Speakers

Daniel Eidan Adviser and Solution Architect , Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub

Daniel is an Adviser and Solution Architect at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub where he builds technology solutions for the central banking community with a special focus on blockchain and CBDC. He has lead and contributed to various projects most notably Project mBridge on cross-border wholesale CBDC, Project Arum on domestic retail CBDC, and Project Sela a cyber security CBDC initiative. Before the BIS he led the digital currency work at R3. He started his career as an Infantry Combat Commander in the Israeli army and received an honours degree in Computer Science and Mathematics from the University of Toronto

Nguyen Thien Tam Country MD and CEO TrueMoney

Tam Nguyen has more than 20 years of experience at leading organizations such as Sacombank, FE Credit, OCB and TrueMoney Vietnam with in-depth expertise in digital banking, digital lending, payment financial planning, wealth management, retail banking, investment & insurance. Over the years, he has led the development of many digital innovation projects from scratch by engaging deeply the space of digital, fintech and data. At TrueMoney Vietnam, he is responsible for development of new business models adopting latest technology and agile business methodology. Furthermore, he is strongly promoting adoption of fintech to apply in all areas of the business in order to improve sales, customer experience and operational efficiency. His ownership also includes keep in touch with external industry innovation trends and fostering internal environment for innovation.

Emmanuel Daniel Author; Founder, TAB Global

Emmanuel Daniel is the founder of TAB Global which includes The Asian Banker, Wealth & Society, TABInsights, RadioFinance, BankQuality and The Banking Academy. He is an award-winning writer and author with a background in management consulting. He previously served in several government advisory councils, interviewed some of the leading chairmen, chief executive officers, policy makers and entrepreneurs around the world and currently consults with banks on investor, media relations and strategy formulation.

In his first book, "The Great Transition - the personalization of finance is here" published in September 2022, Emmanuel outlines how the banking industry will evolve from being focused on platform technologies to a level of personalization never seen before. He describes the roles of cryptocurrencies, blockchain, gaming and other technologies in this context.

David Jimenez Maireles
Chief Experience Officer and Deputy CEO, TNEX

David Jimenez Maireles is the chief experience officer and deputy CEO of TNEX, a digital only-bank, which focused on building the first lifestyle digital banking platform for young people. He leads the company that changes the way customers access day-to-day services by enabling invisible banking products, lifestyle services and enhancing customer experience.

Maireles has built years of experience in leading digital banks, innovation projects and scaling up business-to-customer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) products in Europe, US and Southeast Asia. He is a speaker, blogger and one of the Top Global FinTech influencers since 2015. He is also a fintech and financial inclusion enthusiast, with more than 15 years of work experience across product, customer experience, design, marketing and behavioural economics.

Fred LIM
Executive Director, Head of Retail Banking, UOB Vietnam

Fred Lim is responsible for UOB’s consumer and business banking businesses in Vietnam. He leads the development of UOB Retail strategy and introduces an operating model that targets emerging markets, like Vietnam.

In the last six years, Lim has successfully launched a wide range of market-leading products and solutions leveraging digital enablement and big data, which received acclaimed recognition from the banking industry. He joined UOB in 1997 as a management associate. Over the past 26 years, he has taken key leadership roles with extensive experience in the area of consumer banking, business banking and managing branch network. In 2022, he led UOB’s acquisition of Citi Vietnam’s consumer banking business.

Kanishk Upadhyay
EVP, Head Liabilities, Cards and Payments, Techcombank (TCB)

Kanishk Upadhyay has 18 years of experience successfully managing retail banks, strategy, and digital transformation, including new business launches and restructuring across ASEAN, and South Asia. He has been leading the digital and payments transformation for banks, driving multiple large implementations through agile at scale, working with fintech partners and vendors. He is adept at conceptualisation and leading the creation of neo digital bank (BaaS), bringing together diverse industry leaders and technology partners to create a winning offering.

Tim Scheffmann
CEO, LTS Ventures

Tim Scheffmann is the CEO of LTS Ventures, a Southeast Asian fintech company based in Vientiane, Laos. He leads LTS in running one of the largest shared microfinance platforms in the region based on distributed ledger technology as well as online and offline capability for over 225,000 client accounts and 858 village banks. Scheffmann worked on digital financial inclusion in Southeast Asia over the last 11 years. He is a former regional director for a blockchain company and assumed CEO roles in mobile money, remittance and payments startups. Having worked with Credit Suisse from 2008 to 2012 in almost every financial hub across the world such as Frankfurt, Zürich, London, New York, Hong Kong and Singapore, Scheffmann had managed global projects valued at more than $25 million. Prior to Credit Suisse, he had worked at IBM as executive business consultant on global projects in the financial sector based in London, Zurich and Frankfurt.

