10/09/2025

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WEDNESDAY | SEPT 10, 2025 SCAN ME Time to show your mettle, CFOs told

Ű BY JOHN GILBERT sunbiz@thesundaily.com

o Chief financial officers must lead in guiding businesses through current global volatility and reposition them for growth, says Abdul Wahid

KUALA LUMPUR: Chief financial officers must strive to be strategic operators in the current global climate, capable of guiding organi sations through uncertainty and repositioning them for growth. Economic Club of Kuala Lumpur advisory council chairman Tan Sri Abdul Wahid Omar said CFOs must lead in reimagining finance itself, adding that the days when the finance office was seen only as a “scorekeeper” had passed. “Volatility in global markets underlines this need,” Abdul Wahid, who is also the Asean Economic Club adviser, told delegates at the Asean CFO Sustainability Leadership Summit 2025 yesterday. According to the International Monetary Fund, global growth is forecast at 3% in 2025, well below the pre-Covid pandemic average of 3.8%. Abdul Wahid said this uneven recovery demands sharper foresight and agility from the finance function. He also noted that technology is reshaping how this foresight is delivered. According to McKinsey’s State of AI in 2025, companies that deploy artificial intelligence (AI) at scale are not only reporting cost savings but are also building competitive ad vantage by improving forecasting, stress testing and scenario planning. Finance is among the top functions where AI adoption is acce lerating, he said. Further, Abdul Wahid said investor expectations are shifting. Gartner’s 2025 CFO Priorities survey highlights that finance leaders are now measured by their ability to deliver real-time insights, manage risk dynamically, and ensure capital KUALA LUMPUR: Audit responses are vetted for authenticity before being uploaded to the AI powered, real-time Auditor General Dashboard, said Auditor-General Datuk Seri Wan Suraya Wan Mohd Radzi. Wan Suraya said she personally chairs the Audit Committee, which reviews the feedback responses and ensures they are genuine before being posted on the Auditor General Dashboard. “We are leveraging data analytics and visualisation tools, sharpening our risk intelligence and embracing advanced technologies such as AI driven anomaly detection and robotic process automation...to anticipate risks before they escalate and implode,” she said in her speech at the Asian Confederation of Institutes of Internal Auditors Conference 2025 yesterday. Wan Suraya encouraged visitors to access the Auditor General Dash Ű BY HAYATUN RAZAK sunbiz@thesundaily.com

“The message is clear: companies that fall behind on sustainability will find it harder to raise capital, insure their assets or remain in global supply chains,” Abdul Wahid said. According to a forecast cited in the 2020 IISD report, assets under ESG mandate could reach around US$160 trillion by 2036, implying near complete ESG integration in global fund management. “CFOs must therefore treat sustainability not as a separate report but as an integral part of strategy and capital allocation. “Linking investment decisions to climate goals, embedding ESG data controls with the same rigour as financial data, and signalling credible transition plans are now critical to securing investor trust,” said Wahid. The Asean CFO Sustainability Leadership Summit 2025 saw the presence of over 150 senior finance leaders, industry experts, and policymakers to deliberate on the evolving role of CFOs in shaping the future of business. Jointly organised by the KSI Strategic Institute for Asia Pacific, delegates engaged in high-level discussions on resilience, trust, and sustainable business value in today’s challenging economic environment. KSI Strategic Institute president for Asia Pacific and chairman of the Asean Economic Club Tan Sri Michael Yeoh said the summit has reaffirmed that the role of the CFO has expanded beyond managing numbers. will no longer be able to hide behind delayed reporting, with 1,856 entities now subject to real-time audit checks under the National Audit Depart ment’s (NAD) digitalisation drive. The Auditor-General noted that the NAD’s e-Self Audit Tools, developed under its Service Digi talisation Project, allow real-time checks across all GLCs. “One of the main elements that we have introduced is what we call serious irregularities. This has caused a lot of conversation, but the e-Self Audit Tools allows us to detect such irregularities in real time.” Wan Suraya said the new “serious irregularities” category has stirred debate and discussion among policy makers, auditors, and GLCs. “But the e-Self Audit Tools allows us to detect such irregularities in real time,“ she said. Wan Suraya emphasised that repeated weaknesses flagged across successive audits are a warning sign that governance culture within organisations must improve.

