Day 3 – Session A2: Addressing Financial Infrastructure Gap to Scale Fintech Services
Huy Nguyen Trieu, Co-founder, Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship
Huy Nguyen Trieu is the Co-Founder of CFTE. He is also the CEO of The Disruptive Group, a business builder and advisory firm in innovation and finance, and Venture Partner at Mundi Ventures, an early-stage VC fund in Fintech and Insurtech. He believes that in a world led by technology, we shouldn’t forget the importance of people, which is why he co-founded CFTE to help people improve their skills and find opportunities. Prior to setting up CFTE, Huy was a Managing Director at Citi, and previously at Royal Bank of Scotland and Société Générale. Before banking, he was the CEO of Ukibi, a VC-funded startup in the US. He is a frequent keynote speaker in Europe and Asia, likes to teach and share with students and entrepreneurs, and is regularly quoted in articles on innovation and finance. He writes the blog Disruptive Finance, is an Entrepreneurship Expert at Oxford Said Entrepreneurship Centre and a Fintech Fellow at the Centre for Global Finance and Technology at Imperial College. He was also a member of ESMA’s Consultative Working Group for financial innovation and a founding member of the Asian SuperCharger, one of the largest Fintech accelerators in Asia. Huy is a graduate from MIT (US), École Polytechnique (France) and Ecole des Ponts et Chaussees (France).
Brooke Patterson, Indonesia Country Lead, Inclusive Financial Systems, Gates Foundation
Mr. Brooke Patterson is the Inclusive Financial Systems Country Lead for Indonesia with the Gates Foundation. He has spent the last 15 years supporting the development of inclusive digital financial services, working first in East Africa and now for over 10 years in Indonesia and Southeast Asia. The foundation’s goal is to support the government and private sector to develop the financial infrastructure, policies, and products that make economies more inclusive and more empowering for women and low-income communities.
Prior to joining the Gates Foundation, Brooke was a Foreign Service Officer with the US Agency for International Development and a management consultant with IBM Global Business Services. He has a Masters in Business Administration and a Masters of Public Health from Yale University.
Rajesh Bansal, ex-Chief Executive Officer, Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH)
Rajesh Bansal is a visionary in digital financial services and Digital Public Infrastructure, with over thirty years of ground-breaking experience across Asia and Africa. As the founding CEO of the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH), a subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of India, he propelled innovation and transformation in the financial sector between 2021 and April 2025, most notably spearheading the Unified Lending Interface to leverage alternate data and launching mulehunter.ai to reduce cyber frauds in India. Widely recognized as an authority in Fast Payment Systems, Mr. Bansal’s work has set new benchmarks in the financial industry.
Throughout his distinguished career, Mr. Bansal has shaped some of the region’s most influential digital initiatives. As a founding team member at UIDAI from 2010 to 2015, he led the design and execution of flagship projects including Aadhaar, Direct Benefits Transfer, and eKYC, driving financial inclusion at an unprecedented scale. He has served on numerous Committees of the Government of India and the RBI, holds a Master’s degree in International Development from Duke University, USA, and has been honored with the prestigious RBI Golden Jubilee Scholarship.
Areson Cuevas, Country Manager, Wise
Areson is the country manager of Wise Philippines. He is responsible for driving Wise's growth in the Philippine market. Prior to joining Wise, Areson spent five years in a Philippine-based e-money start up and four years doing corporate strategy for a local conglomerate. He has an MBA from the IESE Business School in Spain and an undergraduate degree in Business Economics from the University of the Philippines.
Damian Bach, Regional Sales Director for ASEAN, Recorded Future
Damian Bach is the Regional Sales Director for ASEAN at Recorded Future, a leading provider of real-time threat intelligence. Based in Singapore, he leads sales strategy and enterprise engagement across Southeast Asia. Damian brings a strong background in cybersecurity, previously holding leadership roles in security-focused organizations. He drives adoption of Recorded Future’s Intelligence Cloud across government and enterprise clients, helping them translate AI-powered cyber insights into proactive risk management. Known for his consultative sales approach and regional market expertise, he plays a pivotal role in positioning the company as a trusted partner for cyber resilience in ASEAN.
Eric Anklesaria, Senior Advisor PSB Alliance Pvt. Ltd & Partner IT Advisory Nangia & Co. LLP
Eric comes in with a broad-based management consulting experience of over 25 years in building and leading practices to deliver business and technology-centered initiatives across diversified financial institutions in the Banking, Payments, Asset Management, and Insurance industry sectors.
He held top management positions in global IT services organizations like Capgemini and as a Partner with two of the Big 4 assurance and advisory firms, KPMG and Ernst & Young. Eric is currently associated as a Partner with Nangia Anderson LLP (India), a member firm of Anderson Global.