Nguyễn Quốc Hùng
Secretary General
Vietnam Banks Association (VNBA)

Nguyen Quoc Hung has more than 35 years of experience in the Vietnamese banking industry and holds a PhD in Economics. He was the general director of the department of credit for economic sectors at the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV). He held many senior management positions in different banking and financial institutions in Vietnam.

Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Uyen
Former Executive Vice President, Asia Commercial Bank (ACB)

Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Uyen is a C-suite executive with over 21 years of experience in investment and banking. She was the executive vice president of Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) and a former board member of National Payment Corporation of Vietnam (NAPAS). She had worked at ACB from April 2015 to October 2022 and was in charge of digital banking, data analytics, innovation lab, customer experience management, and transformation office. She was also the investment director of ACB group and served as a board member of ACB Securities Company (ACBS) and ACB Capital Management Company (ACBC).

Uyen started her career in consulting in 2001 at Arthur Andersen, which later merged with KPMG Vietnam. From 2004, she moved into private equity and held management positions at Mekong Capital from 2004 to 2006, and at Dragon Capital from 2008 to 2014.

Anuj Sharma
Chief Operating Officer (COO), India Mortgage Guarantee Corp. (IMGC)

Anuj Sharma is the COO of India IMGC, a company pushing for affordable housing in every corner of India especially to MSME profiles. As COO, Sharma has led a round of sweeping changes to modernize the company’s systems and galvanize its service approach. As a result, IMGC has reached levels of teamwork and productivity that seemed out of reach not too long ago.

Sharma has more than 16 years of experience in leading banking and credit operations and worked extensively in MSME segment , taking home loans to last mile one of the prime segment which plays a vital role on the growth and development of any economy. Prior to IMGC, he spent four years with RBL Bank launching new mortgage products and positioning locations in six Indian states as top 10 performers. With additional experience at Fullerton India Credit Company, Barclays Bank, Religare Finvest Limited, and GE Money, Sharma has developed a solid reputation for his mortgage underwriting and credit expertise throughout the small and medium enterprises industry.

Johnson Poh
Chief Data Officer, Group Executive VPBank

Johnson Poh is currently chief data officer and group executive at VPBank, based in Vietnam. He has been a practicing data scientist for the past decade, with experience spanning across finance, consulting and government sectors. His prior professional appointments include being head of enterprise AI and data at UOB Group; head of data science / practice lead at DBS Bank; chief data scientist of ASEAN region at Booz Allen Hamilton and head of data science / principal data scientist at Ministry of Defence, Singapore. He also serves as an adjunct faculty at Singapore Management University (SMU).

Axel Winter
Technology Leader; former Global Head of Enterprise Architecture & Technology Strategy for Standard Chartered Bank

Axel Winter is a highly experienced technology leader with strong hands-on experiences in the banking, retail and startup worlds. He was previously Global Head of Enterprise Architecture & Technology Strategy for Standard Chartered Bank and had similar roles at GE Money and Cisco Systems. He also had consulting roles at Accenture and Deloitte. He recently founded a corporate startup that partnered with Grab and JD.Com, two leading platforms operating across the Asia Pacific region. He currently serves as Chief Digital Officer for a luxury mall operator and is also a venture partner and advisor to startups in the asset tokenisation and eCommerce space which keeps him at the frontiers of the digital world. Axel is also an advisor to a special-purpose acquisition company in Singapore and contributed to the world’s second largest retail IPO in 2020. Axel’s achievements have been recognised with two Foundry CIO Awards for Innovation and Leadership in 2021 and 2022, respectively.

Augustine Wong Kok Seng
Chief Information Officer (CIO) Vietnam Prosperity Bank (VPBank)

Augustine Wong Kok Seng has a wealth of experience in information technology in both applications and infrastructure spanning some more than 30 years in the banking and retail industry. In 2014, he was vice president global technology services at DFS. He has worked for some of Asia’s leading banks and organisations, namely Standard Chartered Bank, DBS Bank (Singapore), and IBM. In 2019, he was appointed chief information officer of Vietnam Prosperity Bank (VPBank). He leads efforts to develop a comprehensive digital transformation strategy and architectural roadmap for the bank. He is focused on guiding VPBank to achieve its digitalisation goals. Under his leadership, VPBank enhanced its system capabilities, stability, and security in the last two years. This set a strong core foundation platform to onboard a number of key digital initiatives including open banking API, e-wallets, digital customer journey experience (for retail and corporate customers), digital cards, and new mobile app VPO for customers, to name a few.