is allocated to growth opportunities – not just report after the fact. “For CFOs in Asean, this means moving beyond spreadsheets to digital dashboards, predictive analytics, and integrated reporting. Those who succeed will not only improve efficiency but also elevate their seat at the strategy table,” Abdul Wahid, who is a former chairman of Bursa Malaysia Bhd, said. He highlighted that CFOs are expected to be stewards of their companies’ environmental, social and governance agenda. “This is not a matter of reputation, but of access to capital, investor confidence, and long-term competitiveness. Abdul Wahid said the Climate Bonds Initiative, global green, social, sustainability and sustainability linked bonds and loans reached US$1.05 trillion (RM4.4 trillion) in 2024, with cumulative issuance now exceeding US$6.9 trillion. “Asia accounted for a rising share, as corporates and governments alike sought to finance credible transition plans,” he added. Abdul Wahid noted that regulators in the region are raising the bar, with the Securities Commission Malaysia phasing in the National Sustainability Reporting Framework, which is aligned with the International Sus tainability Standards Board (ISSB). Group 1 listed issuers must begin climate-related disclosures from the financial year 2025, with broader ISSB-aligned reporting phased in by 2027. board, which is open to the public and available online. “It tracks audit recommendations in real time, making follow-up audits and monitoring more systematic and transparent,” she said. She added that the real innovation lies in integrating the Dashboard with internal audit coordination, creating a centralised tool for monitoring both external and internal audit activities. “It acts as a single source of truth, allowing us to unify our efforts and prevent redundant work. This is evolving work that we are doing,“ she said. Wan Suraya stressed that most importantly, the system enables the early detection of risk, as real-time data allows anomalies and emerging issues to be spotted long before they escalate into major problems. “This proactive capability is something we simply could not have achieved with a traditional audit model,” she said. Furthermore, Wan Suraya said government-linked companies (GLCs)

Economic Club of Kuala Lumpur chairman and KSI deputy chairman Datuk Seri Mohamed Iqbal Rawther (left) presents a souvenir to Abdul Wahid as Yeoh looks on.

trust, without which no amount of transformation can endure. “These responsibilities are not abstract. They are practical levers to ensure resilience in uncertain times, to secure continued access to capital, and to maintain the confidence of investors, regulators, employees and communities. “Asean, despite global headwinds, remains one of the world’s most dynamic regions. With growth projected at 4.7% this year according to the Asian Development Bank, our corporations are well-placed to lead in sustainability and innovation – but only if finance leaders rise to the challenge,” Abdul Wahid said.

“Today’s CFOs are expected to be custodians of trust, champions of sustainability and catalysts for inno vation. They must integrate ESG into corporate strategy while ensuring governance and resilience remain uncompromised,” he said. Moving on, Abdul Wahid said three priorities stand out for CFOs across Asean, namely reimagining finance with data, technology, and foresight to navigate volatility. Secondly, embedding sustain ability into strategy and capital allocation, in line with global investor expectations and regional regulatory reforms and thirdly, strengthening governance as the foundation of “If the same weakness appears in successive audits, and I usually look at those that have been certified three years in a row, it signals that the governance culture within the or ganisation needs strengthening,” she said. Wan Suraya also shared that Malaysia will chair the first Asean working group on follow-up audits, a regional effort to strengthen cross border governance and accounta bility. She said that such cross-border engagement not only enables Malaysia to share its reform initiatives and best practices with the global audit community, but also allows the nation to benefit from international innovations and governance. “The National Audit Department assumes an active role in international audit cooperation, particularly through platforms such as Asean-SAI and InterSAI, where Malaysia, where I currently chair, a new working group on follow-up audit, which is the first ever working group of which Malaysia

Auditor-General: Audit responses vetted before being uploaded to dashboard

Wan Suraya speaking at the Asian Confederation of Institutes of Internal Auditors Conference 2025. has been nominated to chair, which is on follow-up audit, a new area of which there is a lot of development,” she said.