Faisal Ameen, Managing Director, Head, Asia Pacific and Japan, Global Transaction Services, Bank of America Merill Lynch, shares the challenges and opportunities in trade, and the role adaptive technology will play in the future.

Georg Schneider, head of financial engineering at Digital Asset, spoke about the difficulties in creating and digitising assets into tokens, and how Digital Asset is able to make this process easier for their clients.

Hari Janakiraman, head of industry and innovation, transaction banking at ANZ talked about three distinct but interlinked areas that are needed to futureproof the bank. He discussed how emerging payment technologies can create platforms or ecosystems. He shared the latest trends such as the use of digital assets, tokens and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) to bridge opportunities.

Kai Fehr, global head of trade and working capital, Standard Chartered Bank talked about trade platforms and how marketplaces are transforming supply chain finance for clients and partners. He shared that channelling financing in the supply chain industry is critical, amid liquidity and credit crunch. He sees that the ASEAN markets will be the largest winner in the changes that are happening in the global supply chain. “Our friends in Vietnam did an amazing job to attract business. And they are accelerating that path. You have other countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, as well as Thailand, benefiting from it,” Fehr said. StandChart also announced the launch of Trade Track-It, a one-stop digital trade transaction portal that offers its clients end-to-end visibility of their trade transaction status globally. “Capitalising on the digital advances that we've made in the pandemic era, we, as an industry and as a bank, got an amazing amount of unique opportunities ahead of us. Whether it’s using technology such as distributed ledgers, working with central banks on building digital currency capability, whether it's working with interconnected networks to create a seamless frictionless cross-border payment experience for a corporate client and the consumers out there,” he said.

Barry Rodrigues, Finastra discusses how consumers’ and corporates’ access to financial services through multiple channels in addition to banks’ own channels is driving evolution in Banking as a Service. “Capitalising on the digital advances that we've made in the pandemic era, we, as an industry and as a bank, got an amazing amount of unique opportunities ahead of us. Whether it’s using technology such as distributed ledgers, working with central banks on building digital currency capability, whether it's working with interconnected networks to create a seamless frictionless cross-border payment experience for a corporate client and the consumers out there,” he said.

Philip Panaino, global head of cash management of Standard Chartered talked about the opportunities in the banking industry in this digital world. In a post-COVID era, he felt excited about the use of technology and working within the ecosystem to add value to the customer’s payment journey. “Capitalising on the digital advances that we've made in the pandemic era, we, as an industry and as a bank, got an amazing amount of unique opportunities ahead of us. Whether it’s using technology such as distributed ledgers, working with central banks on building digital currency capability, whether it's working with interconnected networks to create a seamless frictionless cross-border payment experience for a corporate client and the consumers out there,” he said.

Travers Clarke-Walker, chief marketing officer of Thought Machine, talks about the company's involvement in the growth of digital banks in the region and how these institutions can take advantages of new technology to diversify product offerings.

Parv Aggarwal, head of partnerships at WadzPay, talks about the company's mission to integrate payments between the physical currency world and the metaverse via cryptocurrencies, digital tokens, and CBDCs on its distributed ledger and blockchain-based Atlytica payment engine.

Vinay Mendonca, Global Head of Product at HSBC, talks about the progress made by the bank in the digitisation of its trade finance and the improvements in speed of financing and quality of service.

Winnie Chen, head of treasury services in Asia Pacific at US-based BNY Mellon, discusses how the company is strengthening its teams in the region to tailor fit services in a rapidly-changing environment.

Silvia Mensdorff-Pouilly, senior vice president in banking & payments at FIS talks about the importance of industry collaboration and adoption of new technologies in reducing payments friction.

Samir Pandiri, president at Broadridge International, discusses the opportunities around innovation and platform integration as clients seek to digitise their ecosystems.

Nicolas Cailly, Head of Payments and Cash management of Societe Generale discussed the challenges such as high interest rate, and inflation worldwide and their impact on cash management and payments business. The bank supports the development of its clients and partners around the world. "We need to be very cautious in managing our balance sheet and our risk environment where we see risks being ratcheted up, where we see squeeze on liquidity and problems appearing,” he said.

Carl Wagner, chairman and CEO at Contour, a digital finance trade network, shares that it’s not so much the technology but value-propositions leveraging existing legal frameworks and networks that will drive the utilisation of consortium-led trade finance solutions in the future.

Ti Eng Hui, CEO of Brunei-based Baiduri Bank Group described how its new core banking system will position it for the future by simplifying IT operations, removing complexity and reducing costs. It will consolidate many obsolescent legacy systems into one open platform to support various businesses. The project, led by Tech Mahindra will be implemented in two phases over the next 18 and 24 months.