Sakda SAU
Sorbonne Institute for Research in International and European Law (IREDIES)
Sorbonne Law School, Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne University

This paper analyses the ASEAN Banking Integration Framework (ABIF) against the rapid digitisation of finance which threatens to render the need for physical branches obsolete. It argues that instead of relying solely on de jure regional integration, ASEAN should adopt de facto standards to harmonise banking practices without requiring member states to relinquish sovereignty, and invest in modern tech solutions to manage new digital risks as a bloc. By doing so, ASEAN can revitalise the ABIF and ensure it remains resilient and achieves the financial integration envisioned in the ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint 2025.

The ASEAN Ideas in Progress series is a collection of in-progress papers, in the early and fluid ‘ideas’ stage, produced from the (2021–ongoing) ASEAN Law Academy Conference on ‘The Rules-Based ASEAN Community’. Please click here to access the working papers published thus far: https://cil.nus.edu.sg/research/asean-law-and-policy/asean-ideas-in-progress/