Program-at-a-glance

Sean Preston is Visa’s Country Manager for Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, responsible for all aspects of Visa’s business in these fast-growing emerging economies.
Prior to this, Sean served as Vice President for Visa’s business in Southeast Asia, based in Singapore, from June 2012 to April 2014.

Before commencing his work with Visa in Asia, Sean served three years as the company’s Country Manager for New Zealand and the South Pacific. During this time Sean was responsible for a number of achievements including the acceleration of Visa Debit, the introduction of Visa payWave and the continued growth of Visa’s business in New Zealand.

Sean has had a diverse international career with more than 20 years’ experience in the banking and finance industry covering credit card portfolio development and management, loyalty, marketing, sales, operations, project management, process reengineering and vendor management.

Prior to his appointment to Visa, Sean was National Manager of Cards at ASB Bank Limited in Auckland – a role he held since 2003. For the seven years prior to that Sean was with Citigroup in a variety of roles that saw him based in Sydney, Singapore and finally New York City where he was Vice President of Operations and Technology for Citigroup International.

Mrs. Duong Thi Ngoc Linh is a member of the Presidium of the Vietnam Women’s Union, a nation-wide socio-political mass organization in Vietnam. At the same time, she is the General Director of Tinh Thuong One-member Limited Liability Microfinance Institution (TYM), the first and biggest licensed MFI in Vietnam. Working at TYM for 23 years in various positions, Mrs. Linh has contributed to and led a lot of innovations and transformations in TYM, the latest of which is TYM’s conversion from a Fund into a formal MFI. From 2006 to 2011, she was the co-chairwoman of Vietnam Microfinance Working Group, which was the representative agency of numerous microfinance programs and organizations in Vietnam. In addition, she is one of the supporters of the Microfinance Working Committee of the Government. She also takes parts in a number of researches in microfinance. Mrs. Ngoc Linh graduated from Hanoi Banking University in 1993 and got her Master of Business Administration at Vietnam National University in 2006.

Mr. Ha Hai An, has been the Deputy Director General of International Cooperation Department, State Bank of Vietnam since July 2014. Mr. An joined SBV in 2002 and has held several senior positions in State Bank of Vietnam. Currently, he is responsible for all partnership activities between SBV and WB/IMF and other organizations/forums on financial stability. He holds a Bachelor of Economics from the Foreign Trade University of Vietnam and a Master Degree in Economics from the Australian National University.

Nguyen Thi Tuyet Mai is Managing Director of Vietnam Microfinance Working Group (MFWG). She leads the organization’s nationwide efforts to build a strong network for committed members activating in microfinance sector in Vietnam with support through its services. Her team provides services through a focused set of initiatives on research, data, advocacy and workshops/ conferences. Before joining MFWG, she had been working in micro-enterprise development projects at Save the Children Vietnam for 13 years with three successfully key micro-enterprise development projects including Binh Minh Community Development Consultancy Company in Hanoi, the North of Vietnam; Thanh Hoa Fund for Poor Women (FPW) in Thanh Hoa province, the North Central of Vietnam; and “Golden Hand” project in Can Tho, the South of Vietnam. Notably, she played a significant role in organizational restructuring process of FPW which is the key feature for its institutional transformation. After organizational restructuring process, FPW considers as one of best microfinance institutions in Vietnam and prepares to become a licensed MFI. In addition, her areas of expertise include: Business planning, Strategic human resource management, Project management and Communications. She has a MBA from IMPACT University, USA and a Bachelor of Economics by Trade University, Vietnam

Brooke Patterson is the Asia Regional Representative for USAID’s Center for Digital Development within the Global Development Lab. Brooke oversees USAID’s efforts in Digital Finance and financial inclusion in the Asia region. In his work he has supported financial inclusion efforts and worked with USAID partners, financial service providers, and regulators across several markets, including Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, and the Philippines. A Foreign Service Officer, Brooke previously served in Kenya where he managed the USAID’s work in Digital Finance and ICT for Development. Prior to joining USAID in 2009, Brooke was a management consultant with IBM Global Services. He holds a Masters in Business Administration and a Masters in Public Health from Yale University

Brandee McHale is president of the Citi Foundation and Director of Corporate Citizenship at Citi. She oversees the Citi Foundation’s global grantmaking strategy and leads Citi’s citizenship efforts, including volunteerism and environmental sustainability.
For over three decades, Brandee has dedicated her career to philanthropy and developing a forward-thinking portfolio of grant initiatives that connect low-income residents to onramps of economic opportunity and a secure financial future.

Brandee is a staunch advocate for youth empowerment. Under her leadership, the Citi Foundation launched Pathways to Progress, the largest single commitment in the Foundation’s 20-year history. The $50-million initiative works with community partners to unlock economic opportunity for 100,000+ low-income youth in 10 U.S. cities.
As the board chair of the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) and a member on the board of directors of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), Living Cities, and America’s Promise Alliance, Brandee helps chart the direction of numerous efforts to create lasting change in communities across the country.

Rajeev Kumar Gupta is the Deputy Programme Manager for the Shaping Inclusive Finance Transformations (SHIFT) programme in ASEAN, at United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF).
The Shaping Inclusive Finance Transformations (SHIFT) programme in ASEAN (and now also being implemented in SAARC) aims to advance women’s financial inclusion and contribute to their economic participation by changing the behaviour of market actors to stimulate investment, business innovations, and regulatory reform in financial markets. Rajeev and his team work on building an evidence base on women’s financial inclusion in the region and catalyse innovative partnerships to incubate market-led approaches to innovate, scale and replicate financial service interventions.

Rajeev has over 18 years of experience in technical advisory and programme development roles, with a particular focus on financial services for the poor and livelihoods. Prior to UNCDF, Rajeev worked for more than a decade with BASIX, a livelihood and financial inclusion promotion organisation in India, where he was involved in range of financial inclusion interventions, in setting up the first State level livelihood mission based on PPP model, and heading the international consulting work in countries in South Asia, South-East Asia and Africa.

Natasha Ansell has been appointed as the Citi Country Officer for Vietnam, effective April 1, 2015. She subsequently became the Consumer Business Manager in April 2016. Natasha’s career of over 23 years at Citi spans across the Banking and Asset Management businesses. She became a Managing Director in 2005 and a Business SCO (Senior Credit Officer) in 2012.

Prior to the current role, Natasha held several regional positions in Corporate and Investment Banking in London and EMEA region.

Natasha serves on the American Chamber of Commerce Hanoi Board and was elected to be the Chair of the Board for the 2017 term. From March 17, 2017 to March 16, 2018 she will serve as the next Banking Working Group’s Chairman (Foreign Banks Association) in Vietnam.

Natasha holds a Master’s degree in International Finance. She is a keen multi-sport athlete and an avid traveler.

Steve is a parallel entrepreneur and Angel investor. Steve is an enthusiastic pioneer in investing in Vietnam’s and South East Asian startup ecosystem with technological and financial insight from Silicon Valley. With an initiative taking mindset, Steve is the founder of many programs/projects creating great impact on Vietnamese and regional entrepreneurship.

During his 27 year career, Steve has successfully started and sold over half a dozen technology companies. Steve began his career in Technology Sales at Oracle Corporation when Oracle was still in its infancy. Steve holds board seats and ownership in a number of companies and advises other companies.

Tim Mattingly is Vice President, Enterprise Partnerships for Mastercard. In this role, Mr. Mattingly leverages Mastercard’s core assets including technology, solutions, global network and reach to deliver new business opportunities across ecosystems that are outside of Mastercard’s more traditional financial institution customer base.

Mr. Mattingly has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Missouri University and Master of Business Administration from Rollins College.

Zach is Co-Founder and Partner of Intrepid Ventures. Intrepid Ventures is a venture development studio that invests in, designs and builds Blockchain Plus powered companies.
Zach is an innovation, digital transformation and venture investor / growth executive based in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Innovation:
I help Fortune 500 companies leverage the innovation of startup disruptors in blockchain, fintech, distributed ledger, & emerging technologies.

Investor:
Early stage investor in Blockchain, IoT, Data & Analytics (sensors and health)

Startup Growth:
I’m deeply involved in the organizational design and growth of a variety of FinTech, InsurTech, & non-financial blockchain, distributed ledger, and emerging technology companies across Asia.

Punnamas is the CEO of Ascend Group Co., Ltd. and True Money Co., Ltd.

With over 17 years of experience in the finance, technology, media and telecom industries, and extensive international experience, he is an expert of new business development, product innovation, marketing and partnerships.

Prior to joining True Money, Punnamas was the Director of Mobile Financial Services of SingTel Group in Singapore. He started a new retail bank, targeting digital consumers with innovative customer-centric propositions whilst integrating personal financial services and embarking in M-commerce.

