The Speakers

Prior to his appointment as BSP Governor, Dr Diokno served as Budget Secretary at the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), pursuing an expansionary fiscal policy to finance investments in human capital development and public infrastructure. His policy expertise and research contribution extend to various areas of public economics, national budget and public debt. He is Professor Emeritus of the University of the Philippines-Diliman and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (City University of Manila). Dr Diokno was Fiscal Adviser to the Philippine Senate and Chairman of the Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) as well as Local Water Utilities Administration. As early as the 1986 Tax Reform Program, he served as technical advisor to simplify the income tax system and introduce the value-added tax helping to design the 1991 Local Government Code of the Philippines streamlining the release of funds to sponsor the Procurement Reform Act. Dr Diokno served as consultant to various multilateral agencies like the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Commission, and USAID.

Malek Mroueh has more than 25 years of experience working in the cards and payments industry. He has an in-depth knowledge of global payment landscapes, the requirements of financial inclusion and the benefits of branchless banking through working in various parts of the payments industry including solution design, cards consulting and digital payment channels and tools. Today, Malek is the Regional Head & Vice President of the Asia, Middle East & Africa region in TSYS

Mr. Consing has served on BPI's Board of Directors for 16 years and is the elected President of the Bankers Association of the Philippines. BPI as the oldest bank in Southeast Asia is controlled by Ayala Corporation with the mission to nurture every Filipino’s future through innovation. In his private capacity, Mr. Consing serves on the Boards of four private companies: The Rohatyn Group (New York based alternative investment firm), Sqreem Technologies (Singapore registered tech start-up), FILGIFTS.com (Philippine online merchant) and Endeavor Philippines (accelerator for entrepreneurs); as an Independent Board Director of publicly-listed companies: Jollibee Foods Corporation and National Reinsurance Corporation. He was also on the board of CIMB Group Holdings, First Gen Corporation with a focus on renewable power production, Hong Kong based Asian Youth Orchestra, US-Philippines Society and a Trustee of the Manila Golf Club Foundation. Previously, Mr. Consing worked for J.P. Morgan & Co., based in Hong Kong and Singapore.

GLOBE Fintech Innovations, Inc. (Mynt) is allowing GCash users to top-up their mobile wallets by scanning a barcode at Puregold Price Club, Inc. and LBC Express Holdings totalling 1700 cash-in branches. GCash Chief Commercial Officer Frederic Levy is in-charge of making this cashless transition a sustained innovation in Philippines.

Manohar Chadalavada is serving as Global Head Servicing & Transacting Journey, Retail Innovation & Fintechs, Group Digital at Standard Chartered. Before, he was based in the Philippines as Country Chief Risk Officer for 2.5 years. He has over 22 years of experience in Digital, Fintechs, Risk Management, Outsourcing, Analytics and is a Board Member of Standard Chartered Modelling & Analytics Centre in Bengaluru. His journey in various stages of the retail financial services to the backend operations and analytics lends him strong credence to speak about how traditional financial institutions need to rethink their strategies and business models to compete in this era of digitalisation.

Commercial Bank of Dubai After six years in the news and entertainment business, Amol moved to ICICI and HSBC banks following his intuition to spend the next 11 years at various banks in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Well-versed in the interface of Islamic and digital banking, Amol has a mandate to turn around wholesale banking to improve Payments and Remittance services.

Spearheading the country's first digital health portfolio, Christian combines products under the Vigos Health brand with investments into innovative HealthTech Startups (MedGrocer, AIDE), building a healthcare platform that seamlessly integrates the group’s online and brick-and-mortar assets. Christian is also on the Innovation Advisory Council of the parent company, Ayala Corporation and Chair of Innovation Hub Committee of HIMSS Asia Pacific.

Jolly La Rosa has been an independent international consultant for ADB development projects since 2011 including the 2013 Asia SME Finance Monitor and the 2019 Aid for Trade report. She started as a research analyst at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, DC and was researching for Dr. Subramanian’s book Eclipse Living in the Shadow of China’s Economic Dominance with internships at the USDA-Economic Research Service and the Massachusetts Office of International Trade and Industry.

