Singapore, February 4, 2026 — In a period defined by structural shifts in global finance, heightened risk sensitivity, and accelerating technological change, the role of the Chief Financial Officer is being fundamentally redefined. No longer confined to stewardship of numbers, today’s CFO is expected to integrate strategy, capital discipline, risk judgement, and organisational leadership into a coherent long-term narrative.
For Henry Toh, Group CFO of IFS Capital, this evolution is not theoretical. It is the result of a career shaped by market-first initiatives, institutional responsibility, and a consistent refusal to accept the status quo. Speaking to DigitalCFO Asia, Toh reflects on leadership, private credit, and why credibility, ultimately determines lasting influence in finance.
Leadership That Moves the Market, Not the Margins
Across every organisation he has joined, Toh has held a clear personal benchmark: the work must leave a lasting imprint. “Instead of running each organisation by maintaining the status quo with incremental increment, I have always endeavoured to make a meaningful difference,” he said.
That philosophy came into sharp focus during his tenure at Clifford Capital, where he personally led and negotiated the Singapore Government’s first-ever guarantee in foreign currency. The transaction was not merely a technical achievement; it created ripple effects across the wider economy, enabling Singapore-based companies to operate with greater confidence and competitiveness.
A similar market-shaping mindset defined his role in bringing Tiger Brokers into Singapore. As the first digital brokerage of its kind in the country, it helped open the investment landscape to a new cohort of investors by lowering costs and reducing entry barriers, contributing to increased participation in the Singapore Stock Exchange.
“These are skills that I bring into my day-to-day work at IFS,” Toh noted, referring to his ability to think several steps ahead, continuously evolve, and set higher standards for sustainable, long-term growth.
Credibility as Currency in a Small Financial Village
Beyond academic credentials and technical capability, Toh traces his understanding of influence back to a simple early lesson: reputation compounds faster than returns. “Very early on in my career, I learned that the finance industry is a small village. Technical skills are important, but credibility is the currency that opens doors,” he said.
As responsibilities increased, so did the breadth of stakeholders he was accountable to. At Clifford Capital, the presence of a long-tail government guarantee required him to think well beyond shareholders, considering how decisions made today would benefit Singapore-based companies decades into the future. At Tiger Brokers, foresight took another form: anticipating how digital access and lower barriers would shape investor behaviour, particularly among younger participants entering the market for the first time.
Today, at IFS Capital, this long-term orientation underpins a strategic shift towards an asset-light model. The objective is clear: to make shareholders’ capital work harder than before. Drawing on his experience in financial transformation and strategic capital allocation, Toh is positioning IFS as a forward-thinking private credit player, anchored in discipline, innovation, and enduring value creation.
Reframing Private Credit: Discipline Beyond Liquidity
Private credit is often discussed through the narrow lens of yield and risk. Toh argues that this framing misses its broader economic function. “Private credit should not be viewed purely through the lens of risk,” he said, pointing instead to the regulatory gaps created by frameworks such as Basel III, which can force banks to retreat from certain sectors due to punitive capital requirements.
Infrastructure financing at Clifford Capital offered a clear illustration. Despite being supported by government-backed power purchase agreements or chartering contracts from oil majors, long-tenor projects often required banks to hold disproportionate capital. Private credit, in contrast, could step in where traditional lending economics no longer worked.
At IFS Capital, this understanding has translated into scale and trust. To date, the firm has built one of the region’s most trusted receivables financing networks, extending over S$1 billion annually to SMEs. Disciplined products such as factoring are designed not to encourage leverage for its own sake, but to help businesses manage growth without overextending, embedding financial discipline alongside access to capital.
Investing Through Volatility: Risk-Adjusted Thinking in a High-Rate Cycle
In today’s high-interest-rate environment, investors are reassessing how to generate yield while managing diversification and downside risk. Henry is unequivocal: private credit is not monolithic. It spans ultra-safe, asset-backed instruments through to highly speculative unsecured consumer lending.
“Investors must therefore understand the risk adjusted returns they seek and assess how much of their portfolio risk they are willing to allocate,” he said. Once that clarity exists, identifying the appropriate segment of private credit becomes significantly easier.
One of private credit’s enduring advantages lies in its low correlation to traditional asset classes such as equities and bonds, offering natural diversification and reduced portfolio volatility. At IFS, this translates into a deliberate focus on capital preservation, strong risk controls, and resilient, all-weather asset classes. On the asset management side, the firm aims to be a “rock-solid custodian” for investors, prioritising stable and predictable returns through market cycles.
AI in Finance: Efficiency With Clearly Defined Red Lines
As artificial intelligence becomes embedded across finance and treasury operations, Toh is careful to separate capability from accountability. “As much as AI can be very useful in improving accuracy and efficiency, redlines need to be set by management,” he emphasised.
At IFS Capital, AI is already deployed to transform unstructured data into structured insights, verify the authenticity of documents, and support data analysis and credit memo preparation. These capabilities enable a straight-through processing model, allowing customers to upload data directly and receive approvals within significantly compressed timeframes.
However, governance remains non-negotiable. In private credit, approving a large number of small loans with minor errors may still produce acceptable outcomes, but “a single large loan gone wrong could be catastrophic.” As such, risk segmentation and clearly defined value-at-risk thresholds are essential safeguards, ensuring human judgement remains central where stakes are highest.
The CFO Today: From Reporting to Foresight
“In my current role as Group CFO at IFS, I increasingly find myself spending less time on traditional ‘bean counting’ work,” Toh observed. With strong financial controllers managing core reporting, his focus has shifted decisively to the front lines, understanding underwriting decisions, building systems, and developing people.
This broader remit reflects a wider shift in stakeholder expectations. CFOs are now expected to interpret numbers through the lens of future risk, opportunity, and resilience. The role is moving from retrospective reporting towards storytelling and foresight, a transition that demands deep business understanding and inclusive leadership, particularly amid cross-border complexity and macro volatility.
Staying Relevant as SME Needs Become More Complex
SMEs, Toh noted, remain particularly exposed to economic shocks, lacking the buffers available to multinational corporations. While many operators have compelling businesses, they often struggle to communicate their story effectively to financiers, leading to missed opportunities.
For private credit providers, relevance depends on the ability to look beyond surface-level metrics. At IFS, this means understanding operator behaviour and asset quality, not simply cash flow. In asset-backed lending, Loss Given Default can be as important as probability of default in assessing overall risk.
To meet these evolving needs, IFS has rebuilt its core lending infrastructure, expanding the use of AI, data analytics, and automation across workflows. The result has been faster response times, stronger risk management, and improved client experience across the region.
“Our mission remains to provide creditworthy SMEs and individuals across Southeast Asia with simple and affordable access to capital,” Toh said, achieved through continuous innovation across the entire credit lifecycle.
Advice for Emerging Finance Leaders: Influence That Endures
Asked what guidance he would offer aspiring finance leaders, Toh’s answer was practical and uncompromising. First: listen and learn. Understanding the front office and customer journey transforms numbers into insight. Second: do something different. Market leadership requires challenging convention, as demonstrated by his work at Clifford Capital, Tiger Brokers, and now IFS Capital. Third: guard your reputation. “The finance industry is a small village, remember credibility is your currency.” It is a philosophy forged through experience, and one that continues to shape how Toh approaches leadership, risk, and the future of finance.
Connect with Henry Toh on LinkedIn
To continue the conversation on leadership, private credit, and the evolving role of the CFO in Southeast Asia, connect with Henry Toh, Group CFO of IFS Capital, on LinkedIn.