Punnamas is extremely passionate about start-ups and building new businesses with a proven record of success. He is an entrepreneurial and result-driven individual who enjoys problem-solving and people and team development.

EDUCATION
Executive MBA, Sasin Graduate Institute of Business Administration, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand
BSEE, Electrical Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, U.S.A.

Alwaleed Alatabani is currently the Lead Financial Sector Specialist at the World Bank in Vietnam. He leads the World Bank’s Finance and Markets Global Practice team and program in Vietnam. From 2013-2015 he was the Lead financial Sector specialist based in Jakarta, Indonesia. Alwaleed was on an external assignment from the World Bank working with the Japan International Cooperation Agency in Tokyo, where he served as an Economic Advisor in the Credit Risk Analysis Department, providing strategic advice in managing the overall credit risk of JICA’s lending portfolio. Prior to that he was the Senior Financial Sector Specialist and cluster leader for Sudan, South Sudan and Ethiopia for almost four years before moving to Tokyo. Before moving to the Africa region at the World Bank, he worked as a Senior Risk Management Officer in the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), for four years, based in Washington DC. Alwaleed joined the World Bank Young Professional’s Program in 2002.

Nhan Phan Cu is currently Director of the Communication and International Co-operation Department at the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP). Prior to this position he worked as Branch Director of the city of Haiphong for VBSP. He had been worked at the Head Office of the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank) as a finance and accounting specialist. He also worked as Manager of the Information, Accounting and Finance departments of the Agribank Financial Leasing Company. Mr Nhan Phan holds a B.Sc. from Ha Noi Banking University, a B.Sc. from the National Institute of Public Administration- Vietnam and an MBA from the Asian Institute of Technology.

Juan Carlos Izaguirre is a Senior Financial Sector Specialist with the Global Policy Architecture team at the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP)—a financial inclusion think-tank housed at the World Bank. He is leading work with the Basel Consultative Group’s Financial Inclusion Workstream and research on deposit insurance for digital finance products, and is member of the OECD Taskforce on Financial Consumer Protection. He joined the World Bank in 2007, where he co-authored Good Practices for Financial Consumer Protection, and advised on financial consumer protection regulation and supervision to countries including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Indonesia, Latvia, Malawi, Nicaragua, the Russian Federation, South Africa, Tajikistan and Zambia. Juan Carlos began his career as a credit risk analyst in the fifth largest bank of Peru, and worked for six years at the Superintendence of Banking, Insurance and Private Pensions of Peru, primarily as supervisor in banking, microfinance and consumer protection issues.

Juan Carlos is an Economist with Masters in International Relations and Public Administration from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University, and Master of Finance from Universidad del Pacífico of Peru. He has trained banking and microfinance supervisors, including with the Financial Stability Institute and the Toronto Centre.

Belonging to the 1987 batch of the Indian Audit and Accounts Service, Ms. Vishwanathan comes with extensive experience across a range of departments of the Government of India including Defense and Prasar Bharti. In the development sector she has served at very senior levels in well-known international NGOs such as Oxfam and VSO. She steered these entities through critical change management processes as they transitioned from international liaison offices to ‘full-fledged Indian entities’. Ratna Vishwanathan is a Director on the Board of Mudra, Member of the RBI’s Financial Inclusion Advisory Committee and Chairperson of the South Asian Microfinance Network.

Madam Nguyen Thi Hong is the Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV). Her responsibilities include monetary policy formulation and implementation, monetary stability, central banking operations, monetary forecast and statistics, balance of payments, international and domestic money market developments surveillance, international cooperation, foreign exchange management, communication, press relation. Madam Hong is also acting as SBV’s spokesperson. Moreover, she serves as an Alternate Governor for Viet Nam in many international financial-monetary organizations, including the World Bank, The International Monetary Fund, The Asian Development Bank. She is also Head of State Foreign Reserves Management Committee; Head of Open Market Operation Management Committee; Head of Committee for the Advancement for Women in the Banking Sector. Madam Hong has a Bachelor Degree from Banking Academy of Vietnam and a Master of Development Economics from the Hague University, the Netherlands.

49 Mr. Vannak Chou General Department of Financial Industry Ministry of Economy and Finance, Cambodia Vannak is promoted as a Deputy Director General of General Department of Financial Industry of the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) since 2013, Kingdom of Cambodia. He is responsible for Department of Financial Industry related in the policy maker and regulation in the fields of micro finance sector, SME financing, government securities market. Now, he is also a representative of MEF as board member of Foreign Trade Bank of Cambodia.
He had worked experiences more than 20 years involve in micro finance sector in included: Credit Committee for Rural Development (CCRD), Project coordination for support micro finance sector (AFD Project), and served other positions were the controller, coordinator, board director of local NGO, credit operator and micro finance institution.
Vannak obtained Master’s degree in Business administration in 2002 at the Utara University of Malaysia, and bachelor degree in agronomist in 1995 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Abhishant Pant is a Mumbai based Fintech expert and has more than a decade of hands-on experience of payments landscape. He is extensively covered by Media both India (TOI, HT, ET, Zee News, India News, Mid-Day etc.) and abroad (BBC, Dagnes Nayhter) and was recently named among TOP100 Fintech Professionals in Asia. He has spoken about the Fintech landscape via Ted Talks, Lectures at NUS, IIM and IIT’s and at various Banking conferences, he is closely associated with the Fintech world (as mentor) via incubators like Barclays Rise and writes regularly on Fintech landscape opportunity and challenges.

Simone is Director of Policy and Ecosystem Development at BFA. As an expert in policy development for financial and digital inclusion, with a focus on emerging markets, he has worked with global standard setters, senior policymakers, regulators and private sector executives from 40+ countries. He has designed and implemented new policies to improve the efficiency of the financial sector and the digital ecosystem and focused on legal drafting, Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA), technology solutions for regulators and supervisors (RegTech), fintech regulation, and data and privacy frameworks. He also teaches a course on “Digital Approaches to Development: ICT4D and Digital Citizenship” at the Fletcher School, Tufts University.
Prior to joining BFA, Simone was the Advocacy and Regulatory Director for the Mobile Money programme at the GSM Association. Simone has also worked for the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), the World Bank (CGAP), and the International Development Law Organization (IDLO). He is a lawyer, with a PhD in Law and Economics.

Mr. Mortimer-Schutts is Regional Leader for Retail Payments and Mobile Banking in East Asia. Ivan is a specialist in financial services development, with business and policy experience, having worked in the private sector, in economic and regulatory policy and with Microfinance NGOs. Ivan joined the IFC from BNP Paribas, where he led retail and mobile banking strategy and development initiatives for emerging markets. Also at BNP Paribas, he led implementation of new European financial market legislation for the Group Compliance Team. Prior to that he was in charge of financial sector regulatory studies for the Groupe d’Economie Mondiale, led operational business developments for a pan-European start-up in on-line retail brokerage services and was a consultant with E&Y Germany to investment banks. Ivan has a BSc (Econ) from the London School of Economics and an MPhil in International Economics from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Science Po).

Philip Course (MBA, GAICD) is the Managing Director of Cullinan Group, and a financial services technology Chief Executive, Director and investor with over 20 years experience at CEO and senior strategy levels of public and private companies.
Cullinan Group uses digital technologies to help companies deliver superior Customer experiences for financial services products, for example money transfer, check cashing, prepaid cards and other financial services products. The company’s systems deliver important new revenue, and streamline the risk, fraud, point of sale and compliance management.
Philip’s career includes being Country Manager Indonesia – Hewlett Packard’s VeriFone, General Manager- Strategic Business Development for Intellect Holdings Ltd and Managing Director TAFMO Holdings, a company that today processes more than $5.7bn in transactions p.a. and is listed as ASX:TCH.

Nguyen Van Than is Chairman of Vietnam Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (VINASME) and Member of Economic Committee of 14th National Assembly. He also served as Vice Chairman of VINASME from 1994, in charge of advocating policies on supporting enterprises in Vietnam. With over 20 years experience in working with international and national entrepreneurs and businesses, his expertise focuses on advising the development processes and advocating policies for an enabling environment for enterprises, especially small and medium enterprises in Vietnam. Prior to VINASME, he was Chairman of Management Board of Vietnam International Bank and a private company. He also served as lecturer at universities at Central Highland Vietnam. He obtained his Natural Science degree from Vietnam National University and his Doctoral degree from Warsaw University in Poland.

Stephen has been involved in FDC’s initiatives over many years and has a keen sense of the potential of microfinance and enhanced development outcomes that flow from collaboration between sectors and cooperation between countries in Asia and the Pacific.
He has hands-on experience over several decades as both an operator and advisor in the tourism industry, both in Australia and overseas, including leading visitor facilities in Australia, the United Kingdom and Hawaii. He holds a Bachelor of Business and MBA from the University of Queensland and has served on the advisory boards of several national tourism organisations. He has designed and delivered many community based projects and programs, as well as state and national level strategies for both the private and public sectors.