Pham Duc An
Chairman, Vietnam Banks Association (VNBA) and Chairman, Board of Directors, Agribank

Pham Duc An was elected chairman of the Vietnam Banks Association (VNBA) at the 7th Vietnam Banks Association Conference in December 2020. An has more than 25 years of extensive experience in the banking sector. He held key positions in different banks in Vietnam. He started his banking career in 1994 as an officer in the legal department of Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV). He worked 20 years at BIDV and served in diverse senior management positions such as chief of legal department, director in BIDV branch, and deputy chief executive officer in 2011 until mid-2014. He was also appointed as the general director of the Vietnam-Russian Joint Venture Bank in 2012. In mid-2014, An was appointed vice chairman of the board of directors of Agribank, the position he held until end of 2018. He is currently chairman of the board of directors of Agribank. An held the position of director general of the State Bank of Vietnam (central bank of Vietnam) from early 2019 until he was appointed chairman of Agribank.

Hu Jie, Professor of Practice, Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Hu Jie has been invited to share his view on the impact of digital currency on cross-border trade and the foreign exchange market. He is currently the professor of practice at the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF). His research interests coverfintech, financial institutions and financial markets. He is leading a project on the application of blockchain technology on supply chain finance. Professor Hu formerly worked at the US Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta as a senior financial economist, responsible for research into finance and economics as well as monetary policy analysis and recommendations. Thereafter, he worked in senior management roles in various FIs and technology companies, including Bankers Trust (Hong Kong), BankBoston, Precom and f Xunlei.

Robert Koopman，Chief Economist and Director, Economic Research and Statistics Division, World Trade Organization

Robert Koopman has been invited to give the keynote speech on the international trade and global economic outlook as well as the realignment of globalisation in a post-pandemic world. He is the chief economist and director of the economic research and statistics division at the World Trade Organization. In this post, he provides the secretariat and member countries with analysis and information to deeply understand trade and trade policy's role in economic growth and development.Prior to this, Koopman served as the chief operating officer of the United States International Trade Commission (USITC), overseeing the Commission’s trade policy research and negotiation assistance to the President, the US Trade Representative and Congress.

Cliff Wu, Chief Executive Officer, Suoxinda

Cliff Wu has been invited to speak on how artificial intelligence can drive the financial services industry and would it become a new normal. He is the CEO of Souxinda Holdings Limited (Souxinda). With over 20 years of experience in big data management and applications, he leads the team to help customers create higher value from massive data. Prior to joining Suoxinda in 2019, Wu served as head of Greater China for three global technology companies, including SAS, FICO and Teradata.

Yao Huiya, Head, Fintech Innovation, WeBank

Yao Huiya has been invited to speak on how to build an open financial system with blockchain. He is currently the head of fintech innovation at WeBank and deputy secretary general of Financial Blockchain Shenzhen Consortium (FISCO).Yao is a veteran of fintech and digital banking, with extensive experience in banking transformation following a proliferation of newdigital technologies.Prior to joining WeBank, he held senior positions at a number of financial institutions, including the head of channels and cards technology at Citibank China, the head of technology and operation service management at UOB China as well as the deputy general manager and director of operation and technology at a financial holding group.

Harley Seyedin, President, Allelon Energy Partners; President, American Chamber of Commerce in South China

Harley Seyedin has been invited to speak on cross-border trade, investment and supply chains in a post-pandemic world and how the world will work together to tackle the challenges. As thepresident of American Chamber of Commerce in South China,he has led the growth of the Chamber from 211 members to over 2,300. Seyedin is also the president of Allelon Energy Partners.Prior to this position, hewas thepresident of Sithe Global Pacific and served as vice chairman for US-China economic and trade policy of the Asia Pacific Council of American Chambers of Commerce.

Tu Guangshao, Executive Director, Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance, Shanghai Jiao Tong University; Former Vice Chairman and President, China Investment Corporation

Tu Guangshao has been invited to give the keynote speech on the comprehensively deepening reform of the Chinese financialsector for an open global economy. He is currently the executive director of Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance and the adjunct professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Prior to this,professor Tu has served successively as the deputy director of the national financial market's quotation and trading information system centre of People's Bank of China, general manager of Shanghai Stock Exchange, secretary general and vice chairman of China Securities Regulatory Commission, vice mayor and executive vice mayor of Shanghaiand vice chairman and general manager of China Investment Corporation.

