisation.
Key Takeaways:
Presentation: The Role of AI in the Middle and Back Office to Achieve Operational Excellence.
Speakers:
- Allan Song, Head of Data and Digital, Financing and Securities Services, Standard Chartered
The first presentation examined how AI is being applied to enhance productivity, risk management, and data-driven decision-making across middle- and back-office functions.
- Shift from automation to augmentation: AI should enhance, not replace, human judgment — serving as a “decision-making partner” for analysts and operations teams.
- Practical use cases: Entity validation and fraud detection, intelligent document processing, and natural-language instruction handling are among the most mature and impactful applications.
- Building AI-ready infrastructure: Success depends on strong data integration and a layered technology stack that allows AI to operate contextually.
- Human-in-the-loop strategy: Reinforcement learning and feedback loops are essential to continuously improve models while maintaining control and prevent AI hallucinations.
- Actionable takeaway: Firms should start with narrow, achievable AI pilots that deliver measurable efficiency gains, while investing in data quality and integration capabilities to scale AI enterprise-wide.
Panel Discussion: Digital Assets, AI and Tokenisation – the Future of Fund Distribution
Panelists:
- Ai Ling Ong, CFA, Head of Artificial Intelligence of Investments, Senior Director, Portfolio Manager, Lion Global Investors
- Matthew French, Global Program Manager Digital Assets at Franklin Templeton
- Hai Jade Fuan, Executive Director, Head Product Commercialisation, Financing and Securities Services, Standard Chartered Bank
Moderator:
- Nancy Wallace, Senior Manager – Asset & Wealth Management Consulting, Alpha FMC
The second half of the session featured a dynamic panel exploring how tokenisation and AI are converging to redefine capital markets and fund management.
Key takeaways:
- Rapid tokenisation growth: The market for tokenised real-world assets (RWAs) has surged past USD 30 billion, driven by tokenised money market funds and private credit. Conservative estimates project growth to USD 2 trillion by 2030.
- Beyond digitisation: Tokenisation introduces composability and programmability — enabling assets to interact seamlessly, settle instantly, and support new forms of liquidity and collateralisation.
- Institutional adoption underway: Early movers like Standard Chartered, Franklin Templeton, and Nomura are commercialising tokenised funds, experimenting with on-chain distribution and programmable compliance.
- Convergence of AI and digital assets: AI will be instrumental in managing liquidity, settlement, and compliance as tokenised markets scale — ultimately powering 24/7 automated financial ecosystems.
- People and governance challenges: Regulatory clarity, talent development, and risk management remain key barriers.
