Next-Generation Payments 2024

Mr. Farhan Ahmad is the Group Chief Executive Officer of Payments Network Malaysia Sdn Bhd ('PayNet'). He joined PayNet in April 2022, bringing with him over 25 years of financial services experience as an entrepreneur and senior executive in the US and UK.

As an entrepreneur, Mr. Ahmad most recently founded Bento for Business, a B2B financial operating platform for SMEs that he successfully grew and sold to US Bank, the fifth largest retail bank in the US. Prior to Bento, he founded 2 other successful start-ups, pioneered several 'first of its kind' payment solutions, including the very first online Buy Now Pay Later solution, and holds several patents in the payments space.

As an executive, Mr. Ahmad most recently ran Digital Card Payments for Europe for Barclays. In the past, he has held various leadership roles with Discover Financial Services, JP Morgan Chase, Bank One, and FirstUSA.

An International Baccalaureate scholar, he has a bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and is an Official Member of Forbes Finance Council since June 2019.

Abhishek Pandey has over 12 years of experience in strategy, consulting, and marketing within the payments and technology sectors. As the Marketing Working Group Chair for the White Label Alliance (WLA), he supports the marketing and promotion of white-label payment solution to enhance accessibility and interoperability in the payments landscape. At IDEMIA, he leverages his strategic expertise to drive product marketing initiatives, with a focus on innovative card and payment technologies. Previously, Abhishek worked with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Gartner, where he specialized in business strategy and market analysis.

Yen Ping leads the merchant ecosystem partnerships for Google Pay & Wallet in APAC. Her career in Google has spanned a decade, starting at Google Malaysia before relocating to Singapore to join the Product Partnerships team. Throughout her tenure at Google, Yen Ping has also dedicated time to the Google Earth Outreach team, focusing on initiatives with indigenous communities.
Her academic background includes a BA in Economics and Asian Studies from Mount Holyoke College and a Masters in Social Policy from the London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE). Prior to her time at Google, Yen Ping started her career at Khazanah Nasional.

Eric serves as the Director of Business Development at Soft Space and has been with the company since 2014, where he leads initiatives to expand the company’s footprint in the payment solutions sector. His role revolves around crafting and executing strategies that position Soft Space as a top provider of innovative digital payment solutions, designed to meet the evolving needs of clients and partners worldwide.

Graduating from the United States, Eric began his career with the BMW Financial Services Group in Malaysia, focusing on credit review and risk management. His experience in financial modelling, risk assessment, and global stakeholder management laid a strong foundation for his transition into business development, equipping him with the analytical and strategic skills needed to thrive in his current role at Soft Space.

At Soft Space, Eric plays a pivotal role in advancing digital payment acceptance, enabling seamless transactions for merchants in over 30 countries. His work ensures that Soft Space's state-of-the-art payment solutions are attuned to client needs, helping to drive forward the adoption of digital payments globally.

James Daniels is a seasoned IT business leader with over 30 years of experience driving fintech innovation across the Asia-Pacific region. As the Senior Vice President for Asia Pacific at Fime—a global leader in consulting and testing services for secure transactions—he helps financial institutions, fintech startups, and smart mobility providers navigate evolving payment and digital ID ecosystems.
Drawing on his extensive experience, James and his team develop practical strategies for implementing secure and frictionless fintech solutions. Together, they have worked in areas like biometrics, authentication, and test automation, supporting organizations in adapting to the rapidly changing financial landscape. James is dedicated to advancing digital payments and financial services through innovative yet accessible technologies. James is passionate about empowering teams, fostering collaboration, and delivering exceptional value to clients.

Ms Azleena Idris is currently Senior Director at Payments Network Malaysia Sdn Bhd (PayNet Malaysia), where she is Head of Strategy & ESG. She joined the nation’s retail payment switch in August 2019 as Director and Head of Corporate Services Division.

With over 2 decades of combined experience both as a regulator and a financial services sector professional, she played instrumental roles in several national and international initiatives including the 2nd Financial Sector Master Plan, Malaysia as an International Financial Centre (MIFC), Islamic Financial Services Act 2013, International Islamic Liquidity Management Corporation, and several merger and acquisition exercises.