Bio will be updated soon.

Ida has almost a quarter century of banking experience at the Philippine National Bank and National Australia Bank. With her expertise in entrepreneurship, project financing/ investment, mergers and acquisition, risk management, financial literacy, marketing and corporate rehabilitation, Ida now “rehabilitates” banks and businesses by buying non-performing assets and turning them around. To date, Opal Investments has purchased billions worth of distressed assets from banks

Armed with a PhD in Development policy and Management from the University of Manchester and a MPhil. in Economics from Cambridge, Dr. Tilakarnatna has over 15 years of research experience in the areas of financial inclusion, poverty and social protection. She has worked as a consultant to the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank and has led a number of research projects funded by international organizations such as the ILO, UNICEF and GIZ.

Matt Dooley is the founder and director of Connected Thinking, providing digital strategy, marketing, and training to banks. Dooley is a member of the Next Bank team with over 20 years international experience driving change at two of the world’s leading banks, across three continents. He was global head of Internet strategy and head of digital experience for the global commercial banking division in HSBC. He pioneered HSBC’s global Internet design standards as a result of establishing the first Internet banking platform back in 2000. Dooley stays abreast of the latest trends in mobile and virtual technology as well as social media.

Boon Ping manages The Asian Banker publication business and engages practitioners, customers, partners and the media on critical issues that impact the industry. He has more than 19 years of experience in the banking and financial services industry, specializing in strategic branding, marketing communications and consumer insight. Prior to The Asian Banker, he was at United Overseas Bank (UOB), covering Singapore and key markets in the region, such as China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.

Vijay is leading the change to digitization of financial services with its launch of CIMB PH, an all-digital mobile first bank since 2018. CIMB’s unique 10-minute onboarding process via smartphone, serves as the spark to champion financial inclusion in the Philippines. Previously Vijay was responsible for driving the digitization of CIMB in ASEAN using digital and data analytics, including open banking, personalization, artificial intelligence, and machine learning capabilities through Strategic Partnership and Digital Payments in the consumer business. Vijay led the startup team for Easy in RHB Bank, served as Head of Customer Experience and Quality in Citibank Malaysia and graduated from Citigroup's Global Consumer Group Management program in New York with stints at Wal-Mart and American Express.

Jaspar is a renowned international authority in the field of innovation, transformation and trends. Jaspar has led and contributed to over 100 digital innovation & transformational projects in different industries throughout the world. He is considered a pioneer in topics such as new financial technology, innovation and human driven cultures. His experience spans from running a corporate innovation unit (Chief Inspiration Officer at ABN Amro) to launching digital ventures. With his Advisory Group Limpid & Co and toolkit builder company PlaybookToolkit, Jaspar advances change around the world.

Wilson Chia is a highly seasoned banker with over 30 years of experience in the financial services industry. He is a banking consultant/advisor in ASEAN on Organisatsk Management and Financial Planning. Prior to this, he was EVP of Fullerton Financial Holdings (FFH) at Temasek Holdings as the head of SME and Commercial Banking, overseeing portfolios across emerging markets. Before joining FFH, Wilson worked at Standard Chartered Bank, most recently as Regional Head of Consumer / SME Banking in South East Asia.

Armed with a PhD in Development policy and Management from the University of Manchester and a MPhil. in Economics from Cambridge, Dr. Tilakarnatna has over 15 years of research experience in the areas of financial inclusion, poverty and social protection. She has worked as a consultant to the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank and has led a number of research projects funded by international organizations such as the ILO, UNICEF and GIZ.

