FIS Singapore 2023

Traditional Singaporean street food market catered by Singapore’s food ambassador and champion of street food culture, KF Seetoh.

As Asian economies and governments continue to gain power, the West needs to find ways to adapt to the new global order.

In 2022, central banks embarked on the largest tightening cycle since the 1970s amid persistently elevated inflation, and asset prices fell to reflect the first-order impact of higher rates. But the second-order impacts of the massive tightening that has occurred are still ahead and are largely not priced in. Markets are discounting that no meaningful contraction will occur, that inflation will quickly normalise, and that central banks will be able to start easing in the second half of 2023, in other words, a soft landing. What can investors expect as the second-order impacts of the tightening begin to ripple through the economy?

This session examines an asia-centric view of the world including the US-China decoupling and what that impact might be. It looks at the different stages of globalisation/de-globalisation in Asia and the consequences for these markets.

Investors share the experiences of how they are looking at global macro risks and opportunities and what actions they are considering to future-proof their portfolios.

The past decade of moderate growth, low inflation, and accommodative central bank policy was great for passive asset returns and many investors shifted their asset allocations to reflect these stable conditions. Now, we’ve entered a new environment that looks much less beneficial for assets. High inflation has created the sharpest tightening in 40 years, which has driven a significant asset sell-off over the past year. How should investors prepare their portfolios and consider the role of diversification and liquidity in light of this shift?

Long term investors seeking to construct portfolios resilient to macro uncertainties should focus less on backward-looking, short-term risks and more on understanding the long-horizon investment landscape, including the benevolent effects of mean reversion, a broader opportunity set of private assets, and the risks posed by potential regime shifts in the macro environment.

In an environment of higher inflation and deglobalisation, investors may need to re-think traditional approaches to portfolio construction. So what are the alternatives?

According to research, the global alternative data market has increased from $60 million in 2015 to $1.7 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach $17 billion by 2027. Powerful computation techniques are changing the way alpha is extracted from data resulting in alternative alpha that allows investors to generate uncorrelated returns. But how do you separate noise from relevant signals, what is the power and appeal of alternative alpha, and how does sustainability fit into this picture?

Table discussion

Fixed income is undergoing a renaissance. Increasingly, investors are being compensated for risk – and in some cases rewarded. This represents an extraordinary sea change: during the past decade and longer, bonds were priced at untenably expensive levels. To be sure, caution is warranted in light of geopolitical and macroeconomic upheaval. Investors should perhaps ease back into fixed income rather than plunging head first. And they need to be selective. This session will explore what this new paradigm means for portfolio asset allocators.

This session examines the market dynamics for real assets in 2023, including the challenges and opportunities across real estate, infrastructure and natural capital.

What does it really mean to implement a net zero strategy? As more investors make pledges for net zero they are tasked with setting a strategy to achieve these goals. This session looks at the challenges of implementation including what behaviour changes are needed and how investors really need to allocate.

More than half the world’s population lives in Asia, four of the largest economies in the world are Asian (China, Japan, India and South Korea) and Asian innovation is at the forefront of green finance and technology. This session examines the future of the global economy and the role of Asia.

This session looks at the potential impact of geopolitics on economies and markets and the challenges investors face in navigating increased geopolitical risk.

In this final investor panel delegates will hear how investors from different parts of the world are tackling the key issues covered in the conference including portfolio construction and asset allocation decisions, the renaissance in fixed income and the allocation to alternatives, ESG, geopolitical risk and opportunities in Asia.

Over the last decade, Asia has accounted for 52 per cent of global growth in tech-company revenues, 43 per cent of startup funding, 51 per cent of spending on research and development and 87 per cent of patents filed. So what does the future look like and why is Asia at the centre? This closing session will hear from one of the region’s most impressive venture capitalists who has invested in nearly 350 companies in Asia including Aerodyne, Airwallex, Animoca, AutoX, Carsome, GoGoX, Kumu, Prenetics, Sandbox VR, Sastaticket.pk and WeLab.