Carrie Suen is the Vice President & Global Head of International Affairs and Sustainability Strategies at Ant International, where she is responsible to drive global strategies and thought leadership of Ant’s objectives to bring more open, inclusive and sustainable changes to the ecosystem globally. Prior to that, Carrie was the Head of International Legal team. Under her leadership, Ant’s International Legal team grew fourfold from 2017-2020, supporting over 100 markets/regions. Since joining Ant in 2014, Carrie has been at the forefront of the global digital payment and regulatory development, where she accumulated practical insight of the market pain points.

Carrie is an advisory board member of Emerging Payments Association Asia and sits on the Financial Stability Board (FSB) Legal, Regulatory and Supervisory industry taskforce to further the G20’s objective in promoting more inclusive cross-border payments landscape.

Desmond first joined TNGD in July 2019, pioneering the financial services portfolio. He is currently leading the financial services pillar and responsible for delivering successful digital solutions in areas such as wealth management, lending, insurance and remittance through thriving partnerships and collaborations.

Ferdie leads the Commercial Product Team of GCash, currently dedicated to Innovations; he and his team are responsible for building the new products that enables Gcash to participate in and win in new spaces or drive industry behavior.

One of the key projects he and his team worked on is the enablement of NFC payments using the GCash app. Having changed the payments landscape in the Philippines since its inception (SMS payments, QR payments, etc.), GCash aims to revolutionize the space again through NFC.

Prior to this, he led the Product team of Gcash, looking after businesses like Payments, Transfers, B2B, E-Commerce, etc. responsible for ideating, building and growing these business verticals.

Ashish is the Head of Cards for GXBank, which is Malaysia's first Digital Bank backed by Grab and Singtel. Ashish set up the cards business & operations ground-up and scaled it to over 100k card users in less than 2 weeks and over 500k card users in less than 6 months. He brings with him 13 years of diverse experience across Corporate Finance, Strategy and Digital Payments & Products with exposure to geographies like Singapore, China, Malaysia, India and Africa.

Isaac is the Vice President of IDEMIA’s Payment Services business for Indonesia, Thailand and South Korea – as well as the Head of Digital Solutions across Asia Pacific. With over a decade of experience in the payments industry, Isaac has spearheaded groundbreaking initiatives in Australia and Asia that have revolutionized the way people authenticate their identities and make secure transactions. His passion for innovation and customer-centric solutions has driven him to be at the forefront of the digital payments landscape, where he continues to help shape the future of secure, convenient, and inclusive financial services across the region.

Mike McCamon has built a remarkable career as a serial disrupter over more than three decades, leaving a lasting impact on both the technology and nonprofit sectors. He has directed teams responsible for defining, managing, launching, and marketing scores of new products globally. His experience spans internet startups, Fortune 50 companies like Apple and Intel, and international assignments across public, private, and nonprofit sectors. As the inaugural CEO of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), his team played a key role in making Bluetooth a mainstream technology. His leadership established a thriving ecosystem that revolutionized personal connectivity. Currently serving as the Executive Director of the NFC Forum, Mike continues to lead at the intersection of technology and social impact, remaining a driving force behind new innovations. From making Bluetooth a household name to advocating for the contactless lifestyle, McCamon’s accomplishments reflect his passion for connecting people and driving change.

Bruno works with STMicroelectronics , the biggest European semiconductor company, with net revenues of US$17.3 billion in 2023. Offering one of the industry's broadest product portfolios, ST serves customers across the spectrum of electronics applications with innovative semiconductor solutions by leveraging its vast array of technologies, design expertise and combination of intellectual property portfolio, strategic partnerships and manufacturing strength.

Bruno is responsible of the Banking & ID Business Unit, within Connected Security Division, located in South of France near Marseilles. With more than 20 year experience in the secure solutions business in various business positions held in Europe or in Asia, he has a strong knowledge and experience of multiple implementations and various technological challenges on innovative payment applications, both on cards, including new authentication methodologies (such as biometrics, dCVV, FIDO2), and on mobile solutions operating with NFC equipped mobile terminals: in such particular domain, Bruno spent 10 years in Asia interacting with major mobile phones OEMs and key Telco, payment & transportation stakeholders to work on implementation of NFC, eSE and eSIM solutions, and related remote administration used for mobile payments.

