What happened
Published June 16, 2026 by The SEACEN Centre (South East Asian Central Banks Research and Training Centre), this policy brief by Meltem Chadwick, Han-Wei Liu, Donghyun Park, and Shu (Grace) Tian argues that AI governance must move from ASEAN's existing soft-law foundation — the ASEAN Guide on AI Governance and Ethics and the Expanded ASEAN Guide for Generative AI — into operationalised institutional practice. The brief finds that ASEAN member states are advancing at materially different speeds, creating interoperability and supervisory fragmentation risks. For central banks specifically, the authors argue that AI governance is not a narrow technology issue but must be embedded across institutional risk management, data governance, model validation, supervision, payments oversight, financial stability analysis, and public communication. Concrete priorities set out include: AI use-case inventories, formal risk classification of AI deployments, enforceable human accountability structures, stronger data controls, supervisory expectations for regulated financial entities, and regional cooperation mechanisms for cross-border AI risks.
Why it matters
For financial institutions operating across ASEAN, this brief signals the direction of supervisory expectations from regional central banks — institutions that will shape examination standards, model-risk guidance, and cross-border AI deployment requirements in the region's fast-growing financial markets.
Action needed
Assign the Chief Risk Officer and regional compliance leads to map current AI deployments against the brief's six priority areas (use-case inventories, risk classification, human accountability, data controls, supervisory expectations, cross-border cooperation) and identify gaps before country-level central bank guidance follows.