DigFin VOX

Stacey Lacy is managing director at Citi where she leads its technology and operations for Asia, including consumer and corporate banking, capital markets, and wealth management.

A 25-year veteran at the bank, she is helping the bank digitize across all of its products, so as to better serve its clients and improve time to market.

Lacy spoke with DigFIn's Jame DiBiasio about migrating operation to cloud, using data to personalize services, navigating Asia's data sovereignty laws, and partnering with fintechs. She concludes by explaining where financial institutions lie along the curve of next-gen tech, including AI, blockchain, and 5G.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Stacey Lacy, Citi

1:59 - Digital transformation at Citi as it pivots out of some consumer markets

3:15 - Adopting cloud and cloud infrastructure

5:01 - Digitizing the client onboarding process

6:29 - Client data becoming an asset

8:37 - Legacy systems and transitions to the new

10:15 - Seeking operational efficiency in diverse Asia region

11:57 - Citi's approach to cloud architecture

13:38 - Personalization for HNW and corporate clients

15:00 - Asia's data sovereignty laws, and compliant solutions

17:35 - Partnering with fintechs, sourcing them, onboarding

21:34 - What fintech solutions is Lacy looking for today

22:26 - Are banks resisting digital transformation, and their end-to-end strategy

23:40 - Quick tour of next-gen tech, AI, digital assets, tokenization, 5G, IoT

28:36 - Talent and how to keep learning

Today in many countries we can send a payment locally with just a phone number or email address – so why can't companies do the same internationally?

Navin Gupta, MD of Ripple for South Asia and MENA, speaks with DigFin's Jame DiBiasio about the technological and business race to solve this massive problem.

He talks about the challenges, the benefits of a blockchain-based solution, the impact if we see central-bank digital currencies appear, dealing with regulators, and Ripple's progress.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Navin Gupta, Ripple and his career in banking, startups, and tech

3:15 - Trends in global payments, demand for instant settlements for crossborder transactions

4:34 - Why do we need blockchain for this problem, benefits of decentralization, combing messaging with value transfer

6:44 - Ripple's consensus mechanism, just how decentralized is it, its service offering, impact on liquidity

10:26 - Is there value for banks to retain their nostro/vostro correspondent accounts if they have RTGS?

12:13 - Does RTGS require a cryptocurrency to operate, how does this scale the network

14:40 - Impact on Ripple's model if central banks issue digital currencies

16:47 - Aftermath of this year's crypto meltdown on regulation, due diligence

19:31 - What's "good" regulation mean? Examples?

22:16 - Bank adoption of RippleNet versus use by fintechs

24:23 - Ripple's legal battle with the US SEC over XRP

25:33 - Asia markets where Ripple is gaining traction, or not

26:55 - How long until large crossborder payments are just one click?

29:40 - Reaching escape velocity

Jennifer O'Rourke is head of digital design and strategy at Depository Trust and Clearing Corp. She discusses DTCC's latest blockchain experiment, Project Lithium, to support the post-trade processing of a "digital dollar", should the Congress and Federal Reserve promote a US central-bank digital currency.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Jennifer O'Rourke, DTCC

1:10 - Impact of innovation on financial services

2:55 - Lessons from previous blockchain experiments

5:01 - Why blockchain technology?

7:19 - Project Lithium and supporting a digital dollar

9:10 - Versus modernizing America's legacy infrastructure

12:33 - Industry demand for instant settlement

16:02 - What comes first, digital securities or digital cash?

19:20 - Interoperability among CBDCs and other assets

21:40 - Lessons from Asia's pilots

24:29 - How to create standards with new tech

27:30 - Immutability, and public vs private chains

29:31 - Stablecoins and regulation

32:20 - How to measure Lithium's success

25:42 - Is the US at risk of falling behind China?

Adrian Chng is an investor in fintech companies whose group, Fintonia, is now focused on crypto – in particular, trying to bridge the traditional world of finance with Bitcoin. He spoke with Jame DiBiasio about Fintonia's ambitions and what the crypto industry looks like in the wake of recent turmoil, such as the collapse of a leading stablecoin.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Adrian Chng, Fintonia

1:31 - From banking to fintech

4:55 - Investing in the thesis of mainstream Bitcoin

6:43 - The stability of payments using crypto

9:16 - Bridging traditional finance and Bitcoin

11:56 - Balance-sheet tools in digital assets

12:58 - Is Bitcoin suitable for treasuries and institutions?

15:36 - Is Bitcoin really a store of value?

