The theme of this year’s conference is ‘Blueprint for the Next Decade of Finance: Responsible AI | Inclusive | Resilient’
FinTech BizNews Service
Mumbai, August 25, 2024: The Global Fintech Fest (GFF) 2024, scheduled for August 28-30, 2024 at Jio World Convention Centre, Mumbai, India, will feature over 150 international speakers from 40 countries, including the US, the UK, Germany, France, Singapore, UAE, and Israel. Delegates are expected from over 100 countries, besides India.
The theme of this year’s conference is ‘Blueprint for the Next Decade of Finance: Responsible AI | Inclusive | Resilient’.
While the Advisory Council of the GFF 2024 is led by Kris Gopalakrishnan, Chairman Axilor Ventures & Co-founder Infosys; the renowned members of the GFF 2024 consists of Vishwas Patel, Chairman, Payments Council of India (PCI) & Director, Infibeam Avenues; Dilip Asbe, MD & CEO, NPCI; G. Padmanabhan, Former ED, RBI, and Ex-Chairman BOI; Harshvardhan Lunia, Chairman, Fintech Convergence Council (FCC) & Co-founder LendingKart; Ritesh Shukla, CEO, NIPL and Srinivas Jain, ED, SBI Funds.
The Central Bankers, the banking regulators, from around the world will enlighten the national and international delegates during the 3-day mega event.
Here is a list of Foreign Central Bankers, who will be speaking at the different sessions.
Chief Fintech Officer
Monetary Authority of Singapore
Sopnendu Mohanty, currently the Chief Fintech Officer at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, is responsible for creating development strategies, public infrastructure, and policies around technology-driven innovation. Mohanty has over two decades of public
and private sector experience in technology, operations, digital Finance, and investment strategies.
Mohanty extensively engages with global technology and financial services ecosystems and has championed notable collaborative public goods like API Exchange (APIX), Singapore Fintech Festival, Payment Rails, Data exchange platforms, and experimental programs like UBIN. In addition, Mohanty advises many international global advisory bodies on Fintech, Innovation and Inclusion. Within five years of his leadership, Singapore has become a leading global Fintech hub producing unicorns and home to many vibrant fintech companies.
He has co-authored several patented works in the application of digital technology in Finance and won many industry recognitions.
UruguayRossana Varesi
Planning and Project Chief of Department
Banco Central del Uruguay
MBA, CPA, Expert in Central Banking Strategic Planning and Project Management.
FranceAlexandre Stervinou
Director, Cash & Retail Payments Policy and Oversight Directorate
Banque de France
Assistant Governor
Bank of Thailand
Daranee Saeju is the Assistant Governor in charge of Payment Systems Policy and Financial Consumer Protection Group. She oversees payment systems policies and regulations, as well as supervision of IT/cyber risks, market infrastructures, payment services providers, and non-banks. Fostering innovations in payments and fintech also come under her purview. In addition, she oversees works on market conduct, consumer protection and financial literacy.
Daranee has served the Bank for over 20 years in various critical functions including risk management, monetary policy formulation and implementation, foreign exchange policy and intervention strategy, markets and financial sector developments, financial stability, micro- and macro-prudential regulations, as well as international strategy.
During 2009-2011, she was seconded to the Monetary and Capital Markets Department at the IMF in her role as an expert on monetary and foreign exchange operations and market developments.
Daranee obtained her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Rochester in the United States, and a B.Sc. in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science in England.
Saudi ArabiaKhaled M Albasias
Director Financial Sector Development
Saudi Central Bank
Khaled Albasias is the Director of Financial Sector Development at Saudi Central Bank, where he is leading the change and transformation agenda for the Kingdom’s financial sector under Vision 2030.
He is spearheading the national initiatives of developing the Fintech sector and ecosystem in Saudi Arabia, including the Financial Sector Development Program and the National Fintech Strategy as part of it. He has played a vital role in making the Kingdom emerge as an important player in Fintech space in the region.
ColombiaAna Maria Prieto
Director at the Payment System Department
Central Bank of Colombia
Ana Maria is currently the Head of the Payment System Department at the Central Bank of Colombia. Previously worked at the Unit of Financial Regulation of the Ministry of Finance, the Securities Self-Regulatory Organization and the Colombian Banking Association. In 2020 Ana Maria received a special award of the Prize Juan Luis London, given to economists under 40 who demonstrate significant contributions to the design of social policy. She owned the prize due to her leadership in the implementation of Ingreso Solidario, the Covid-19 G2P emergency program of Colombia.
Mrs Prieto holds a Master in Public Policy from Universidad de los Andes (Colombia) a Master in Economics from Universidad Javeriana (Colombia) and has participated in several academic programs in financial inclusion, innovation and leadership at Oxford University, Georgetown University and Harvard University.
Maha Prasad Adhikari
Governor
Nepal Rastra Bank
Mr. Maha Prasad Adhikari is the Chairperson of Board of Directors and 17th Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB), the Central Bank of Nepal. Prior to his appointment as the Governor of NRB, he served as Chief Executive Officer at the Investment Board Nepal (IBN), Government of Nepal and Deputy Governor of NRB. Preceding those appointments, he had served NRB for more than 25 years in various capacities.
