Trade Tensions Are Rising – So Are Fraud Risks. Why Asia’s Businesses Must Rethink Payment Security

By Sheue Chee Beh

When global trade comes under pressure, fraud thrives in the margins.

As geopolitical tensions flare and protectionist policies re-emerge, the global trade landscape is once again entering turbulent waters. From sky-high tariffs on Chinese goods under the Trump administration to continuing disruptions in cross-border supply chains, businesses in Asia Pacific (APAC) are bracing for renewed volatility.

But amidst the headlines on trade policy, another crisis is quietly gaining ground – one that is less visible but no less dangerous. For the first time, digital fraud has overtaken traditional fraud in APAC, and now accounts for the majority of the region’s total fraud losses. This is not just a shift in tactics, it is a transformation in how, where and why fraud occurs – and businesses must respond with equal agility.

This trend is particularly alarming for Asia’s businesses that form the backbone of the region’s economy. Operating with limited financial and human resources, many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) lack dedicated IT departments and robust cybersecurity infrastructures. The Asia Foundation highlights that 78% of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the region have experienced at least one cyber incident in the past year, ranging from phishing scams to ransomware attacks.

Further compounding the challenge, mid-market companies (MNCs) – while larger in scale – face a unique set of pressures. They typically seek the flexibility and scalability of multi-provider orchestration, advanced fraud management, and localised payment methods to compete effectively across borders. However, like SMEs, they often operate with fewer internal resources than large enterprises, leaving them vulnerable to security gaps and operational inefficiencies.

Further, the mobile-first nature of many Asian markets exacerbates the issue. With 85% of transactions in the region conducted on mobile devices, and 54% of human-initiated fraud attacks targeting these channels, businesses are exposed to threats on platforms they heavily depend upon. Against this backdrop, businesses across Asia are operating in an environment that is uniquely vulnerable to digital fraud. Factors such as limited cybersecurity, accelerated digital adoption and mobile channel dependence, alongside others, combine to create ideal conditions for fraudsters to thrive.

Trade Turbulence Creates the Perfect Storm for Fraud

At the same time, broader economic turbulence is adding further strain. As trade tensions escalate, companies are struggling to maintain the same level of operational consistency. To keep up, businesses look to recalibrate supply chains at speed – onboarding new vendors and logistics partners, rerouting payments across unfamiliar financial networks and adjusting to volatile FX fluctuations. Each of these changes introduces new points of vulnerability into payment ecosystems, often faster than businesses can secure them.

When coupled with the rise of AI-driven tools, this landscape has created a golden opportunity for fraudsters. Gone are the days of crude, easily detectable scams – today’s fraud is sophisticated, well-timed and often indistinguishable from legitimate activity until it is too late. In many cases, they occur mid-transaction, exploiting the exact moment when urgency overrides scrutiny.

What’s more, the risk is magnified in cross-border commerce, where complex payment flows, multi-jurisdictional compliance and varied fraud profiles make security even harder to standardise. For businesses navigating these waters, fraud is no longer a hypothetical threat – it’s an operational reality. Every cross-border transaction introduces a new layer of risk, whether it is managing unfamiliar payment providers, adapting to fragmented compliance regulations or handling multiple currencies and FX volatilities.

If that weren’t enough, there’s also the fact that most SMEs today rely on rule-based fraud prevention systems – tools that were designed for yesterday’s threats. These systems can be static, inflexible and prone to false positives that block legitimate transactions while missing real threats. They are also reactive, flagging anomalies only after a breach has occurred or a customer has been lost.

In an environment where both economic policy and fraud tactics can shift overnight, this approach is no longer tenable. Businesses need defenses that are as adaptive as the threats they face.

Meet Payment Orchestration: Security That Scales With Uncertainty

In the face of ever-sophisticated digital fraud schemes, AI-powered payment orchestration is redefining what modern payment security and agility looks like. Rather than acting as mere conduits for processing transactions, orchestration platforms have become intelligent control centres, monitoring payment flows, detecting anomalies in real time and dynamically routing decisions based on emerging threats.

By embedding fraud detection directly into the payment journey, orchestration allows businesses to move beyond rigid, static defences. These solutions can proactively intercept suspicious activity mid-transaction and significantly reduce exposure while maintaining a seamless experience for legitimate customers.

Crucially, orchestration not only stops fraud in the moment, it also empowers businesses to remain agile. In a world where geopolitical shifts, regulatory changes or new trade tariffs can instantly disrupt financial networks, orchestration platforms allow companies to pivot quickly without overhauling systems or sacrificing security. In a region as diverse and fast-evolving as APAC, where payment preferences and fraud risks vary dramatically between markets, this flexibility is not just valuable – it is vital.

Coupled with the rise of Generative AI (GenAI), payment orchestration is also taken to a new frontier. Unlike traditional tools, GenAI can be prompted to articulate the reasoning behind flagged transactions, uncover previously undetected patterns and recommend strategic adjustments to fraud prevention logic. This adds a powerful layer of intelligence and transparency to the fraud detection process, making it easier for businesses to understand, trust and act on security signals.

At its core, payment orchestration does not replace existing fraud tools – it enhances them. Rather than building proprietary fraud solutions, orchestration platforms focus on interoperability, bringing together the strongest capabilities in the ecosystem to deliver optimal outcomes in real time. By acting as a central layer that integrates seamlessly with a wide range of best-in-class fraud detection engines, orchestration platforms empower merchants to deploy the fraud providers they trust most within their payment flow.

This modular, plug-and-play approach ensures transactions are screened for risk using the most appropriate tools before being routed for approval, while allowing businesses to stay agile, scale securely and continuously upgrade fraud defenses without being locked into a single provider or system.

Beyond identifying threats, GenAI also plays a critical role in recognising legitimate transactions, helping ensure they are processed seamlessly. This dual function – blocking fraud while preserving customer experience – gives businesses greater visibility into their risk landscape and allows for the continuous refinement of security frameworks in real time.

The Road Ahead: From Reactive to Proactive Security

As we move further into a digital-first economy, the line between commerce and risk is blurring. Fraud is evolving and so must our defenses. It is no longer enough to detect fraud after the fact – businesses, regardless of size, must anticipate it.

With the rise of GenAI, we are entering an era where fraud prevention can be both predictive and prescriptive, identifying weak points in the payment flow before they are exploited and recommending real-time adjustments to logic and routing. At Yuno, we are investing heavily in this frontier, harnessing GenAI to drive operational intelligence and user transparency. Through tools like Monitors, .we use GenAI to detect anomalies in real time and dynamically reroute transactions through alternative paths to optimise approval outcomes and enhance fraud defense.

Because in this climate, the goal is not just to reduce fraud. It is to build a payments infrastructure that is intelligent, responsive and built to endure shocks – whether from the next tariff announcement or the next cyber threat.

Sheue Chee Beh is Senior Vice President, APAC at Yuno