19:27 - Lessons from the collapse of Terra stablecoin

23:06 - The centralized nature of crypto markets

25:40 - Purpose of crypto versus stablecoins or CBDCs

26:37 - ESG concerns

30:28 - What's next

Rama Sridhar is responsible for all of Mastercard's new payments, emerging tech, and digital solutions in Asia Pacific. She speaks with DigFin's Jame DiBiasio about how technology is changing the way Mastercard makes decisions, exciting changes afoot in payments, and the massive opportunities as millions of people diversify from relying solely on cash.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Rama Sridhar, Mastercard

1:20 - Sridhar's career in tech, banking, payments – and tech again

2:41 - How technology now drives decision-making

3:29 - Legacy models, advantage or handicap?

5:37 - Changes in the payments landscape, and how to adapt

7:48 - Accessing new customer segments and demographics in Asia

10:32 - Assessing the viability of new business models

13:12 - Managing individual market variation

14:22 - Financial inclusion – practical outcomes versus buzzword

19:27 - Blockchain, metaverse, and other new models of interest

21:26 - Managing the risk of new tech/business models

22:36 - Real-time payments, digital banks, and other success stories

25:34 - Interoperability and the biggest gaps to bridge

28:18 - Workforce inclusion and mentoring

Jason Tu is founder of MioTech, one of Asia's pioneers in bringing data analytics to environmental, social and governance risk for investors and corporations. Jason speaks with DigFin's Jame DiBiasio about ESG trends, Asia's role, and how fintech and data are making new business models possible.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Jason Tu, MioTech

1:10 - MioTech and ESG data

2:22 - China/Asia ESG requirements

4:34 - Pace of change for financial institutions

6:39 - Some ESG factors count more than others!

8:10 - Collecting ESG data

9:56 - Stakeholder v. shareholder capitalism

13:12 - Does ESG create greenwashing?

14:40 - The necessity of global standards

15:41 - Powering investors via data

16:58 - Tech's role, innovations, and future in ESG

Amber Group is a crypto business that moved to Singapore and is now backed by Temasek, among other investors, with a soaring valuation. Annabelle Huang, managing partner, discusses the firm's valuation and potential IPO plans, managing the changing regulatory landscape, and the extension of a prop-trading start to a new embrace of retail business.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Annabelle Huang, Amber Group

1:54 - Amber expands out of pure institutional business

4:20 - Institutional needs in crypto versus TradFi

7:54 - Convergence between crypto and traditional finance

9:07 - How Amber views regulatory uncertainty

10:43 - Amber switches HQ from Hong Kong to Singapore

12:59 - Crypto's prospects if CBDCs emerge

14:52 - Adapting institutional products for retail wealth mgmt

16:56 - Is gamification healthy?

18:31 - Why NFT valuations are falling

21:55 - Web3, institutional versus retail demand

22:41 - Are there social benefits to financializing games?

23:30 - Stablecoin and Tether risks

25:32 - Amber Group's IPO plans

27:00 - Most exciting development for 2022

Ben Quinlan of Quinlan & Associates breaks down the big problem for buy-now pay-later fintechs: they don't make money, and never will, without substantive changes to the business model. Ben tells Jame DiBiasio what went wrong and how BNPL firms can find a path to long-term success.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Ben Quinlan, Quinlan & Associates

1:34 - The threat to buy-now pay-later (BNPL)

2:40 - Non-performing loans and funding issues

4:11 - What makes BNPL a hot trend

6:12 - Drivers of growth

7:52 - Issues with balance sheets and merchant acquisition

11:02 - Acquiring and analyzing user data

13:38 - Breaking down why BNPL firms lose money

15:39 - Lots of competition!

16:25 - Can the BNPL model change?

19:11 - M&A in Asia Pacific's BNPL industry

21:03 - Banks and BNPL

22:20 - Regulation

25:40 - From BNPL to virtual banking

Jack Momose, founder of Tokyo-based gaming company Degica, talks about payments and fintech in Japan, creating payments platform Komoju, and the challenges of going global.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Jack Momose, Degica

1:13 - Japan's payments biz in the spotlight

2:06 - Outdated tech stacks in Japan

5:30 - The innovation scene in Japan

8:00 - Entrepreneurs and startups in Japan

10:11 - Degica's story

14:40 - Cash and other payment methods

16:41 - The birth of Komoju

18:45 - Size of the business

19:26 - Going international

21:21 - Payments infrastructure, Japan and the world

22:39 - Buy now, pay later trends in Japan

24:16 - Challenges to expansion

25:10 - Games, fintech, NFTs

Blue is a purely digital life insurance company. CEO Charles Hung tells Jame DiBiasio how the business is evolving, the use of data in marketing, competing versus incumbents, and his path to profitability.