Banking in the age of fintech: BankTech Asia in Colombo to discuss fintech transformation in Sri Lan

Monday, 27 February 2017 00:14 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Event in March aims to gather 100 bankers to discuss the future of banking in this new landscape

The fintech wave has arrive on the shore of many Asian countries, with banks and regulators alike from countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and India reacting to the disruption.

Sri Lanka being part of the global economy is not immune to this trend. Its financial services sector is on the fast track to entering this new era of banking with innovative initiatives like augmented reality, digital wallets and the national payments platform coming out of the local sector.

The organisers of the long-running BankTech Asia Series said that the event aims to bring together local and international senior level bankers to discuss and explore how the Sri Lanka financial services sector should navigate this new landscape.

“We’ve been present in Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines while the fintech conversation was still nascent and witnessed the trend explode into what it is today. We hope to take our experience in facilitating these conversations to Sri Lanka and help shape the future of the industry,” said Vincent Fong, General Manager, Knowledge Group. The organisers has identified remittance as one of the core areas that is ripe for disruption as it makes up 9%-10% of the country’s GDP. Based on the World Bank’s estimate, it is widely believed that 50% of remittances are done through informal channels which has exorbitant fees that can go as high as 10%-15% of the principle.

Another area that was identified for disruption is the digital payments space with only 2% of the population utilising the internet to buy things and pay their bills. There’s tremendous opportunity for incumbent banks or fintech start-ups to become to become dominant this unoccupied space

This two-day conference happening on 21 and 22 March in Taj Samudra Colombo will present various local and international experts from the industry as follows:

Local experts

Central Bank of Sri Lanka Deputy Governor Dr. P. Nandalal Weerasinghe
LankaClear CEO Channa De Silva
Cargills Bank Deputy Chairman Rajendra Theagarajah
Sampath Bank CIO Ajith Salgado
SLASSCOM (Sri Lanka Association of Software and Service Companies) Board Member S. Muralidharen
Institute of Policy Studies Poverty and Social Welfare Policy Head Dr. Ganga Tilakaratna
Hatton National Bank Head of Payment Cards and Electronic Delivery Channel Mangala Wickramasinghe
Virtusa Polaris Executive Vice President and Head of Engineering Chandika Mendis
Synapsys CEO Dinesh Fernandopulle
VISA Country Manager Anthony Watson

International experts

VPBank Vietnam Business Intelligence Director Vivek Bhanot
Maybank Malaysia Group Digital Head PMO Jasmine Ng
OKLink Hong Kong Chief Strategy Officer Jack C. Liu
SVP Head Risk Asia Pacific Singapore Joe Cunningham
Malaysia Neuroware Chief Technology Officer Ruben Tan

BankTech Asia is one the longest running fintech and banking technology event in Asia with nine years of track record in keeping bankers and fintech professionals abreast with the latest trends and threats. BankTech Asia has been hosted in several Asian countries like Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia.

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