Eric has worked extensively both in domestic and international markets such as the USA, UK, Europe, Eastern Europe, Australia, South Asia, the Middle East, and Japan on some of the largest IT and business transformation projects.
He was roped in by the Indian Banks’ Association and the Ministry of Finance to help set up and operationalize PSB Alliance, which is an umbrella entity created by all 12 Public Sector Banks in India to undertake common IT and business services. He continues to serve there as the Head of Strategy, invitee to the Board, and on various board-level committees.
He has served as an active member of the committee set up by the Indian Banks’ Association on the direction of the Reserve Bank of India for designing the framework for pooled audit for the banking sector in line with the Master Directions on Outsourcing of Information Technology Services.
He was nominated and served as an active member of the steering committee and nodal committee set up by the Indian Banks’ Association for conducting the customer service survey of the Public and Private Sector Banks on the directions of the Hon’ble Finance Minister.
He was nominated and served as an active member of the Department of Financial Services (DFS) under the Ministry of Finance for IT reforms in the financial services sector. He had the privilege of chairing and placing the report to the Indian Banking Regulator (RBI) and the Ministry of Finance on the reforms needed in the Indian Payments and Settlement Act and systems.
He is associated as a speaker and in an advisory capacity with industry bodies like the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India, Reserve Bank of India, Indian Banks’ Association, and Confederation of Indian Industry, among others.
Mr. Eric Anklesaria has completed his Post-Graduation in Business Administration from XLRI Jamshedpur; G.N.I.I.T. in Software Technology and Systems Management; Certificate in Consumer Banking – Bombay Management Association; and Certificate in Strategic Planning of Information Systems – IIM Ahmedabad.
Mr. Anklesaria is a seasoned professional in the IT and financial services industry with extensive experience and expertise in leading global organizations.
Lisette Cipriano, Principal Financial Sector Specialist, ADB
Lisette Cipriano is a passionate advocate for the transformative power of digital financial services in advancing financial inclusion and economic resilience. With a global career spanning Europe, Africa, and Asia and the Pacific—including her work with Vodafone Group on M-Pesa, the world’s most successful mobile money service—she brings deep expertise in payments, card acquiring and issuing, and alternative payment methods.
As Unit Head for Digital Finance and Innovation within ADB’s Sectors Group, Lisette leads a diverse portfolio of initiatives that leverage emerging technologies such as digital ID, cloud computing, and Open APIs. Her work supports ADB’s developing member countries in navigating the evolving digital finance landscape through project loans, technical assistance, and knowledge solutions.
Cristina Amor Maclang, Convenor, Digital Pilipinas and International Digital Economies Association
Dr. H.C. Cristina Amor Maclang – As a known movement maker across ASEAN, Amor Maclang has led cross-functional and cross-border collaborations among regional and national line agencies, industry leaders, academies, policymakers, and various stakeholders both from the private and public sectors. Specializing in high-impact, high-risk, high value, and highly regulated industries, Amor is a leading advocate of nascent technology adoption, renewable energy, public health, tourism, urban planning, and financial services.
As the convenor of Digital Pilipinas, the largest private sector led movement for creating an innovation and a technology ecosystem in the Philippines, Amor continuously champions the mass uptake of blockchain, web 3.0, cryptocurrency, e-commerce, and fintech to raise the country’s innovation quotient.
Amor is currently one of the advisors of the Department of Finance, the Department of Trade and Industry, the Department of Science and Technology, the Department of Information and Communications Technology, and the Department of Health initiating transformational change in line with her mission to transform the country into diverse antifragile ecosystems.
She is the Co-Founder and Chief Reputation Architect of GeiserMaclang, the leading company in special situations, risks, issues, and crisis. For 22 years, GeiserMaclang has enabled various brands to hit their business goals while being a force for good for the country.
Among her many roles across multiple organizations, Amor is also a recognized speaker and panelist addressing regional and national audiences to enable innovative solutions and partnerships to steer the country towards digital transformation.
As the convenor of Digital Pilipinas, the largest private sector led movement for creating an innovation and a technology ecosystem in the Philippines, Amor continuously champions the mass uptake of blockchain, web 3.0, cryptocurrency, e-commerce, and fintech to raise the country’s innovation quotient.
Amor is currently one of the advisors of the Department of Finance, the Department of Trade and Industry, the Department of Science and Technology, the Department of Information and Communications Technology, and the Department of Health initiating transformational change in line with her mission to transform the country into diverse antifragile ecosystems.
She is the Co-Founder and Chief Reputation Architect of GeiserMaclang, the leading company in special situations, risks, issues, and crisis. For 22 years, GeiserMaclang has enabled various brands to hit their business goals while being a force for good for the country.
Among her many roles across multiple organizations, Amor is also a recognized speaker and panelist addressing regional and national audiences to enable innovative solutions and partnerships to steer the country towards digital transformation.