Michelle Curry joined FDC as the organisation’s CEO in January of this year, bringing her corporate and regional experience to the development sector. She has had a 20 year career working in multiple countries, and in the past 10 years running regional or global business divisions for multinational companies, including almost three years working and living in India. Michelle has significant experience in bringing multi-coalitions together to develop new markets and commercialise new services, including developing and implementing innovative business models. A large part of her client portfolio has included Financial Services companies across the region, working with them on business, operations and technology initiatives. She is currently an adjunct with the University of Sydney Business School, and prior to joining FDC, has worked for Arthur Andersen, KPMG, and the Strategy Consulting arm of IBM. In 2015 and 2016 she defined and led the largest wages reform program in Australia in response to the 7-Eleven wages underpayment scandal.

Catherine joined Citi in September 2013 as head of Government Affairs for Asia Pacific. Catherine works closely with senior management, business heads, and Citi Country Officers to protect and enhance Citi’s interests by engaging with policymakers and industry groups on a wide range of issues. Catherine also coordinates and manages the Citi Government Affairs representatives in the region and chairs the Citi Asia Pacific Global Regulatory Reform Committee.
Prior to joining Citi, Catherine worked at State Street Bank and Trust as Head of Regulatory, Industry and Government Affairs, Asia Pacific. Before that Catherine was a diplomat at the Australian Embassy Beijing, a research fellow in the Faculty of Law and Politics at Keio University Japan and a policy advisor in the Australian Departments of Prime Minister and Cabinet and Foreign Affairs and Trade on political, strategic and trade issues.
Catherine has played an active role in various industry associations, including the U.S. National Centre for APEC (Board Member), US-ASEAN Business Council (Financial Services and ASEAN Committee Member), Asian Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (Alternate Board Member and Public Policy Committee Member) and the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong (Financial Services Committee Head and Board Member). Catherine has also been active in the APEC Business Advisory Council, Advisory Group on APEC Financial System Capacity Building and the APEC Asia Pacific Financial Forum.
Catherine speaks English, Mandarin and Japanese.

Leo Shimada is the Co-Founder and CEO of Crowdo, a Fintech Startup offering a full portfolio of Equity Crowdfunding (investment.crowdo.com) and P2P Lending (p2p.crowdo.com) solutions. Crowdo is one of SE. Asia’s largest and longest running Crowdfunding operators with close to 30,000 members with offices in Jakarta, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.
As of Feb 2017, Crowdo has successful financed over 1,400 projects and holds the record for facilitating the largest Equity Crowdfunding Offer (ECF) as well as the first venture capital led ECF Offer in the region. Crowdo is registered with the Securities Commission of Malaysia, and licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. It is the first P2P Lending platform to be licensed in ASEAN.
Leo is an experienced professional with over 15 years track record in the areas of finance and technology across multiple Asia markets including Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, China and other parts of SE. Asia. He has held senior positions both at a top professional firm (McKinsey & Co.) as well as a Fortune 500 company. Leo obtained his MBA from INSEAD and holds a Law degree from Keio University.

Kalin Radev is the CEO of Software Group, a global technology company that is specialized in delivery channel and integration solutions for the financial sector. Mr Radev is also a Member of the Board of Directors of the Microfinance Center (MFC) and the Indian-Bulgarian Business Chamber. He brings 20+ years of professional experience in IT, 15+ of which in financial inclusion and microfinance. Kalin has extensive international experience leading strategic projects in Europe, Africa, Asia, Pacific and Latin America. His expertise has been crucial for carrying out more than 100 projects around the globe, focused on developing IT strategies and designing solutions that accelerate financial inclusion and enhance efficiency. The beneficiaries were organizations from the private financial sector as well as NGO’s such as: USAID, World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU), Catholic Relief Services (CRS), World Bank, Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), Opportunity International, Triple Jump, Finance in Motion, echange, Chemonics and others.

Mr. Gil Lacson is the Director of Network Engagement & Business Development at Women’s World Banking, the nonprofit and global network that for over 35-years have devoted itself to giving more low-income women access to the financial tools and resources that the women and their families require to build security and prosperity. Gil is responsible for ensuring that Women’s World Banking engage with and add value to the institutions in the Women’s World Banking Network. He builds relationships and connects institutions within the network. He spots and creates opportunities to grow a network of institutions focused on women’s financial inclusion and gender diversity. He has represented Women’s World Banking as the voice for women in several Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) initiatives of the G20. He earned a B.S. in Business Economics from the University of the Philippines School of Economics and a Master’s in Business Management from the Asian Institute of Management. Before joining Women’s World Banking New York in 1999, Gil worked in the Philippines for two universal banks; managed an export-manufacturing company and several small businesses; and, led a top microfinance institution as its deputy head. He is married with four children and three grandchildren.

Dean Karlan is a Professor of Economics at Yale University and President of Innovations for Poverty Action, a non-profit dedicated to discovering and promoting solutions to global poverty problems. He is on the Board of Directors of the M.I.T. Jameel Poverty Action Lab.
As a social entrepreneur Karlan is co-Founder of stickK.com, a website that uses lessons from behavioral economics to help people reach personal goals. In 2015, Karlan founded ImpactMatters, a nonprofit dedicated to producing impact audits, which assesses whether an organization uses and produces appropriate evidence of impact.
Karlan received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He was awarded distinguished alumni awards from the University of Chicago Booth Graduate School of Business and the Duke University Talent Identification Program. In 2011 he co-authored More Than Good Intentions: How a New Economics is Helping to Solve Global Poverty.
His education includes a Ph.D. in Economics from M.I.T., an M.B.A. and an M.P.P. from the University of Chicago, and a B.A. in International Affairs from the University of Virginia.

Le Thi Thuy Duong is the Education Program Manager, working for Save the Children International in Vietnam since 2003. Her background and experiences span the fields of sociology, reproductive and sexual health, HIV/AIDS, school health and nutrition, and education including 8 years with financial education. Her specific interest is in advancing an evidence-based approach in the development of public policy that addresses children health and education issues. One specific example is her success in institutionalizing Smart Start for Students’ financial education curriculum, under Citi Foundation funded project, into Ho Chi Minh city’s teaching curriculum for all grade 10 students, and continued effort to advocate to leverage this curriculum to national wide adaptation. She has also been trying to advocate for more youth friendly social and financial services and to create enabling environment for young people to establish, practice and maintain good and wise personal financial management habits, including saving, budgeting and using banking services.

Nina Nayar is an independent consultant with experience in financial inclusion and community based development. Her areas of expertise include strategic planning, institutional and human resource development, training, market research and product design, sector policy and advocacy, social performance management and financial inclusion. She has worked with a number multi-lateral and bilateral agencies, for-profit and not-for-profit financial institutions, and national government organizations. Ms. Nayar serves as advisor to the Foundation for Development Cooperation for the BWTP Network. Ms. Nayar is an Indian national residing in Cochin India and holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania (MA) and University of Virginia (BA). She serves on the Board of Directors of an international company and an NGO promoting rights-based approach to development for women and youth in Kerala.

Chiou Hao Chan is Managing Director of the Asia Pacific region for Mambu. Chiou Hao is a strategically minded leader with nearly two decades of sales, business development and operational experience in the Asia Pacific region. Like all of us at Mambu, he is committed to improving the way that financial services are delivered. In his role he helps our clients to integrate, launch, test and maintain innovative lending and banking products. Enabling them to do so more quickly, simply and easily than ever before by leveraging a new kind of cloud-based core platform.

Before joining Mambu Chiou Hao worked extensively in enterprise software and cloud solutions for companies like Salesforce.com , QlikTech, SumTotal Systems and Justlogin. He also founded two venture capital backed internet companies taking them from inception to acquisition.

Chiou Hao graduated with a BBA from the National University of Singapore and completed his MBA at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

Dorothy Stuehmke leads a team that coordinates the Citi Foundation’s grant making efforts in financial inclusion, youth economic opportunities and urban transformation across 80+ countries outside the U.S. Dorothy also manages key global partnerships, specifically in the area of financial inclusion. Prior to this role, Dorothy was responsible for managing the Citi Foundation’s grant making activities across the Asia Pacific region.
Prior to joining the Citi Foundation in 2013, Dorothy held positions in the public and private sectors, including with the U.S. government, United Nations and nonprofits, where she focused on foreign policy, international development, public affairs and communications in the Asia Pacific region. Dorothy was also the Senior Advisor to the 2008-2009 U.S.-North Korea Food Aid Program for the U.S. Agency for International Development, where she oversaw implementation of the largest U.S. government food aid initiative in history in North Korea in coordination with a consortium of U.S. NGOs and the UN World Food Program.
Dorothy was a Boren National Security Education Program Fellow and a Korean Language Flagship Fellow. She holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service at New York University and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She was a Council on Foreign Relations Term Member (2008-2013) and speaks Korean and German.

