Name: The New Rules of Wealth
Uploaded: 2025-10-28
Duration: 14 min 59 s

As global power dynamics shift and capital flows are reshaped, the world’s leading investors and institutions are rethinking how and where value is created — from trade and macro forces to evolving client priorities across Asia and beyond. What defines leadership in wealth today and who’s best positioned to shape the next era of global finance? Join these financial titans for a high-level look at how strategies are evolving across institutional portfolios, private wealth, and emerging markets. 

The New Rules of Wealth

Conferences

Mary Suhaan, thank you both so much for joining us here today, um. I'm very aware that as we're talking, uh, there's the headlines that are out there right now have to do with trade talks between Trump and Xi and a bunch of deals that the US has just concluded in Southeast Asia and in Susan's home market, um. This just stresses how much in some ways the geopolitical and the economic order have changed in the past year, and I'm just curious to know each of you has a responsibility over over both institutional and individual wealth. How has all the flux of the past year, how have you managed it? How have you kind of surfed those waters? So let's just put things in context. Do you know how much trade outside the US is of global trade? Trade outside the US, not off the top of my head. 89%. OK. So TOTUS, that's trade outside the US in DBS we call it COTUS as opposed to POTUS. Um, so trade outside the US is 89%, um, and it behooves all people who have supply chains, that's most companies, to look at how they diversify the supply chain. It used to be China plus. One, now it's China plus N because you know, your plus one could also have tariffs and it will still have a high cost of supply. So it's China plus N, which inevitably adds costs. So then in the past, the supply chain was always cost optimized for the most efficient supply chain. Today you are diversified to be just in case rather than just in time. So that does that cost and friction, um, but it also reduces dependency. So that's your supply chain on the upstream. Then the pardon me for interrupting, but that's for you running Southeast Asia's largest bank. This is creating opportunities for investments, for new relationships for ways for you to be involved in paving the way for this kind of capital. Absolutely it's creating trade networks that previously did not exist or it existed, but it was nascent. So for example, as we're in Saudi Arabia between the GCC and the and, and, and Asia, between between China and, and, and Saudi. Uh, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, the, the, the trade and within intraregional trade within ASEAN countries as well, it's gonna go up and it's already going up, uh, and it's so, so how do you fund this because if it's intra-regional trade or it's GCC to to China, for example, um, is there an alternative payment mode other than say just purely relying on the US dollar, for example, other currencies, etc. that can help to, to, to, to, to pay for, for these supply. chains. Then on the demand side, it's also looking at new demand growth areas. In the past there was a strong reliance on the US, uh, and now with Asia growing, uh, with, um, the Middle East growing, with the global South growing, the global South connectivity, the Asia to to to Middle East, Europe to Asia, etc. the trade outside the US, certainly on demand side, I think will grow, uh, and that's where a lot of energies are being focused. That's interesting. So Mary, from your perspective in private wealth management and this what the TOTUS opportunity if you want if you want to call it that, um how's that affecting the way that you and your team? Well, you know, first of all, it's so great to be here in the region and just as Cusson said, this is, this is a time for all of us to be rethinking whether we're properly diversified in our own asset allocation, whether you're a sovereign wealth fund or an individual, you tend to have home country bias. Uh, how do you think about that in today's changing. World order ever changing world order, uh, and we're here in this region, uh, today is a great example of the opportunities that are abound. We just celebrated our 90th anniversary here in Saudi Arabia as JP Morgan and um it was quite a momentous occasion last night. We we just also announced that um Saudi Arabia is going to be the headquarters for our entire Middle Eastern uh efforts here, and there are so many things happening in here in Asia. headed to uh headed uh to her neck of the woods um later this week and to think about making sure that you're seeing the opportunities that are that are that are exist everywhere and you know um when we think about and I'm sure we'll talk about AI and and the like, but the all of the evolutions that are happening from a techno technological standpoint are levelizing the playing field for everyone to have a new opportunity to think about what's next and so that's why flows of. Capital are moving as such um, people are thinking about where it is that they can allocate to both protect their assets as well as have appreciation and of course making sure that you are strategically protecting your