Lito Villanueva is presently the Executive Vice President and Chief Innovations and Inclusion Officer for RCBC and concurrently as Chief Digital Transformation Advisor for the Yuchengco Group of Companies. He has over 20 years of experience in banking, telecommunications, payments, development finance, and financial technology with over 50 global and regional awards such as the Top 100 FinTech Leaders in Asia. He enjoyed stints at various organisations such as Economist Intelligence Unit, Visa, Smart Communications, IFC of the World Bank Group, Voyager Innovations, and PayMaya. Lito is also the founding chairman of FinTech Alliance.ph and released various publications including the award-winning three-volume Inclusive Digital Finance Report and the Uncharted Beyond: The Taxonomy of FinTech in the Philippines.

Bio will be updated soon.

Dr David R. Hardoon is the special advisor (Artificial Intelligence) at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). In this role, he leads the development of the AI strategy for Singapore’s financial sector, as well as MAS’ efforts in promoting open cross-border data flows. Formerly Dr Hardoon was the chief data officer and Head of the Data Analytics Group (DAG) at the MAS, spearheading efforts to harness the power of data analytics to unlock insights, enhance the supervision of financial institutions, and make regulatory compliance more efficient for financial institutions. Before joining MAS, Dr Hardoon was co-founder and executive director at Azendian Solutions, where he was responsible for the advanced analytics practice, serving clients across business sectors in Asia. He is currently an honorary senior research associate at the Centre for Computational Statistics & Machine Learning, University College London.

Co-Founded Tongdun Technology, pioneering in application of Big Data technology into daily business with his “Cross Industry Joint Defense” concept. He has 30 years working experience covering North America, Australia, Asia and Europe. Seasoned technology and business executive in Asia, with previous experience including. Advisor and consultant at various business/technology transformation initiatives such as Citibank, HSBC, Standard Chartered, PingAn Insurance, China Construction Bank and Pudong Development Bank. Appointed as Advisory consultant for various country level initiatives in China including Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, National Development and Reform Committee. Born in Hong Kong, with a Bachelor degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from University of Hong Kong, and an Executive MBA degree from China’s Top Business School Chang Kong Graduate School of Business.

Amorsolo or Ian, as he is more fondly known, is the Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) of Home Credit Consumer Finance Phil. He was the former CCO of Globe Fintech Innovations Inc. (GCash / Fuse) which helped the leading local mobile wallet company be recognized for digital excellence, innovation and financial inclusion by the local regulator. He also functioned as the Chief Compliance Officer of UCPB Savings Bank after being a Compliance and Program Manager of Citibank NA. Prior to his Compliance roles, he was also engaged as an Executive Consultant of the local government of Los Banos, Laguna, Philippines, World Citi Colleges and a law associate at a local law firm. He has a bachelors, law degree, as well as masters degree in management and MBA.

Paul is Managing Partner for AlphaZetta, a partner company for Volt Bank based in BGC, Manila. AlphaZetta is a full-service digital consulting company specialising in leveraging the expertise and experience of its 700-plus members globally. With almost 3 decades of experience in technology marketing starting with a Virtual Reality business in London, Paul has worked alongside executive and senior management in technology of various fields and a raft of blue-chip clients. Paul was a Sony partner for the PlayStation2 (Reality Engine) which was acquired by Electronic Arts; a market analyst in the Oil & Gas industry; heading Digital Transformation projects for a $13Bn energy company in Kuala Lumpur. Paul is a guest lecturer in London on technology and transformation, and is currently researching a PhD in evolutionary transformation.

ScoreOne Technology provides alternative lending solutions for credit scoring, fraud detection & identity check to the underbanked using cutting-edge algorithms, machine-learning & data sciences to provide real-time credit-scoring & Lending-As-A-Service solutions for Southeast Asia consumers. As a technology entrepreneur Bruce has over 15 years of working experience in North America, China and Southeast Asia. He was a senior engineer lead at Microsoft in US for 7 years, an engineering director at Alibaba Cloud and the CTO of Yirendai at CreditEase Group in China, the first marketplace lending platform listed in the US. Before founding ScoreOne, he was the CEO of Madai Wealth, a top marketplace lending company in China.