Prateek Shrivastava is Vice President, Digital Solutions at Accion International. He is responsible for supporting Accion’s banks, MFIs and fintech investments, globally, use digital channels effectively. His passion is to build operationally strong and commercially viable businesses using digital technologies.

Prateek is experienced in implementing technology and building operational businesses over the past 22 years is across 25 countries. Since 2006, he worked in several roles building systems to deliver digital financial services at scale for the unbanked in emerging markets in Asia and Africa. He has helped design technology, business strategy, raised funding and built field staff and customer support systems. During this time, he was Managing Director for Emerging Markets at Monitise plc where he was responsible for the expansion of Monitise’s services in Nigeria, India and Indonesia.

Prateek has published several papers and has guest edited journals and books. He regularly gives talks at events around the world including at the UK House of Lords, World Economic Forum and GSMA Mobile World Congress. Prateek holds an MBA specializing in Mobile Banking and Microfinance from the Henley Management College (Oxfordshire, UK), a Masters in Computer Science and a Bachelor of Applied Computing from University of Western Sydney (Australia).

Manoj K Sharma is MicroSave’s Managing Director and has been working in the field of development finance for more than 20 years. At MicroSave, an advisory and consulting company working in the field of financial inclusion, Manoj manages the Asia-Pacific region. Manoj has extensive experience in the field of digital financial inclusion, agent based outreach channels, risk and fraud management and client protection in DFS. Manoj has also been supporting the move towards digitisation of government benefits and direct cash transfer to target customer segments. Manoj’s interest lies in financial inclusion, more specifically in the development of innovative products and in technology based delivery channels to enable financial services to be sustainably delivered to low income segments.

Ren Yi Hooi spearheads the expansion of partnerships for BIMA, a global leader in mobile-enabled microinsurance and health services for the underserved, across the Asia Pacific region.
Having lived and worked in the United States, Africa and Asia Pacific, Ren has experiences spanning the private and public sectors. Prior to joining BIMA, she was a management consultant with Bain & Company in Southeast Asia, where she helped to grow multinational corporations and small businesses. Ren has also served with organizations at the forefront of social innovation, including The Rockefeller Foundation in New York, Off.Grid:Electric in Tanzania and the Government of Singapore.
Ren holds a B.A. in Economics from UC Berkeley and an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where she was awarded the Joseph Wharton Fellowship.

Brandee McHale is president of the Citi Foundation and Director of Corporate Citizenship at Citi. She oversees the Citi Foundation’s global grantmaking strategy and leads Citi’s citizenship efforts, including volunteerism and environmental sustainability.
For over three decades, Brandee has dedicated her career to philanthropy and developing a forward-thinking portfolio of grant initiatives that connect low-income residents to onramps of economic opportunity and a secure financial future.
Brandee is a staunch advocate for youth empowerment. Under her leadership, the Citi Foundation launched Pathways to Progress, the largest single commitment in the Foundation’s 20-year history. The $50-million initiative works with community partners to unlock economic opportunity for 100,000+ low-income youth in 10 U.S. cities.
As the board chair of the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) and a member on the board of directors of the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), Living Cities, and America’s Promise Alliance, Brandee helps chart the direction of numerous efforts to create lasting change in communities across the country.

Ken started Andafin to help financial institutions across Asia and Africa reach the “next billion” customers; the company provides management consulting and data analytics services that support banks to responsibly grow their businesses through enhanced understanding of their portfolios, risk management, and progress toward financial and social targets. Over a career largely focused on the intersection of financial services and technology in emerging markets, Ken has lived and worked on five continents, and visited more than 60 countries. He started his microfinance career at Grameen Foundation, where he worked on technology projects for several years before going into the consulting business.
Ken is currently based in Vietnam, where his experience includes launching a digital financial services business, teaching corporate strategy MBA classes to Vietnamese and foreign managers, and finding the best places to eat snails. He serves on the board of the World Vision Vietnam microfinance unit, as well as the board of WEAV, which supports girls’ education in the Mekong Delta. Ken speaks Vietnamese and Spanish, and holds an MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management.

David Kneebone has specialised in financial education for ten years. He is currently General Manager and an Executive Committee member of Hong Kong’s Investor Education Centre (since June 2014). Prior to his current role Mr Kneebone worked for eight years at the Commission for Financial Capability (CFC) in New Zealand. Mr Kneebone was the Executive Director of the CFC from 2010 to 2014.
In the past decade Mr Kneebone has managed a variety of successful financial education programmes in communities, workplaces, schools, tertiary institutions and online. His background in marketing, advertising, telecommunications and banking has contributed a great deal to the success of programmes designed to help the public manage their money.
Mr Kneebone is actively involved in sharing his experiences and insights on financial education and retirement income issues. He is regular conference speaker and member of various OECD and IOSCO committees focused on developing financial literacy initiatives and producing quality research. In 2015 he became an ambassador for the Hong Kong Strategy for Financial Literacy – a key initiative focused on enhancing collaboration between the government, finance, education and community sectors.

Based out of Washington, DC, Gregory Chen leads the Policy Team that advances regulation and policies at the global and national level. He brings 20 years of financial inclusion experience and more than a decade of work residing in South Asia and working with microfinance institutions, mobile money, fintech, central banks and policy makers. His recent work focuses on digital finance, competition policy and digitizing government payments.
Prior to CGAP, Greg worked for the Aga Khan Development Network, ShoreBank International, and Bank of America. An American national, he has lived and worked in Asia for over 20 years. He completed his undergraduate Studies at Wesleyan University and Masters studies at Harvard’s Kennedy School.

Franchette Cardona is the Marketing Director for Wing, Cambodia’s most trusted and leading mobile banking services provider. She is in charge of the overall marketing, product, branding and communications strategy.
Prior to her current role, she was the Product Management & Marketing Director of the award winning mobile money brand GCASH. She also worked in the banking sector as Marketing and Business Development Head for the Consumer Finance group of UnionBank of the Philippines and also worked in the Credit Cards group handling marketing and customer lifecycle management.
She has over 10 years of experience in the fields of Strategic Marketing Management and Communication, Brand and Product Management, and Social Media Marketing specializing in the fintech and financial services industry.

Eric Barbier is Founder and CEO of TransferTo, a Cross-Border Mobile Payments Network. Eric founded TransferTo in 2005, with the vision that moving money around the world should be as simple as sending an SMS. Eric is a successful entrepreneur. Prior to founding TransferTo, Eric co-founded Mobile 365, the global leader in mobile messaging interoperability, delivery and settlement of SMS and MMS content. Mobile 365 was acquired by Sybase, an SAP company, in 2006. Eric also holds a Masters Degree in Information Technology from ESIEE in Paris.

TransferTo operates a Cross-Border Mobile Payments Network for emerging markets, processing transactions in real-time for duly licensed financial institutions and merchants. TransferTo offer solutions for businesses providing remittance, push payments and merchant payment services. Thousands of leading companies including Vodafone’s M-Pesa, bKash, Tigo Money, Western Union, Xoom and PayPal, rely on TransferTo’s Mobile Payments solutions to perform digital payments.

Parul Agarwal heads the financial inclusion team at IFMR-LEAD and manages organization’s research portfolio under this thematic area. She is involved in designing and setting up experimental and quasi-experimental impact evaluation studies that are relevant to policy and practice. These include evaluation of government programs, programs by development institutions and innovative products, services and delivery channels. Her research interests are labour mobility, product innovation and financial behavior of the poor. She is a co-investigator on some of the related studies in various parts of India and Bangladesh. These include evaluation of (1) progress of microfinance and schemes like MUDRA, (2) flexible credit contracts in Uttar Pradesh, (3) digital cash transfers and sustainable financial inclusion programme in Northern Bangladesh and (4) ecosystem of digital financial inclusion in India. Before joining IFMR in year 2010, she earned a Masters degree in Rural Management from the Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB). She is a graduate in Economics from Delhi University.

Graham serves as Senior Program Officer for Impact Investing at the Ford Foundation. In this role, he is responsible for developing the team’s grant-making strategy and coordinating it closely with our program-related investment.

Prior to joining Ford, Graham was Director of Corporate Citizenship Partnerships at Citigroup. As director, Graham worked with Citi’s myriad businesses to drive economic and social impact with clients and other key stakeholders while contributing to Citi’s broader citizenship reporting requirements. He has also served as Senior Program Officer for Financial Inclusion at the Citi Foundation, where he managed the foundation’s international grant making in nearly 90 countries, while also leading investments in innovation, thought leadership, and research. Initially at Citi, Graham managed the Microfinance and Enterprise Development portfolios.