Qamar Saleem, Regional Manager, Advisory Services, Financial Institutions Group for Asia and Pacific; and Global Lead for SME and Supply Chain Finance Practice, International Finance Corporation (IFC)

Qamar Saleem has been invited to share his perspectives on how fintech can become a driving force to solve SMEs’ financing problems.In his current role, Saleem heads IFC’s Financial Institutions Group’s advisory services business, spanning across nearly 40 countries, covering over 200 financial sector clients and providing technical support across 10 thematic areas. He is also a micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) banking and supply chain finance (SCF) expert and has played leadership roles in driving up these businesses for financial institutions globally. Qamar has over 27 years of experience in diverse commercial banking and business transformation initiatives globally. Prior to joining IFC, he was associated with international organizations like HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank and Deutsche Bank.

Yang Yanqing, Deputy Editor-in-Chief, China Business News

Yang Yanqing is the deputy editor-in-chief of China Business News, managing director of Yicai Think Tank and host and commentator at Yicai TV. For decades, she has been writing in columns as well as hosting in-depth programmesand interviews with top global statesmen, economists, policy makers and business leaders.As a media leader, she attends and moderates sessions in prominent global and domestic events, including the World Economic Forum, International Monetary Fund annual meetings, Lujiazui Forum, China Development Forum and Boao Forum among others.She also leads research projects, including the China Financial Risk & Stability Report,China’s Financial Cycle,Regulation on Fintech and Digital Currency, Impact of COVID-19 on global and China’s economy and financial marketsand many others.

Hu Qinghua, Executive Vice President and Chief Risk Officer, China Minsheng Bank

Hu Qinghua has been invited to share his view on how to manage risk for the healthy development of financial institutions. He is currently the executive vice president and chief risk officer of China Minsheng Bank.Hehas been with the bankfor over 20 yearsand has successively served as the vice president of Nanjing Branch and Fuzhou Branchas well as the president of Chengdu Branch, Nanjing Branch, Shanghai Branch and Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone Branch. Prior to joining China Minsheng Bank, he workedat Jiangsu Branch of the People’s Bank of China and Huaxia Bank.

Xin Zhiyunhas, Chief Risk Officer and Chief Information Officer,
GF Securities

Xin Zhiyunhas been invited to share his view on the identification,control and management of risks in fintech. He is currently the chief risk officer and chief information officer at GF Securities. Prior to joining the securities company, Xin wasaboard memberat Essence Capital. He was also the vice president, chief risk officer, chief compliance officer and head of finance at Essence Securities. He successively served various posts at China Securities Regulatory Commission, including the deputy director of the information centreas well as deputy director of the general office and the director of the audit office of the institutional supervision department.

Edmond Lau, Senior Executive Director,
Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA)

Edmond Lau has been invited to give a keynote speech onthe Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s (HKMA) effort in stabilising the market since the outbreak of COVID-19 and the consistent support to the development of fintech. He is currently responsible for the external affairs, financial infrastructure and research at HKMA. He joined the organisation in 1997 as the head of the banking development division and has been involved in banking reform and the establishment of thedeposit protection scheme. He servedas the administrative assistant to the chief executive of HKMA after aone-year secondment to the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau. Later, he was promoted toexecutive director in charge of strategy, risk and monetary management. He has also been the chief executive of HKMC Annuity.

ZhouZhihan, General Manager, Kaixin Financial

Zhou Zhihan has been invited to share his view on the critical importance of supply chain financing to SME expansion. He is currently the general manager and leading founder of Kaixin Financial. Zhou also serves as the vice chairperson of the Jiangsu Internet Finance Association and theexecutive director of the Internet Society of Jiangsu Province. Prior to this, hewas the director of the planning and development department of Jiangsu Branch of China Development Bank. He has been engaged in innovation in small and micro financial services for a long period of time and has published more than 10 research papers in top academic journals,including China Finance and China Industrial Economics.

Jay Xiao CEO, LexinFintech

Jay Xiao has been invited to share his view on how fintech is transforming consumer behaviour and consumption patterns. He is the founder, chairman and CEO of LexinFintech,anonline consumption and consumer finance platform for educated young professionals in China. Xiao has accumulated over 10 years of experience in the online finance industry. Prior to founding LexinFintech, he served as the director of the infrastructure platform department at Tenpay, an online payment platform owned by Tencent, and was responsible for product development and operations.

Chris Georgiou, Editor, The Asian Banker