BrazilAngelo M Duarte
Head of Department
Central Bank of Brazil
Graduated in engineering and PhD in Economics from Graduate School of Economics at Fundacao Getulio Vargas (EPGE / FGV). Analyst of the Central Bank of Brazil since 1998, where he was Economic Advisor to the Governor’s Office and is currently Head of the Competition and Financial Market Structure Department. He also served at the Ministry of Finance in the areas economic policy and competition advocacy, and was visiting economist at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) between 2013 and 2016.
Solomon Damtew
Director
National Bank of Ethiopia
Solomon Damtew is the Director of the Payment and Settlement Systems Directorate at the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE); he has demonstrated over 14 years of dedicated service at the NBE. In his current position, Solomon oversees the development and modernization of digital payment systems and financial services in Ethiopia. He has played a pivotal role in leading initiatives to enhance regulatory frameworks, policies, and strategies to promote financial inclusion and advance digital payment systems. Solomon has also been instrumental in modernizing and implementing the interbank payment system, RTGS, a critical component of interbank payment processing in Ethiopia. Before his current role, Solomon served as the principal (Division Head) for payment system oversight and development, where he confidently led efforts to draft various payment system-related regulatory instruments, including the National Payment System Proclamation. He also led the formulation and implementation of the Ethiopian first ever National Digital Payment Strategy (NDPS) 2021-24, which laid down the groundwork for the country's current digital payment landscape.
Christopher Waller
Member
Federal Reserve Board of Governors of the United States
José-Luis Vásquez
Deputy Manager
Central Bank of Peru
Jose Luis Vasquez is currently Deputy Manager of Strategy and Development of Retail Digital Payments at the Central Bank. Previously, he served as Head of the Payment Interoperability Project, Head of the Financial Infrastructure Department of the Monetary Operations and Financial Stability Management; Likewise, he served as Head of the Currency Programming Department of the Currency Management of the Central Bank. He has 25 years of experience as a central banker and holds a Master's degree in Applied Economics from the University of Michigan, United States, as well as a Diploma in International Monetary Policy from the Kiel Institute in Germany. He is economist from The Catholic University of Peru.
Stanislav Korop
Acting Director - FinTech Department
Bank of Russia
As an Acting Director of the Financial Technology Department of the Bank of Russia Stanislav Korop is in charge of the development of several digital public infrastructure projects, including national biometric system, digital profile, data exchange platform, Open APIs and consent management platform. Prior to joining the Financial Technology Department Stanislav Korop was Deputy Director of the Reporting Department and later Data Management Department of the Bank of Russia.
Mr Korop holds a degree in finance and credit from International University in Moscow.
Sirirat Junwongsasin
Deputy Director
Bank of Thailand
Ms. Sirirat Junwongsasin has over 15 years of experience at The Bank of Thailand. She specializes in payment systems policy, Fintech innovation, and regulatory frameworks, fostering a sustainable FinTech ecosystem through open infrastructure and stakeholder collaboration.
Saudi Arabia
Fares M Alsaleh
Fintech Development Division Manager
Saudi Central Bank
Fares is the head of Fintech Development within Financial Sector Development Department at Saudi Central Bank, where he is leading the strategic initiatives aimed at developing the Fintech sector and ecosystem in the Kingdom. He also heads the Regulatory Sandbox which is playing a pivotal role in exponential growth of the Fintech sector, in alignment with the national Financial Sector Development Program under Vision 2030.
Prior to his current role, Fares held senior positions within Investment Deputyship at Saudi Central Bank, where he played an instrumental role in enhancing SAMA's Asset Allocation Strategy and Investment Policy, and also brought SAMA into compliance with the GIPS.
Christian Kajeneri
Director of Payment Systems
National Bank of Rwanda
Christian Kajeneri is the Director of Payment Systems at the National Bank of Rwanda. He has significantly contributed to the growth of MoMoPay as a strategic growth opportunity post-COVID19 pandemic during his tenure at Mobile Money Rwanda Limited, a subsidiary of MTN Rwanda. His previous roles include strategic fintech positions at Mobile Money Rwanda Ltd, Equity Bank Rwanda, and participation in key fintech forums and events.
Christian is an alumnus of the Africa Leadership University School of Business, where he earned an MBA with a major in Leadership. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in Engineering in Electronics and Telecommunications from the University of Rwanda.
Gitau Mburu
Head of National Payments Policy Development, Regulation and Data Analysis
Central Bank of Kenya (CBK)
Mr. Gitau Mburu is a practicing Economist with over 20 years of experience in economic policy, development research, finance and financial sector policy and financial regulation. Presently, Mr. Gitau serves the people and Government of Kenya as the Head of National Payments Policy Development, Regulation and Data Analysis at the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK). Mr. Gitau has been responsible in leading some of the major payments developments within the CBK and payments ecosystem more broadly. He was responsible for leading and coordinating the formulation of Kenya’s second National Payments Strategy 2022 - 2025, Kenya’s feature in the October 2023 edition of the Central Banking Payments News (CBPN), a leading payments publication for the global central banking payments community, among other notable initiatives.