Prior to joining Citi, Graham was senior director of VisionSpring, a leading social enterprise selling consumer products to promote economic development. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Aspen Network for Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) and was a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Graham received his BA from Colby College, MSc from NYU Wagner, and MBA through a joint program at NYU Stern, London School of Economics, and HEC Paris School of Management.

Vipin Sharma is the founding CEO of ACCESS, set up in 2006. Starting his career with the Reserve Bank of India, Vipin has thirty-six years of experience in banking, rural finance, microfinance and enterprise development in varied Government and non-government institutions including National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, Rural Non- Farm Development Agency (Govt of Rajasthan) and CARE India. While at NABARD, Vipin was on the Boards of the local Regional Rural Bank and the Cooperative Bank. As Executive Director of RUDA, Vipin helped the Govt of Rajasthan to develop strategies for promoting non-farm sector through a sub-sector approach. At CARE India, Vipin was the Programme Director of the Microfinance Unit and a part of the Regional Leadership Team.

Vipin completed his Masters from Delhi University, and has attended programmes at the Cranfield School of Management, Boulder University and School of Management, Yale University among others.

In the last ten years, Vipin has also spun-off two specialized affiliates of ACCESS viz. ACCESS-ASSIST to support and advance financial inclusion in India and Ode to Earth to help primary producers sell their products in mainstream markets.
Vipin is a member of the Smart Campaign Steering Committee, working on issues relating to client protection.

Ms. Vijayalakshmi Das is the Chief Executive of FWWB, India. She is also the Managing Director of Ananya Finance for Inclusive Growth Pvt. Ltd., a Company promoted by FWWB, India.

FWWB known for nurturing MFIs for two decades, is currently focusing on strengthening Farmer Producer Groups, Integrating water & sanitation and Solar energy loans with Microfinance loans. Ananya provides loan support to institutions extending financial services to low income households and its operations cover 17 states. Ananya as a strategy to ensure financial inclusion supports initiatives in areas that impact the lives of the poor.

She has served as member of various policy advisory groups and currently serves in the Board of some of the leading NGOs and Companies working in the area of Financial Inclusion.

Mr. VIJAY CHUGH was, till recently, the Head of the Department of Payment & Settlement Systems with the Reserve Bank of India and has spearheaded India’s vision and mission towards a modern payment system. During his 33 years of service, he has contributed to certain key areas corresponding to the following statutory mandates of India’s Central Bank, viz. Payment and Settlement Systems and Core Banking Solution (financial infrastructure), Supervision and Regulation of commercial banks (financial stability and financial integrity), and Rural credit and development (financial inclusion). He was a Member of the Committee for Payments & Market Infrastructure, Switzerland, SAARC Payments Council and SEACEN, Malaysia and Chairman/Member Secretary of various committees including the Indian/Bharat Bills Payment System, MSME Trade Receivables Exchange (TReDS), Mobile Banking and other committees set up to promote digital payments.

Post his retirement, Mr Chugh is engaged as Advisor to the World Bank Payments Group on their G2P Direct Benefit Transfer project (India) and Social Benefit Delivery program (Nepal). He is also an Independent Director/Consultant to a few payment companies and mentor to some start-ups.

Ms. Roman Tayag, is involved in the overall financial inclusion work of the central bank particularly in the areas of policy and regulation, capacity building, advocacy, and relationship building. She also oversees the bank’s principal consumer protection unit that ensures the protection of financial consumer rights by formulating related policies and standards, assessing supervised financial institutions’ adherence to the said standards, and implementing financial learning program and the BSP consumer assistance mechanism.

Ms. Roman Tayag graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from the University of the Philippines and a master’s degree in International Affairs focused on Economic Development from Columbia University. She is also a Fellow in the Fletcher School Leadership Program for Financial Inclusion at Tufts University.

Ms. Roman Tayag is a member of the Policy Advisory Group of the Innovations for Poverty Action Research Fund and of the Better than Cash Alliance Editorial and Publications Committee. She was also a member of the Smart Campaign Steering Committee.

Justin is the head of business operations at Coins.ph, where he works across various teams within Coins.ph to drive growth for the company. Prior to Coins.ph, Justin was in charge of developing ultra-low latency trading strategies for one of the top high-frequency trading firms in the world. Justin graduated with a Bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University and is a CFA Charterholder.

Dr Koh Noi Keng, Chair of the Financial Literacy Hub for Teachers, at the National Institute of Education in Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore, has led financial literacy programmes and research in schools since its launch in 2007. After 15 years’ experience as a teacher, a head-of-department, a vice principal and a Ministry of Education HQ Senior Education Officer, Dr Koh joined NIE to coordinate and teach the post graduate courses to prepare teachers to teach economics, business and accounting. She has spearheaded training programs, research and events to create awareness and empower teachers to promote financial literacy to students in schools. The breakthrough impetus saw a quantum leap in the rise of the number of schools (91% secondary schools, 72% primary schools and 90% of Junior colleges in Singapore) implementing financial literacy programs. She is also the principal investigator for numerous research grants. Besides internationally refereed journals, she authored textbooks and online resources and is the Advisor to the Association of Commerce Educators Singapore and the 5,000 member strong Nanyang Technological University Investment Club. Dr Koh has created useful financial literacy curriculum, resources and mobile applications for engaging youth in learning financial education.

Beniam Gebrezghi joined the UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub (BRH) as the Programme Specialist on Civil Society and Youth in the Effective Governance and Peace Building Team, in December 2014. He was previously with the UNDP Civil Society Team, in the Partnerships Bureau in New York. An Eritrean/Swedish national, he has for the past 14 years worked in the field of international development cooperation. In New York, he worked on developing partnerships and policies for UNDP work with civil society and youth. Prior to that, he was the Coordinator of the CIVICUS Civil Society Index, at CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, an international civil society umbrella organisation based out of Johannesburg, South Africa. He started his career at the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), were he worked in the Department of Communications and later on in the NGO Section providing grants and capacity development to Civil Society Organisations. He holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration from The School of Government, University of the Western Cape, South Africa.

I have worked in the international development sector with over 10 years in women empowerment and capacity building, joining Pearl S. Buck Foundation, Taipei, Taiwan (PSBFTT) in 2014. I am mainly in charge of the financial capability Initiative, which specializes in the evaluation of innovative projects that aim to improve the financial capability of economically disadvantaged immigrant families, and plan multi-language e-Learning Financial Education Platform. Prior to joining PSBFTT, I had worked with Garden of Hope and Mercy Corps Tajikistan. I have developed and designed many innovative projects and training modules, and conducted a number of Training of Trainers and researches. Such as, independently research on human trafficking in Nepal, India and the Philippines. I founded the Girls school and women empowerment Centre in Cambodia, and a Youth engagement and social innovation program in Myanmar and Tajikistan. I lead and organize girls’ advocacy campaigning in Asia on the rights of girls and young women. I hold a Master’s degree in International Development and Education from the University of East Anglia and a Bachelor’s degree in Advertising from the Chinese Culture University.

Paresh is the Founder of Suvidhaa Infoserve, India’s largest & fastest growing S-Commerce® company engaged in digital distribution of customer-centric services, payments and lending. Paresh, a qualified Chartered Accountant, founded Suvidhaa in 2007. Suvidhaa today, a Billion+ Dollar payment company, has a footprint of over 90,000 small retail touch points across 2800+ towns in India and services over 35 mn unique customers. He leads Suvidhaa’s innovation & strategic initiatives envisioning the Company’s disruptive growth path. Under his leadership Suvidhaa is known as most innovative and pioneering many “Inclusive” services to impact at Base of Pyramid 35 mn customer base. Recently launched digital Nano Credit platform for Instant Credit to Nano customer has been well appreciated within India and worldwide.

Paresh has received several Awards & accolades. The “Best Business Achiever (SME) Award 2009” by Institute of CA of India, the SKOCH Awards for Digital Inclusion in 2010 & Financial Inclusion in 2011, IFC honored Paresh with its “Inclusive Business Leader” Award in 2011 and in October 2012 featured him as “Inclusive Business Pioneer” in its Report.

Suvidhaa has raised 3 rounds of institutional funding rounds.

Chandni G. Ohri brings over a decade of experience in financial services, microfinance and international development in her current role as the Chief Executive Officer of Grameen Foundation India (GFI). She manages alliances with key stakeholders in the microfinance industry in India, who range from national networks and technical service providers to lenders and investors. During her tenure, Chandni has helped various organistions focused on delivering financial services, and health and livelihood solutions for the poor, across a range of issues including strategy development, program design and implementation, institutional capacity building, technology integration, change leadership and poverty measurement. Prior to her role as the CEO of GFI, Chandni was stationed at the Washington D.C. headquarters of Grameen Foundation USA for seven years, advancing the organization’s mission across five key geographies in Asia, while directly managing key initiatives in India, Pakistan and Indonesia.
Chandni completed her MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, and a Masters in International Development from the Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington, Seattle.