Kevin Chia is Near Field Communication (NFC) expert with over 20 years of experience in product design, particularly related to NFC and Mobile Secure Elements, MIFARE products, including MIFARE 2GO, is a highly respected technical specialist. He has extensive experience working across the SAPAC region including Australia and New Zealand, and collaborates closely with various Solution Partners, such as Mobile OEM Wallets, Payment Terminal Manufacturers, and Transit Operators. As the leader of the NFC, Security, and MIFARE 2GO team, he is actively driving customers into cloud services that digitize traditional smart city services, enabling seamless management and usage on NFC-enabled devices.

Shun is the Technical Director at BPS, a Fintech Joint Venture between the BTS Skytrain Operator, Vix Technologies and Inteltion in Bangkok. During his time with Vix Technologies Shun's forte was Systems Integration of transit clearing house systems in Sydney, Melbourne, London, Manchester. Drawing on his background Shun is building and leading a talented team to deliver Automated Fare Collection and Retail Payment Solutions in Thailand. BPS has integrated and is supporting all major transit Card Based systems and building new generation e-wallet payment systems in Bangkok.

Since 2020, Rohaila has played a leading role in Malaysia's domestic debit card (MyDebit) product and ecosystem. Today she is at the forefront of designing a new transit framework for PayNet as a domestic payment provider, working on initiatives to expand the acceptance of open payment systems (OPS) within Malaysia's public transportation sector, with a particular focus on transit and expressway. She collaborates closely with a diverse group of stakeholders, including transit operators, highway concessionaires, government authorities, contractors, and system integrators. She has played a pivotal role in defining project requirements and executing implementation strategies to enable MyDebit acceptance in OPS projects.

Rohaila began her career in early 2001 at Malaysian Electronic Payment System Sdn Bhd (MEPS). With over 23 years of experience in the payment system industry, she has expertise in product development, adoption, and spearheading pivotal initiatives such as the Malaysian chip card migration. In 2006, she led PayNet's Certification body to oversee the certification process for chip cards and acceptance devices.

General Secretary of WLA as well as Regional Product Director in IDEMIA with over 30 years of experience in driving strategic planning, technology development, product development, and product management. As part of leading multi-national organizations, played key roles in establishing and managing R&D centers, driving Regional Product Marketing as well as Business Intelligence. Experience spans across multiple industries; primarily in Smart Card (payment as well as mobile) industry but in Consumer Electronics and Automotive industries as well.

Sirirat has dedicated over 15 years of her career to the Bank of Thailand. With a bachelor’s degree in computer science and master’s degrees in management information systems and Banking and International Finance.

Throughout her career, Sirirat has excelled across various departments. She began her journey in the Payment Systems Policy Department, where she played a pivotal role in shaping strategic plans for payment systems, particularly the real-time payment system. Her tenure in the Payment and Bond Department further enriched her understanding of payment innovations from both regulatory and operational perspectives. Sirirat possesses deep expertise in RTGS wholesale payment systems and is well-versed in international standards, including the Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures (PFMI) and ISO 20022.

Recently, she has focused on retail payment innovations and fintech, contributing to the development of open data platforms, digital identity, and e-signature solutions for end-to-end digital transactions. She also stays updated on the latest developments in stablecoins, tokenization, and programmable payments.

In her current role, Sirirat is dedicated to promoting innovation through regulatory sandboxes, establishing open infrastructure, defining common standards, and fostering collaboration among stakeholders. Her unwavering commitment is to build a sustainable payment and fintech ecosystem.

Chatchai is the Managing Director at National ITMX, where he spearheads the development of digital infrastructure solutions for the financial services industry to enable financial industries sustainability through better productivities, efficiency, and risk management. With a distinguished career spanning over 30 years, Chatchai has been a driving force in the convergence of finance and technology, leading strategic and operational projects through an organizational transformation and mission.