Michael, a Tsinghua alumnus, achieved three master’s degrees before 23 years old in France, Ireland and China’s top universities, worked for DiDi Chuxing as a pioneer in the International Business Department, actively taking part in the International Strategy of the largest Chinese start-up. Now managing International corporate development, Michael combines his technical and business acumen at ScoreOne.

Ykema has first-hand experience at all levels of corporate life, from technical business administration to change management. He has more than ten years of consulting experience in organizational issues. This enables him to move comfortably from the shop floor to the boardroom. As a change manager he was responsible for very diverse programmes, ranging from systems implementations to culture and leadership development. He comes into his own where different aspects of change meet. There, his creativity and analytical strength can kick in and new and surprising methods and solutions take shape. He loves to work with teams to bring out the best in everybody. Ykema is a renowned international authority in the field of innovation, transformation and trends. With his Advisory Group Limpid & Co, he advances change around the world

John Januszczak was appointed President & CEO of UBX, UnionBank’s Fintech subsidiary. Prior to UnionBank, John served as the Chief Operating Officer of Manulife Philippines. Over 27 years, John has successfully led operations and technology in various positions including head of global business process management at Manulife Financial and Vice President of Product Management at Meta Software Corporation. John is passionate about connecting communities and embedding financial services into the activities and experiences that matter.

Bautista has more than 25 years of experience winning international and regional accolades in his banking journey. Since joining UnionBank in 1997 as Senior Vice President, he has driven the growth of the Bank’s Transaction Banking, Commercial Banking, Operations and Consumer Finance centers. In 2006, he served as President of IBank until its merger with UnionBank. As president, Bautista launched UnionBank’s "digital transformation" in 2016 with the first "selfie-banking" in Asia, the first fully digital bank branch in the Philippines, as well as the first "chatbot" in the country. Bautista, through spearheading projects, has stressed that the Bank’s “higher purpose” is to be a key enabler for greater financial inclusion and sustainable prosperity for all Filipinos. Prior to UnionBank, Bautista headed Citibank Philippine's Global Transaction Services Group and was a part of Procter & Gamble Philippines. He is a graduate of Harvard Business School and De La Salle University with the Bro. Gabriel Connon Award.

Dr Faith is a senior manager, research and head of Africa at The Asian Banker. She is an economist with research and mentoring experience at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies in Tokyo, Japan and has a number of publications on investment and policy evaluation. She conducted training on microsimulation modelling across Africa on behalf of United Nations and is co-currently a senior researcher at the Southern African Social Policy Research Institute in Cape Town, South Africa.

With over a decade of supervisory experience in the BSP, Mr. Plabasan has not only witnessed the dramatic advancement of technology in the Philippine financial sector, but more importantly, he has played a key role in reshaping the regulatory mindset towards a more progressive approach on technology risk and innovation supervision. He has taken a highly critical and challenging role in the BSP, as head of the department primarily responsible for supervision of technology and cybersecurity risk, including emerging technologies. He continues to spearhead various cybersecurity reforms aimed at enhancing the BSP’s cybersecurity oversight and supervision, as well as promoting a secure and cyber resilient financial ecosystem through close coordination and partnerships with industry associations, regulatory counterparts, and other relevant stakeholders.

Atty. Aileen L. Amor-Bautista is the SVP for Business Development and Communications Group of the Credit Information Corporation, a government corporation for the sole repository of credit data in the Philippines. Prior to joining CIC, she worked at the Legal Group of the Home Guaranty Corporation. She also worked as a tax and corporate lawyer at the Aranas Consunji Barleta Law Office and as an Associate Lawyer at the Cayetano Sebastian Ata Dado Law Offices, handling corporate, litigation, taxation, civil, and criminal cases. She was a faculty professor at the School of Accountancy of the Asia Pacific College and at the Philippine Christian University-College of Law, teaching business law subjects. Aileen is also a bar exam lecturer of law on private corporations and a lecturer of Mandatory Compliance Legal Education (MCLE) and will share about the legal/ regulatory aspect of personal credit score and enterprise ratings.