Nguyen Thi Ngoc Anh is responsible for gender and social development programming at The Asia Foundation Vietnam (TAF) working on a wide range of issues from gender equality, labor rights, women economic empowerment and financial inclusion. Ngoc Anh has 12 years experience at the Vietnam Women’s Union (VWU), where she worked on different programs for women and children. Trained in banking and finance, Ngoc Anh also actively engaged in the development of microfinance programs for VWU, particularly in capacity building and transformation one of VWU’s best microfinance programs into the first licensed MFI in Vietnam.
In 2008-9 she worked at the Ford Foundation Vietnam, supporting the management of the Ford Foundation’s portfolio in Development Finance and Environment. Prior to joining the Asia Foundation, Ngoc Anh was Deputy Chief of Party of a USAID-funded project on HIV in the Workplace and led the project’s economic strengthening support for high risk individuals. Ngoc Anh is currently managing TAF’s collaboration with Vietnam Bank for Social Policies (VBSP) and Master Card in application of mobile banking services for low-income population in Vietnam. Ngoc Anh studied economics in Hanoi Economics University (1996-1999) and received her M.A. in Development Management (2003-2004) from Asia Development Institute, Philippines.

Ivo Jenik works with the Global Policy Architecture Initiative and the Protecting Customers Initiative. Among other things, he is responsible for activities related to supervisory capacity building, innovative finance, regulation of complex products, and dispute resolution. Ivo is a lawyer with international practice. Previously, he worked with the Responsible Financial Access team at the World Bank where he specialized in financial consumer protection and alternative dispute resolution, providing technical assistance to client countries including Indonesia, Malawi, Rwanda, Zambia, and many more. Before joining the World Bank, Ivo was Head of the Collective Investment Department of the Czech Financial Ombudsman, representing the Ombudsman at the European Union’s Financial Dispute Resolution Network, and he also worked in the private sector.

Gender equality is the fifth of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG5), and equal financial inclusion will be a crucial part of achieving it. Yet, despite impressive gains in recent years, women are still less likely to own a bank or mobile-money account than men, and where they do, they often have little or no control over it. At the same time, research indicates female-managed finances tend to be productively applied towards a broad range of purposes in health, education, household maintenance and income generation.

• How are stakeholders in financial inclusion responding to the 2030 goal of gender equality?
• What progressive public policies, and what elements of national financial-inclusion strategies, are leading to increased equality and empowerment for women?
• Which innovations in financial-services products, delivery channels and business processes show the greatest promise for achieving equal financial inclusion?
• Where are development partners shaping and building on the work of the private sector, government and the community to empower women by including them in the financial system?

Moderator: Ms. Nina Nayar, Associate, The Foundation for Development Cooperation (FDC)

Ms. Yueh-Chun Wang, Executive, Pearl S. Buck Foundation

Mr. Rajeev Kumar Gupta, Programme Management Specialist – Inclusive Finance, United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF)

Mr. Gil Lacson, Director of Network Engagement and Business Development, Women’s World Banking

A lack of trust – in digital financial products, providers and the system itself – can be a significant barrier to the take-up and use of finance. Yet, the exact dynamics that produce or destroy trust are not always clear, and nor is it certain just what engages early adopters while late adopters hesitate.

• Do customer-centricity and service have a place in the new age of digital finance? Could they stimulate more-rapid adoption of DFS?
• What roles and responsibilities do customers, providers and other stakeholders play in building trust?
• How important are client protection and regulation in driving trust?
• What are the bottlenecks?
• What examples and concrete actionable steps can and should be taken?

Moderator: Ms. Franchette Cardona, Marketing Director, Wing Cambodia Limited Specialised Bank

Mr. Tony Westaway, Managing Director, MiBank

Ms. Chandni Ohri, Chief Executive Officer, Grameen Foundation India

Ms. Parul Agarwal, Associate Director, IFMR LEAD

Blockchain technology and the concept of the distributed ledger could be game-changers for the financial-services industry. They could also help to drive inclusion by reducing costs, mitigating anti-money-laundering (AML) risk and extending the reach of relevant and appropriately priced products and services to the financially excluded and underbanked.

• Blockchain technology is being adopted tentatively across the financial sector, but what specific promise does it hold for the poor and unbanked?
• What state is the technology currently in, and how much potential does it have to accelerate financial inclusion today? Could realisation of the blockchain’s benefits be some way off?
• What key challenges and opportunities have recent research and trials revealed? How are financial-services providers, policymakers and regulators responding?

Moderator: Mr. Ivan Mortimer-Schutts, Regional Leader for Retail Payments and Mobile Banking in East Asia, International Finance Corporation (IFC)

Mr. Justin Leow, Head of Business Operations, Coins.ph

Ms. Debbie Watkins, Managing Director APMEA, Fern Software

Mr. Zach Piester, Co-Founder and Partner, Intrepid Ventures

Mr. Steven Landman, Chief Executive Officer, Kiu Asia

Getting access to finance and using it effectively is one of the main challenges micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) face when they are just starting out or trying to grow. Governments and development partners have collaborated to institute reforms to address this barrier along with other constraints MSMEs experience. On their own, MSMEs have adopted new business models and technology to achieve breakthroughs, with data analytics often playing a key role in success.

• What lessons can we learn from Asian experiences of success and failure in industry-wide reform?
• How are MSMEs responding to increasing market complexities and regulations, within the limits of their capacity?
• Where have industry-wide reforms and MSME innovations improved access to finance and contributed to economic growth?

Moderator: Mr. Prateek Shrivastava, Vice President, Digital Solutions, Accion

Mr. Ken Liffiton, Managing Director, Andafin

Mr. Chiou Hao Chan, Managing Director, Asia Pacific, Mambu

Mr. Leo Shimada, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Crowdo

Mr. Nguyen Van Than, Chairman, Vietnam Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (VINASME)

The future of financial services and products is digital. A revolution underway in digital financial services (DFS) is a major driver of change in the financial ecosystem, promoting inclusion and creating new opportunities for the millions of people in the Asia-Pacific who are still excluded from access to formal financial services. Yet, with new and rapid growth also comes real and potential risks.

• Where are new DFS technologies, business models and products most forcefully pushing the boundaries in the quest to reach the unbanked?
• What further change lies on the horizon, beyond what is happening to payment systems?
• How and where can responsible DFS providers balance the goal of extending access and use with the need for consumer protection and system stability?
• How will smartphones transform the use and impact of DFS?
• To achieve scale, are the new, nimble disruptive providers and large, incumbent institutions competitors or partners?

Moderator: Ms. Catherine Simmons, Managing Director, Head of Government Affairs, Asia Pacific, Citi, Hong Kong, China

Ms. Ngoc Anh Nguyen Thi, Senior Program Officer, Social Development and Gender, The Asia Foundation

Ms. Ren Yi Hooi, Asia Partnership Manager, BIMA

Mr. Eric Barbier, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, TransferTo

Mr. Kalin Radev, Chief Executive Officer, Software Group

While the number of people with access to formal financial services is growing impressively, evidence suggests that access to finance, including loans, is not increasing for people living in extreme poverty. This group is potentially falling behind in its take-up of financial services, entrenching disadvantage. Yet, several approaches to providing finance to those living in extreme poverty have developed in recent years, including graduation programmes, savings groups, agricultural value-chains and conditional cash-transfers.

• Where have there been breakthroughs in financial inclusion for the very poor, and what challenges remain?
• How can providers work with trusted intermediaries and programs to stimulate access to and use of financial services for those living in poverty?
• What can players across the financial-inclusion ecosystem contribute to achieving the very first sustainable development goal – ending extreme poverty altogether?

Moderator: Mr. Royston Braganza, Chief Executive Officer, Grameen Capital, India

Mr. Vipin Sharma, Chief Executive Officer, ACCESS Development Services

Ms. Tam Le Thanh, Associate Professor, Dean of Commercial Banking Department, School of Banking and Finance, National Economics University, Vietnam

Mr. David Kneebone, General Manager, Investor Education Centre

Younger financial consumers and professionals are challenging the industry’s thinking on the needs of the next generation. Financial products and services create new opportunities to empower youth, letting them play a more active role in economic development. As financial-services providers continue to find new ways to reach the unbanked, how are they tailoring their products to be appealing, user-friendly and beneficial to youth? What role do these providers play in preparing young people to be tomorrow’s entrepreneurs? How responsive is the market to the needs of the next generation?

Moderator: Mr. Adam Rahman, Head of Corporate Affairs Singapore & ASEAN, Citi

Dr. Noi Keng Koh, Chair, Financial Literacy Hub for Teachers, National Institute of Education Singapore

Mr. Beniam Gebrezghi, Programme Specialist, Civil Society and Youth, United Nations Development Programme

Ms. Le Thi Thuy Duong, Education Program Manager, Save the Children Vietnam

Technology and digital financial services have been a great enabler for people who can access and use them, but there remain many millions in the Asia-Pacific with no such access.

