One of banking’s greatest virtues is its clear, straight-talking approach when dealing with difficult situations. That is exactly what we need to steer the industry in anticipation of headwinds that look set to dominate 2025.

With a record of over 70 countries having gone to the polls in 2024, the most crucial was the outcome of the US elections with president-elect Donald J Trump returning for a second term with a stronger Republican mandate in controlling the trifecta of the White House and both chambers of Congress.

David Coleman, Vice President, Chief Risk Officer, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, who most recently spoke to Chartered Banker, the magazine of our UK partner, the Chartered Banker Institute, said: “We have instability, volatility, and the absence of predictability…All of these are macro risks.”

“If we want to have an environment within which people invest their money and banks can be certain that businesses are going to survive and therefore be able to pay them back, not only do we need to have relatively low volatility and instability, but that stability has to extend to the legally sound regions as well.”

With geopolitical turbulence and the tussle to deregulate the sector becoming more prominent, it is timely that our exclusive Chartered Banker interview this issue feature a thoroughbred risk professional, Gurdeep Singh, CB, Deputy Chairman of AICB’s Chief Credit Officers’ Forum and Regional Head of Retail Risk at CIMB Bank Bhd for his insights on the rewards that come with getting the strategy right.

With the growing whispers of deregulation and emerging innovations in decentralised finance (DeFi), our cover story, Trustless, by Angela SP Yap delves into the concept of ‘trustlessness’, a key concept in DeFi, and explores the complexities of trust in technology and proffers a different power-sharing model when it comes to banking’s relationship with DeFi.

Organisational strength is explored in a different dimension, that of cybersecurity, in The Human Firewall: Cyber Resilience Starts with Organisational Culture, by Christophe Barel, Managing Director APAC at FS-ISAC. By fostering a culture of security awareness, enforcing ongoing training, and implementing proactive risk management, institutions can beef up technical firewalls by shoring up on their human defences first.

The rise of cryptocurrencies is also presenting a unique set of challenges. In Never to be Bedfellows?, the article zooms in on Custodia Bank’s legal battle to secure a master account with the US Federal Reserve and raises practical challenges about crypto innovation, its coexistence with traditional banking, and whether it compromises financial stability.

Resilience in the banking industry requires a multifaceted approach – one that blends collaboration, strong organisational culture, and innovative strategies to address both current and emerging risks. These complex yet critical challenges were tackled at the recent International Conference on Financial Crime and Terrorism Financing Masterclass 2024, hosted by the Institute in Kuala Lumpur from 19 to 20 August 2024. With immersive and experiential sessions that combined our best-in-class talents with over 40 global and regional experts, the two-day event spurred intense discussions and knowledge transfers on transnational financial crime, ultimate beneficial ownership, and enhanced frameworks to strengthen detection through inter-agency cooperation.

With headwinds already here, side-stepping is not an option. It’s clear that quick steps delivered head-on are banking’s best bet to secure its future.

Here’s to our resilience as we embrace the challenges of 2025!

The Editor