As the Head of Risk and Data Solutions, oversees the strategic direction, commercialization, sales, and support for a diverse range of products and programs. These solutions leverage on Visa’s advanced Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technologies to enhance fraud prevention for both card and non-card transactions. In the realm of data, Lauren leads her team in pioneering innovative platforms that deliver spend-derived insights enabling personalised analytics solutions.

Professional assignments have encompassed extensive experience across business strategy, business model optimization and national payment standardization in an integrated domestic and cross-border payment industry value-chain. As the Deputy CEO Rintis Sejahtera, the Indonesia National Payment Gateway, he lead Rintis transformation to become a respected market leader of digital transaction processor in Indonesia with focus on collaborative value creation amongst the domestic/regional market players.

Ashish Chouksey brings over two decades of expertise in the payment industry, with extensive experience in payments transformation, real-time payments, cash management, financial supply chain, and transaction banking software solutions.
Ashish collaborates with a broad spectrum of technology providers and has established an excellent track record in business development, client delivery, partner management, and sales across Asia Pacific, Africa, and the Middle East. He has been instrumental in guiding financial institutions through their payment and transaction banking transformation initiatives, leveraging his knowledge and experience to drive innovation and success.

Gary Yeoh has been appointed as the Chief Marketing Officer of PayNet, effective May 2024. He has been a valuable senior leader since joining PayNet as Chief Commercial Officer in January 2023. Under his leadership, PayNet has achieved significant growth and success. With nearly three decades of experience spanning the retail, finance, and payment industries, Gary has played a pivotal role in redefining partnership strategies, enhancing collaboration, and driving success within the industry’s ecosystem.

With an extensive background in entrepreneurship, Polly is a business development professional at G+D where public currency is woven in their DNA - supplying banknotes and now its digital twin, CBDC, to central banks worldwide. Over the years she has carved a niche in evolving valuable central bank partnerships to transform into the digital space. Her expertise lies in retail CBDC, developing projects together with central banks and continuously contributing valuable insights gained from numerous projects to the broader digital currency ecosystem.

Kenny is the Country Head of Product, Global Payment Solutions in HSBC Malaysia. He has over 20 years of experience in the Financial Services industry spanning across front line roles in Business Development and Product Management and is responsible in leading the delivery of cutting-edge solutions for corporate customers of HSBC Malaysia with a focus on collaborations to meet the ever-changing requirements in the payments landscape.

John Ho is the Global Head of Legal, Financial Markets for Standard Chartered Bank (“SCB”), overseeing and providing legal advisory, transactional and documentation support for Financial Markets (FM) business globally for Standard Chartered Bank (SCB), its branches and affiliates.
Mr. Ho is on the Financial Stability Board’s (FSB’s) Taskforce on the Legal, Regulatory and Supervisory Frameworks, GFMA Artificial Intelligence (AI) Steering Group, and the FIA Asia Pacific Advisory Board. Mr. Ho is also the co-chair of (1) the ISDA South East Asia Legal and Regulatory Committee and (2) the ISDA Asia Pacific ESG Working group. Mr. Ho is a member of the panel of experts of P.R.I.M.E. Finance, the financial markets dispute resolution service based in The Hague.

Aaron Chua is a seasoned compliance professional with nearly two decades of experience across banking, consulting, regulatory bodies, Web3, and fintech. Based in Singapore, he currently serves as the Head of Compliance at StraitsX.

Aaron is known for his exemplary track record in ensuring the highest standards of compliance. He works closely with regulatory bodies to implement comprehensive frameworks, manage risk assessments, and enforce robust AML and CTF measures. Aaron’s compliance expertise is fundamental to securing licenses from government bodies. In his previous role as the Compliance Director at Crypto.com, he was a key member in contributing to the company securing an In-Principal Approval (IPA) for a Major Payment Institution License from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). In November 2023, Aaron was also instrumental in StraitsX achieving its recent regulatory milestones, such as obtaining IPA to conduct DPT service which includes issuing and incidental services to Single Currency Stablecoin: XSGD and XUSD.