• Has the wave of DFS adoption peaked? Those with access to technology and communications have been the ones to benefit. What future gains can be made at the margins?
• How do stakeholders reach the millions of people in rural and remote parts of Asia who are financially excluded, particularly the illiterate, the innumerate and the ultra-poor?
• How can access barriers specific to urban centres be addressed?
• What innovation in hard infrastructure and capacity-building is underway to connect the last mile and eliminate technical barriers to financial inclusion?

Moderator: Mr. Alwaleed Alatabani, Lead Financial Sector Specialist, World Bank, Vietnam

Mr. Jinchang Lai, Lead Financial Sector Specialist and Financial Infrastructure Lead for East Asia and Pacific, Finance and Markets, World Bank Group

Mr. Dongwen Liu, General Manager, CFPA Microfinance

Ms. Lara Storm, Director, Financial Inclusion, MIX

Ms. Ratna Vishwanathan, Chief Executive Officer, Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN), India

Le Thanh Tam, Assoc. Prof. Ph.D is the Dean of Commercial Banking Department, of School of Banking and Finance, National Economics University of Vietnam. Her current research interests include rural finance, microfinance, banking management. She has both research and practical experiences in rural finance/microfinance/bank management in Vietnam since 1999. She has several researches in financial inclusion in Vietnam publised in different journals/workshops.She also participated in many projects/programs for different international donors such as World Bank Vietnam (banking specialist); ADB (Microfinance Specialist), IFC (Senior Microfinance Specialist).
She has participated in the two Asia-Pacific Financial Inclusion Forums in 2015 and 2016 as the speaker in selected sessions. Key research outputs:

1. Eric Duflos & Le Thanh Tam (2014), Responsible Finance in Vietnam, World Bank Group – Finance and Market, August 2014.
2. Nguyen Kim Anh & Le Thanh Tam (eds) (2013), The sustainability of microfinance institutions in Vietnam: Circumstances and Implications (Reference Book), Transport Publishing House, Hanoi.
3. Sarath Abeysekera, Umut Oguzoglu and Thanh Tam Le (2014), “’Sustainability and Mission Drift: Do Microfinance Institutions in Vietnam Reach the Poor” in Mersland, R. & Strøm, R. Ø. (2014), (ed), Microfinance Institutions: Financial and Social Performance, Palgrave Macmillan, Hampshire, UK.

Debbie Watkins has 30 years of experience in technology for financial inclusion, mobile-enabled products and services, business and strategy consulting and management. She has led customer-centric market research and product development engagements; supported clients in technology platform needs assessment and implementation; built multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural teams in a number of countries; and acted as Project Director for a number of long-term multi-million dollar mobile money and financial services solution implementations. She has lived in Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Singapore for a total of 14 years, and worked in 20+ additional countries throughout Africa and Asia. Her career in the UK included Operations Director for an ERP solutions provider and Head of Deployment for a commercial bank-enabled smart card-based electronic cash service. As Managing Director of Fern Software’s regional hub office in Singapore, Debbie is responsible for Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa. She leads teams in Australia, India and Singapore. Fern has clients in over 40 countries who use its banking and cloud-based systems to provide savings, loans and insurance services to over 2 million customers. It provides a range of solutions for SACCOs, credit unions, MFIs and banks that are flexible, powerful and easy to use – empowering financial service providers to deliver affordable, accessible and relevant products to urban and rural populations.

Tony Westaway has some 25 years experience in the South Pacific, delivering transformation and innovation in financial institutions, through the use of technology. Tony is the Managing Director of MiBank , a licensed micro bank in Papua New Guinea, and is the Chairman of the Microfinance Pasifika Network. Tony is also a Director of the Centre of Excellence for Financial Inclusion (CEFI) in PNG, and a Director of the PNG Institute of Banking & Business Management. A strong advocate of financial inclusion, Tony initiated the first Bank- led deployment of a Mobile wallet in the South Pacific in 2011, with ‘MiCash’.

Shameran Abed is the director of the BRAC microfinance and ultra poor programmes. BRAC’s microfinance programme serves more than five million clients in seven countries in Asia and Africa, and has total assets exceeding USD 1.7 billion. BRAC’s ground-breaking ultra poor programme has graduated more than 1.7 million households out of the direst forms of poverty and social deprivation and has inspired the global uptake of the ‘graduation model’ to tackle extreme poverty.Mr Abed also serves as the chairman of BRAC Bank’s mobile financial services subsidiary, bKash, and is on the boards of IPDC Finance Ltd. and Guardian Life Insurance Ltd. Additionally, he is a member of the Microfinance CEO Working Group and sits on the Microfinance Network Steering Committee and the World Economic Forum Financial Inclusion Steering Committee.Mr Abed is a lawyer by training, having been made a barrister by the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn in London, UK. He completed his undergraduate studies at Hamilton College in the United States, majoring in economics and minoring in political science.

Royston joined Grameen Capital in 2007 to launch the organization as CEO. He currently oversees all aspects of operations in India.Grameen Capital, founded by Grameen Foundation USA, IFMR Trust and Citigroup, is a first of its kind social business enabling Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) develop wider access to the capital markets. Grameen Capital is part of the global Grameen family of companies, the flagship of which is the Nobel Prize-winning Grameen Bank founded by Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus.In his earlier assignment, as a Senior Vice President with HSBC, Royston was instrumental in setting up and heading HSBC’s Microfinance & Priority Sector business. Prior to that, he was the head of HSBC’s SME Business.Before joining HSBC, Royston worked in Citibank India for over 8 years in various assignments both across the Consumer Bank as well as the Corporate Bank.He serves on many boards and advisory bodies, including Sa-Dhan, Grameen Foundation India, FICCI Financial Inclusion Committee, the CII National Committee on NBFC’s, the United Nations Microfinance Resource Group and the Indian Impact Investors Executive Council. He has been invited to address various programs, in India and globally, promoting microfinance as a sustainable tool to eradicate poverty.The London-based Finance Monthly publication named Royston in their 2013 Global CEO Award Winners list as one of the Top 4 CEOs in Asia, and Top 2 in India, the other one being Kumar Mangalam Birla.Royston has done his Masters in Management Studies from the prestigious Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai.

Jinchang Lai is a Lead Financial Sector Specialist, and the Financial Infrastructure Lead for East Asia and Pacific, Finance and Markets, World Bank Group. He is based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, leading the Financial Infrastructure advisory work for the Region. He was previously the Head of IFC Chengdu Office, and also served as the Deputy General Manager of IFC Advisory Services for China and Mongolia. Before 2002, he managed the Private Sector Investment Operations Division in the African Development Bank; and successively worked as Senior Country Economist, Principal Program Coordinator, Special Assistant to Vice President Operations, and Chief Investment Officer in the Bank during 1992-2000. He was also appointed as a Board member in a bank and in a regional SME support facility in Africa. Prior to 1992, he was with the People’s Bank of China as a Research Officer and Section Head. He has nearly 30 years’ experience in financial services, private sector investment, and policy reforms in both Asia and Africa. He is a frequent speaker in various forums on financial sector development, financial infrastructure and financial inclusion issues. Since 2010, he has also been a Board member of the largest MFI in China. In recent years, he has actively supported the APEC agenda on financial infrastructure reforms and the development of trade and supply chain finance in the Region. He is currently one of the leaders of the Asia-Pacific Financial Infrastructure Development Network (FIDN).

Mr. Liu Dongwen graduated with a Master’s degree from China Agricultural University. From 1996 to 2001, he worked at the Foreign Capital Project Management Center of the LGOP, mainly responsible for foreign aid poverty alleviation projects.Mr. Liu Dongwen joined the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA) in June of 2002. From 2005 on, he was in charge of the microfinance program, and oversaw its transformation from project-based to organization-based. At the end of 2008, the microfinance program was restructured by CFPA into the CFPA Microfinance Management Co. Ltd. Since then, CFPA Microfinance has become the largest professional microfinance social enterprise targeting middle-low income communities in China. CFPA Microfinance now has a total of 4 billion RMB in loans outstanding with over 360,000 active borrowers, among whom 93% are women.