assets you know we talk a lot about making sure that you have resiliency in your portfolio that you're stress testing. There's a lot of assets that have obviously had a lot of appreciation. Are you ready for a correction if it happens? We're due for a correction at some point. It doesn't mean it's imminent. It just means you have to be ready for it. It's like any good. Management strategy. Are you prepared if something goes down 5, 1015, 20%? Can you survive for how long? Will it give you an opportunity to reset? Do you have cash in your portfolio to take advantage of it when it does happen rather than just sitting there and watching it? And so those are the kind of things that, you know, we're all spending time focused on and doing that while looking at the opportunities that are abound around the world and thinking about you just heard the panel here of the new airlines that was launched, there's there's opportunities everywhere. Yeah, and the broader the base of those opportunities, the more you're cushioned against the impact of any kind of individual correction that happens somewhere on the subject of AI, one question that Fortune is probably visiting editorially at least 3 times a day is AI bubble or no AI bubble. In the S&P 500, which is of course just one part of the global markets, a very high percentage of the gains in the last few years have come from AI and AI adjacent stocks. Morgan Stanley report said it was something like 75% since 2022. Um, from your point of view, uh respective points of view, is there, is there an overconcentration in certain AI stocks at the expense of diversification, and is that a risk? Well, if you look at the Asia like Japan multiples, you know, we're at 12 to 14 times. I think the US marries in the high 20, 30s, AI, you know, uh, uh, astronomical, um, so there is some, there is an AI arbitrage, I guess between Asia and the US, um, and, um, thank God the US market is open so global clients can participate in, in, in, in the US market and And, and take advantage of the momentum there. Um, but, um, I think by and large, whether it's AI stocks, tech stocks, hardware, software. Um, Asia still trades for the discount to, to, to the US, um, and, um, the, the Asian use cases are maybe a little bit more pragmatic, so rather than large language models, you have small language models, you have more use case driven outcomes, and you also have a blend of hardware and software, right? So whether it's robotics, drones, They in China, they call it the low flying economy, uh, biotech, etc. Look, I mean, US and Silicon Valley is the hub of innovation and everybody's super inspired by, by what's going on in the US, um, and, um, Asia with a large population and a very big stem graduate cohort in India, China. Uh, uh, uh, etc. naturally means there will be a lot of innovation and energy and, and, and, and, and startup activity. So I would say, you know, has a global view rather than a kind of um regional view and and look at some of the growth opportunities. I mean, in time to come, I hope East West tech becomes interoperable right now it seems to be a little bit bifurcated. If you will, but um maybe this is the case for somewhere like Singapore being the Switzerland or the east, perhaps to try and make, you know, both sides more interoperable, um, and have your IP set somewhere safe, um, but obviously, you know, with, with the PDPA and and data security and what have you, um, to then bring the best of East and West AI together. I, I think that's exactly right, and I think you asked the question better. Than anyone that's asked it recently just to be, to be truthful because everyone says, is there an AI bubble. That's like saying, is there a computer bubble. That's a crazy question. That's not like, no, there's not an AI bubble. AI has not even been deployed anywhere to the extent that it will be. Less than 10% of companies actually say that it's embedded in the services and the products that they deliver today. There's an enormous amount of opportunity. But what you ask is, are AI stocks having a little too much concentration? Of course, like some do, some don't, some you're trying, you're trying to extrapolate multiples out into the future of something that's only 3 years old from the mass general population. AI has been around for a lot longer than that, but how do you think about it in terms of everyday use, in terms of companies taking away the no joy work to be able to to make workers more efficient, to think of entire. Fairly new ways to run your company and, and so first there's the stages of just like AIing the processes that nobody likes getting rid of the no joy work, but then there's the when you really have time, you step back and you rip apart the whole thing and you say why did we even do it this way? Why did we move something from A to B to C to D? We don't even need to do things that way. That's when you're going to see the power of AI drop to the bottom line of all these companies, and that's going to be the massive. Uplift. That's why you're saying the multiples are the way they are. And the question is how fast will we grow into those multiples. It's not that the multiples are wrong, they will eventually be right. They may not be right for every