Addi Guevara has more than 17 years of experience in finance, investments and technology from iMarket, an insurtech and online marketplace for car, home and health insurance products to being the CFO of Guevent Investments Development Corp. Previously he founded and grew FundKo, a P2P lending platform. Now at Advance, he delivers on-demand financial services to the underbanked by giving interest-free advance loans of up to half their salaries.

Jaime de los Angeles has the intention to provide access to credit instantly, by way of a flexible credit line, at 0% interest. After graduating from Bentley University with a degree in Managerial Economics, Jaime dedicated much of his early career to working in the fields of finance and consulting. When he completed his MBA from Babson College, he spent several years working for Citibank and as a COO for a private holding company before his first startup, Lendwell.

Chaintech Currency Solutions is a blockchain technology solutions provider for crypto wallet engineering, enterprise exchange tech, invoicing/ bidding systems, blockchain financial products (blockchain bond patents) and tokenization projects. They provide options to build over bitcoin, ethereum or create native blockchains. Michelle will delve specifically into Aevolve AG, a project for patient-centric healthcare in Zurich, Switzerland. Michelle is co-currently its Chief Innovation Officer.

Ragde Falcis has been working as a Chief Technology Officer to several companies while running a Web, Mobile App, and Messenger Mini App Development Company, Gorated Innovation Labs Inc. Under his leadership at Gorated, he spearheaded the development of several uber for X model apps such as Dentasked, an uber for Dental Booking Appointments and Tripkada, an uber for Organized Trips. Before working with mobile apps, Gorated gained valuable experience in developing customized enterprise-level solutions for the Department of Finance, Presidential Communication Group and Department of Trade and Industry. In 2018, Gorated played a strategic role in launching the mobile app of McDonald's Philippines for online orders.

Mark likes to work where technology can improve daily lives. At Security Bank, he heads digital channels to provide better banking through customer experience and convenience. Previously, he worked at Globe Telecom’s mobile commerce ventures and various regional mobile-first start-ups.

Paolo heads the EON Banking Group. EON is the first fully digital, award-winning neo banking platform in the Philippines. He is President of G-Xchange, Inc., the wholly-owned subsidiary of Globe Telecom which operates and manages its m-commerce product, GCash. With almost 3 decades of experience in product management and business development, Paolo champions the digital banking revolution.

Julie is in charge of international remittances at GCash using Blockchain for permissioned access and data analytics to reduce fraud in cross border money transfer business. She is a strong advocate of the use of financial technology in delivering fast, affordable, secure and convenient service to Overseas Filipino Workers and their families. GLOBE Fintech Innovations, Inc. (Mynt) is allowing GCash users to top-up their mobile wallets by scanning a barcode at Puregold Price Club, Inc. and LBC Express Holdings totalling 1700 cash-in branches. Previously Julie worked as Corporate Business Development Director in TNG Fintech Hong Kong for 2 years and was with Cebuana Lhuillier as International Remittance Business Manager.

Mr. Alvaro is currently the Acting Deputy Director and Head of Financial Innovation and Policy Research Group (FIPRG) of the BSP which serves as the primary contact for fintech players in the Philippines, particularly those with underlying BSP-regulated activities. He is both a Certified Public Accountant and Certified Information Systems Auditor with extensive knowledge in technology focused areas of supervision. He has participated in varying degrees of involvement in the continuing development of multiple technology focused regulations/initiatives such as test and learn framework, multi-factor authentication, electronic payments and financial services, business continuity management, cloud, information security, and blockchain which are the common subjects of applications for fintech services. Having joined the BSP in 2010, he is highly experienced in performing onsite and offsite reviews and licensing related assessments of multiple entities including banks, payment system infrastructures, electronic money issuers and virtual currency exchanges.