Adam Rahman is the Head of Corporate Affairs for Citi in Singapore. In this role, Adam oversees all internal and external communications, reputational risk management and government relations functions. He is also responsible for raising the brand profile of Citi and developing the thought leadership strategy of the firm in Singapore. Adam has over 30 years of experience in the media and communications industry. He started his career as a Broadcast Journalist with the Television Corporation of Singapore (now MediaCorp) and also worked as a Producer at Asia Business News (now CNBC Asia). Prior to joining Citi in October 2003, Adam was the Chief Executive Officer of The Right Angle Communications, a media consultancy he co-founded. Outside of work, Adam is active in public service. In August of 2008, Adam was awarded the Public Service Medal by the President of the Republic of Singapore as a national recognition of his contributions to the community. In November 2015, Adam received the Public Service Star from the President for rendering valuable public service to the people of Singapore. Adam has a Masters in International Conflict Analysis from the University of Kent at Canterbury in the U.K. He also has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the National University of Singapore, majoring in political science and philosophy.

Lara is the Director of Financial Inclusion at MIX and is responsible for leading MIX’s growing portfolio of financial inclusion projects and helping shape overall financial inclusion program strategy and products. Lara leads financial inclusion data collection, analysis and tools development, and seeks to build partnerships to support MIX’s financial inclusion offerings, particularly with regulators, policy makers and related data providers. She leads a team of expert data wranglers to produce innovative maps and other data visualization products and analysis that will support decision making to increase financial access across the developing world.

The digital age presents both rewards and risks to financial inclusion. New digital platforms offer convenient and less expensive ways to make payments and transfer funds, advancing economic growth by enabling asset accumulation and economic participation. But beyond just payments and products, digitization also introduces new challenges and risks related to privacy, agents, technology, and new market entrants. Supervisory agencies are now faced with an expanded mandate, which often times challenges their capacity to respond and create policies that will ensure financial systems are safe and sound while also promoting financial inclusion and consumer protection.

• What model regulatory practices are responsibly balancing these goals?
• How important is it that regulators understand and help to build consumer demand so that digital innovation in financial services can boost inclusion by presenting safe and useful services that are attractive to and accessible by the unbanked?
• Where are there successful programmes that promote financial literacy and encourage the use of digital financial services? What makes them work?
• How are providers of digital financial services being supported to experiment with and test new products?
• How are innovations in e-money, agent banking, know-your-client rules and consumer protection enabling digital finance?

Moderator: Mr. Graham Macmillan, Senior Program Officer, Inclusive Economies, Ford Foundation

Mr. Manoj Sharma, Managing Director – Asia, MicroSave

Mr. Brooke Patterson, Digital Development Regional Advisor for Asia, USAID

Mr. Nhan Phan Cu, Director of Communication and International Co-operation Department, Vietnam Bank of Social Policies (VBSP)

Panel 7: IndiaStack: Digital lockers and presenceless, paperless financial service

The emergence of digital identities (IDs) is changing the way many customers use financial services, letting them open accounts and authenticate transactions remotely. Linking these digital IDs with payments infrastructure creates even more possibilities for innovation. New technologies, including toolkits such as IndiaStack, show great promise for achieving greater financial inclusion. What is the potential of digital identities and will their benefits extend all the way to the poorest of the poor?

Panel 8: Building trust and overcoming barriers in DFS

A lack of trust – in digital financial products, providers and the system itself – can be a significant barrier to the take-up and use of finance. Yet, the exact dynamics that produce or destroy trust are not always clear, and nor is it certain just what engages early adopters while late adopters hesitate.

• Do customer-centricity and service have a place in the new age of digital finance? Could they stimulate more-rapid adoption of DFS?
• What roles and responsibilities do customers, providers and other stakeholders play in building trust?
• How important are client protection and regulation in driving trust?
• What are the bottlenecks?
• What examples and concrete actionable steps can and should be taken?

Panel 9: Achieving SDG5: Gender equality and financial inclusion

Gender equality is the fifth of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG5), and equal financial inclusion will be a crucial part of achieving it. Yet, despite impressive gains in recent years, women are still less likely to own a bank or mobile-money account than men, and where they do, they often have little or no control over it. At the same time, research indicates female-managed finances tend to be productively applied towards a broad range of purposes in health, education, household maintenance and income generation.

• How are stakeholders in financial inclusion responding to the 2030 goal of gender equality?
• What progressive public policies, and what elements of national financial-inclusion strategies, are leading to increased equality and empowerment for women?
• Which innovations in financial-services products, delivery channels and business processes show the greatest promise for achieving equal financial inclusion?
• Where are development partners shaping and building on the work of the private sector, government and the community to empower women by including them in the financial system?

Panel 4: Digital financial services in the Fintech era

The future of financial services and products is digital. A revolution underway in digital financial services (DFS) is a major driver of change in the financial ecosystem, promoting inclusion and creating new opportunities for the millions of people in the Asia-Pacific who are still excluded from access to formal financial services. Yet, with new and rapid growth also comes real and potential risks.

• Where are new DFS technologies, business models and products most forcefully pushing the boundaries in the quest to reach the unbanked?
• What further change lies on the horizon, beyond what is happening to payment systems?
• How and where can responsible DFS providers balance the goal of extending access and use with the need for consumer protection and system stability?
• How will smartphones transform the use and impact of DFS?

To achieve scale, are the new, nimble disruptive providers and large, incumbent institutions competitors or partners?

Panel 5: The future of financing for MSMEs

Getting access to finance and using it effectively is one of the main challenges micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) face when they are just starting out or trying to grow. Governments and development partners have collaborated to institute reforms to address this barrier along with other constraints MSMEs experience. On their own, MSMEs have adopted new business models and technology to achieve breakthroughs, with data analytics often playing a key role in success.

• What lessons can we learn from Asian experiences of success and failure in industry-wide reform?
• How are MSMEs responding to increasing market complexities and regulations, within the limits of their capacity?
• Where have industry-wide reforms and MSME innovations improved access to finance and contributed to economic growth?

Panel 6: Using the blockchain to drive financial inclusion

Blockchain technology and the concept of the distributed ledger could be game-changers for the financial-services industry. They could also help to drive inclusion by reducing costs, mitigating anti-money-laundering (AML) risk and extending the reach of relevant and appropriately priced products and services to the financially excluded and underbanked.

• Blockchain technology is being adopted tentatively across the financial sector, but what specific promise does it hold for the poor and unbanked?
• What state is the technology currently in, and how much potential does it have to accelerate financial inclusion today? Could realisation of the blockchain’s benefits be some way off?
• What key challenges and opportunities have recent research and trials revealed? How are financial-services providers, policymakers and regulators responding?

Panel 1: Connecting the last mile: A DFS reality check

Technology and digital financial services have been a great enabler for people who can access and use them, but there remain many millions in the Asia-Pacific with no such access.

• Has the wave of DFS adoption peaked? Those with access to technology and communications have been the ones to benefit. What future gains can be made at the margins?
• How do stakeholders reach the millions of people in rural and remote parts of Asia who are financially excluded, particularly the illiterate, the innumerate and the ultra-poor?
• How can access barriers specific to urban centres be addressed?
• What innovation in hard infrastructure and capacity-building is underway to connect the last mile and eliminate technical barriers to financial inclusion?

Panel 2: Financial inclusion: The next generation

Younger financial consumers and professionals are challenging the industry’s thinking on the needs of the next generation. Financial products and services create new opportunities to empower youth, letting them play a more active role in economic development. As financial-services providers continue to find new ways to reach the unbanked, how are they tailoring their products to be appealing, user-friendly and beneficial to youth? What role do these providers play in preparing young people to be tomorrow’s entrepreneurs? How responsive is the market to the needs of the next generation?

Panel 3: Leaving no one behind

While the number of people with access to formal financial services is growing impressively, evidence suggests that access to finance, including loans, is not increasing for people living in extreme poverty. This group is potentially falling behind in its take-up of financial services, entrenching disadvantage. Yet, several approaches to providing finance to those living in extreme poverty have developed in recent years, including graduation programmes, savings groups, agricultural value-chains and conditional cash-transfers.

• Where have there been breakthroughs in financial inclusion for the very poor, and what challenges remain?
• How can providers work with trusted intermediaries and programs to stimulate access to and use of financial services for those living in poverty?
• What can players across the financial-inclusion ecosystem contribute to achieving the very first sustainable development goal – ending extreme poverty altogether?

Abhay Pareek leads the Private sector Development practice at Microsave. he has significant practical experience in technical assistance and capacity building projects in SME finance, Value Chain Development and finance, Microfinance, Youth Development, financial Literacy, Digital financial services and education projects in india, sri Lanka, the Philippines, Bangladesh, indonesia, Kenya and Uganda. as a Management Consultant, he has worked with multilaterals, financial institutions, non- government organisations, producer companies, and farmer collectives. his expertise lies in sector assessment and scoping, business planning and programme formulation; product design and processes development; business plan rollout, and implementation support. Key projects include landscape study on agri-intervention for a multilateral in sri Lanka; technical assistance to two producer companies in india; value chain finance for different crops in the Philippines; agri, Cattle, Dairy and enterprise loan products design and implementation; and trainings for Community-Based organisation (CBo) leaders on governance and leadership.