Singapore-headquartered StoneBench's new research Fragmentation Finance maps how geopolitics is reshaping Asian finance

SINGAPORE, Aug. 20, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- As Middle East tensions and US-China competition reshape global capital flows, Asian financial institutions are faced with a new reality: geopolitical risk has moved from being boardroom talk to driving real-time treasury and credit decisions. StoneBench, a Singapore-based thought leadership advisory and editorial studio that works with some of the region's most prominent institutions, has published Fragmentation Finance, a research hub that examines how geopolitical shocks are rewiring capital, currency and credit across Asia-Pacific.

This hub marks the latest addition to StoneBench Perspectives, the firm's independent publishing arm, and builds on a body of client work for some of the world's most recognisable brands.

Navigating changes in Asian finance

Fragmentation Finance argues that the dollar-anchored, open-market order of the post-Cold War decades is eroding and that the Iran-US conflict is only the latest in a series of events accelerating this shift.

The research identifies five structural changes now underway:

• Geopolitical risk has moved from quarterly country reviews onto banks' balance sheets
• Local currency settlement is accelerating. Even as the dollar remains the pre-eminent currency for settlement, there's strong momentum toward the greater use of parallel payment rails such as CIPS
• Capital is migrating toward jurisdictions perceived to be safe, and Asian hubs are the natural beneficiaries for now
• Climate risk is being embedded into credit decisions although high oil prices are also pulling the region back towards coal
• Southeast Asia stands to be a structural beneficiary given its neutrality, demographics, and its economies' participation in multiple trade corridors

The hub numbers. Hong Kong now carries US$58 billion in cross-border claims on the Gulf Cooperation Council, making it the most exposed Asian lender in the region. Singapore's population of ultra-high-net-worth individuals has grown fivefold in under five years, and there's a surge of family offices looking to set up base in the city-state. Meanwhile, central banks' holdings of US Treasuries have fallen to their lowest level since 2012, with gold overtaking them for the first time since 1996.

The hub's centrepiece is a full-length whitepaper: In the eye of the storm, that traces the shift caused by recent geopolitical developments across shipping and insurance, capital reallocation, wealth migration, the search for alternatives to the dollar, and the energy transition.

For asset managers, the analysis shows which markets are absorbing capital flows and at what velocity. For banks, it maps where geopolitical risk is already embedded in balance sheets and where it remains a blind spot. And for policymakers, it sketches the contours of a financial order that may no longer be as strongly tethered to the dollar.

Fragmentation Finance is live now at https://perspectives.stonebench.sg/fragmentation-finance, alongside three sector-specific articles on currency and settlement strategies, climate risk in energy-dependent economies, and financial sector resilience in fragmented markets. Fragmentation is designed as a living resource—a repository for analysis, interviews and commentary on how the region's financial order is evolving.

"Fragmentation Finance is where StoneBench's own thinking meets the work we do for clients. It's our attempt to say what we have learned from that vantage point in our own voice. We're not commentators watching from the outside—we work inside these institutions daily. We've spent years helping firms in Asia make sense of global megatrends and developments and their implications on business, and we are close to how these institutions think about risk," says Siddharth Poddar, Founder of StoneBench.

"The launch of this hub also marks the next stage in the evolution of StoneBench: moving beyond client-commissioned research to publishing thoughtful, independent, ongoing analysis under our own banner."

The StoneBench edge

Combining deep regional expertise in Asia-Pacific with subject-matter fluency across geopolitics, technology, trade, policy and markets, StoneBench's team of former journalists can provide the right blend of research depth, market awareness and editorial nuance across subjects.

StoneBench's services run the entire spectrum of a thought leadership campaign, from the conceptualisation of relevant ideas and research frameworks to survey design and analysis, stakeholder interviews and secondary research, to finished editorial output in the form of standalone reports or hubs.

"Now more than ever, depth and clarity matter for organisations. We have built lasting relationships with world-class institutions by maintaining an uncompromising standard of editorial excellence. A sharp focus on quality underpins everything we do and is reflected in the trust our clients place in us," says Poddar.

That trust has positioned StoneBench as the strategic editorial partner of choice for high-profile institutions—spanning global banks, financial service consultancies, payments companies, tech firms, multilateral development banks, think tanks and government agencies.

Beyond direct client engagements, the firm's work has featured across leading international publications. These include the Financial Times, The Economist, Harvard Business Review, Nikkei Asia, The Kathmandu Post, Project Syndicate, The Straits Times, Business Times, Private Equity International, Infrastructure Investor, Asian Insurance Review, Global Trade Review and The Asian Banker.

The firm also publishes StoneBench Perspectives, an independent platform examining the macroeconomic and geopolitical forces shaping Asia's commercial landscape.

To explore the firm's work, client portfolio and research, visit www.stonebench.sg.

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SOURCE Stonebench