Dimitrios is Head of Risk and Finance Solutions in Moody’s Analytics, leading the Asia Specialist team that focuses on Risk Analytics, Stress Testing and IFRS 9 solutions for more than 50 banks in Europe and Middle East. Prior to that, Dimitrios worked as Senior Technical Specialist at the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) in London where he led the internal stress testing model development with a particular focus on wholesale credit risk globally, retail credit risk in the UK and econometric models for key ALM risk metrics. Dimitrios was part of UBS Group-wide Stress Testing Team, the former Financial Services Authority (FSA), Lloyd’s Banking Group and HBOS. Dimitrios has a PhD from the University of Edinburgh Business School where he has conducted extensive research on credit risk modeling and the interaction between credit risk and the real economy.

Dr. Thiam Hee Ng is principal economist with the Asian Development Bank where he does research on economics and regional cooperation issues in South East Asia. Previously, he managed the allocation of concessional resources and policies relating to ADB’s poorest countries in the Strategy, Policy and Review Department. He also ran the Asian Bonds Online web portal and prepared the Asia Bond Monitor, a quarterly report on local currency bond market developments in Asia. Before joining Asian Development Bank, he worked at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and Bank Negara Malaysia. He was awarded his PhD and MSc in Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the USA; and his Bachelor in Economics from the University of Cambridge in UK. He is a CFA chartered holder since 1999.

Cathy is a senior Audit, Compliance and Risk Management professional with over a decade of work experience in international organizations like KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers Bermuda and JPMorgan Chase & Co. before branching over to Ascend Money, a regional FinTech company in Southeast Asia, as the Head of Regional Compliance overseeing Cambodia, Myanmar, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam Compliance Teams. She was also the former Head of Compliance and Risk Management for TrueMoney Philippines and helped the leading international Fintech brand create opportunities for Filipinos to have better lives through low-cost financial services. Recently, Cathy obtained the internationally recognized Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) certification from the Association of CAMS.

Nilo S. Cruz is formerly the FSVP/Chief Information Officer of the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) and the President/Chief Operating Officer of Development Bank of the Philippines Data Center (DCI), overseeing computer operations, application planning and development/process management. Prior to joining DBP, Nilo S Cruz was country manager of GE Healthcare, a wholly owned subsidiary of General Electric-USA. He was the president and managing director of Smartmatic/TIM, the Joint Venture that successfully ran the first Phil Automated Elections held in 2010. He also served as managing consultant of Environment Global, business director of British Telecoms (BT) and managing director of HP Philippines overseeing the successful mega merger of HP and Compaq Computer Corporations. Nilo has held several C-level position at Compaq Computer Philippines, Datacraft Asia and spent 19 years with IBM. Now Nilo is practicing as an ICT Consultant in industries from Banking, Government, Services to Manufacturing.

A seasoned Telco and IT (information technology) leader who quickly came up with a new digital architecture that guides the bank’s digital transformation – Henry is the Union Bank’s SEVP, Chief Technology & Operations Officer, as well as Chief Transformation Officer. Previously he was SVP and Chief Information Officer of Information Systems Group at Globe Telecom and CTO at Government Service Insurance System (GSIS). Henry was FVP and Group CIO at Digital Telecommunications. He has a Juris Doctor of Law and was part of the Strategic Alliance Program

Mr. Alvaro is currently the Acting Deputy Director and Head of Financial Innovation and Policy Research Group (FIPRG) of the BSP which serves as the primary contact for fintech players in the Philippines, particularly those with underlying BSP-regulated activities. He is both a Certified Public Accountant and Certified Information Systems Auditor with extensive knowledge in technology focused areas of supervision. He has participated in varying degrees of involvement in the continuing development of multiple technology focused regulations/initiatives such as test and learn framework, multi-factor authentication, electronic payments and financial services, business continuity management, cloud, information security, and blockchain which are the common subjects of applications for fintech services. Having joined the BSP in 2010, he is highly experienced in performing onsite and offsite reviews and licensing related assessments of multiple entities including banks, payment system infrastructures, electronic money issuers and virtual currency exchanges.