Asia Risk 15: Corporates more savvy users of derivatives after learning important lessons

Asian companies have recorded phenomenal performance during the past 15 years – a growth story that is all the more remarkable given the series of market shocks and crises that have afflicted corporates and their dealers in that time. Joti Mangat reports

Adam Gilmour, now Asia Pacific co-head of foreign exchange and derivatives sales at Citi in Singapore, first joined the bank three years before the Asian currency crisis. “Back then there were hardly any customers that used derivatives to manage risk,” he recalls. “There was very little awareness and many corporates weren’t taking steps to quantify financial risk.”

It was not unusual at this time