company, but they, yeah, do they reflect 2026 reality or 2036 reality exactly. That's a great way of framing it too. Speaking of AI change in the way these all these other companies work, I'm curious to know from each of you what are you doing now with AI that's in your own work as a leader and as an executive. Well, um, it's, it's, you know, I think people learn best by doing, right? Don't you agree that. And so it's just letting 1000 flowers bloom, right? So for us, the kind of inch deep mild wide horizontal use cases we call the DBS GPT. That all that come from the entrepreneurship. Then everyone tested and it sort of lots of different use cases on the horizontal use case, whether it's just getting policies um summarized and made simpler for people to understand, to helping walking customers or, or, or, or, you know, horizontal uh use cases, then you've got the vertical use cases which are a little bit more specialized and needs a lot more work and, and, and um um vertical insights, whether it could be AML KYC, it could be. Uh, creating pitch books for investment banking, it could be a wealth co-pilot, um, it could be ESG questionnaires answering ESG questions, etc. so or credit dossiers, writing credit memos and getting rid of the no joy work that she's, yeah, yeah, absolutely. So the mundane no joy work as, as, as Mary rightly points out, um, should really save people a lot of time for them to then engage clients more, uh, and do, do more meaningful work. Yeah, but AI, you know, AI is, look, if you're not frustrated. using AI in your company, then you're nowhere near where you should be, and your entire teams need to be highly frustrated with it not moving as fast as your brain is trying to think about it, and that means you have the curious worker who's going to take you to the next generation. And so we talk about the entrepreneurreneurs that we're meeting and the people that are on the forefront of this and so you can just see it in the companies that you interview, the management teams who get it, the management teams who don't. How do you think about that? JPMorgan invests $18 billion a year in technology, of which a large portion of it comes. Uh, into play when we think about optimizing the way we do everything from protecting our clients from cyber and the like, uh, to just making, uh, processes and procedures much better. But we, we talk about AI as an investment, you know, really the world needs investments in all of these things, and we had talked a little bit about security, resiliency, you know, making sure JPMorgan announced 1 trillion.5 dollars of investments back into the security and resiliency initiative that we've launched. We're going to make our first investment public this morning, New York time. Where we're thinking about helping in the defense sector, there are, there are parts of what we do when we think about how we help us and our allied countries that are 100% outsourced to China and Russia right now in terms of the core minerals and materials that are required, that just can't be. How did that happen? And so leaning in and making sure that we're all doing our part to make sure that those investments are in the right places around the world. Um, and that we're investing in technology in, in security and resilience, domestic manufacturing, you know, all things on the technology front to make sure that the world is getting to a better place, a big deal, uh, the I saw a great quote actually, well, not to pat ourselves on the back, but a great quote in a Fortune article from Susan when you began your tenure as CEO this March, and you mentioned to your staff, you know, you better buckle up. It's going to be a volatile year. Since then, 7 months since then, you know, looking back at those 7 months. What's gone better than you thought? What's gone worse than expected. And if you maybe 30 seconds for an answer. Well, the markets have been volatile, but what's gone better than I thought? Well, obviously the equity markets, they've all ratcheted they came down on April 2nd, and then they've all gone up to new heights. That's been gone better than I expected. But interest rate volatility, which you don't look at certainly in Asia, we've had 400% interest rate volatility in some of the key rates, crazy, um, and so that's been, um, you know, that's taken us by surprise, honestly, so we were, you know, right to buckle up and, and when you get these kind of, you know, large moves. Hedge yourself, right? So we were able to capture some of these hedges when it happened and it can go both ways. And so that, you know, in volatility lies opportunity. Hedge yourself, be ready for the volatility, but don't be afraid. You're talking about people that are making very long term investment decisions. Get yourself. Ready for the revolution that we're in the middle of. It's exciting. It's happening globally. Don't miss it. Don't miss it. And especially if you have the, if you can put a cushion that gives you a backstop while you take risks, then the greater rewards you got it. That's a great note to end on. We're so very grateful to have you both here and so grateful to our audience for to you for their time and for yours. So thank you so much. So exciting to be here. Thank you.