Tell me about your background and career journey.
I am fortunate and think of myself as a Global Citizen. I was born in Thailand, grew up in Singapore and the US, where I attended high school and college – at one point I was looking at becoming a doctor, but got inspired by a corporate finance class that I took where we studied Warren Buffet, the Oracle of Omaha, and I immediately decided to pursue an MBA before starting my banking career.
I worked in Thailand for eight years, then moved to Hong Kong before returning to Singapore. During my banking career I started off with corporate banking, which enabled me to get a feel for topics like transaction banking, trade finance, debt capital markets the suites of FX solutions and risk management. I was given the opportunity to manage the different industry verticals, starting with the SMEs in manufacturing to large corporates who are conglomerates with multinational partnerships. It is exciting to have exposure from sectors such as tech to autos, consumer/healthcare, oil and gas, and aviation. At J.P. Morgan I joined as the APAC MNC Head, then became part of the Payments team.
What are you focusing on in your current role?
I’m thrilled that Singapore opened up fast in terms of ability to travel post-Covid, which gave me the opportunity to be on-site with clients. Despite the rise of working from home during Covid, there is still a preference for connecting on the ground.
Since I took on the role, we’ve continued to invest in people and talent across the 15 countries and 18 markets that we cover for FIG. We’re also increasingly focusing on non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs). This includes client segments such as: asset managers, broker dealers, credit management, insurers and fintechs.
How have you seen the NBFI space evolve?
Firms are increasingly adopting real-time payments, as well as bespoke solutions such as virtual accounts and virtual reference number (VRN). Because of how we segment our customers, we can offer best practices, customise solutions that are relevant to the industry sectors, and then use a plug-and-play approach for the various segments.
Overall, I think Asia is moving a lot faster than other regions. With the rise of real-time payments, mobile apps, digital adoption – some of our bank network and the fintechs can facilitate the last mile and make cross-border remittances more frictionless. NBFIs and corporates can also leverage some of these flows to achieve seamless treasury management. Everyone in the industry is thinking about Faster, Cheaper, Better and more secured Client experience in cross border Payments. At the same time, liquidity optimisation continues to become more critical and this is where we have leveraged our blockchain capabilities as a tool for managing liquidity. Corporates and NBFIs want to have control, visibility and the ability to mobilise their funds faster for just-in-time funding. So, we’re adopting some of these solutions to expand into the non-bank segment too. We are also leveraging blockchain to provide account validation as a service, to help prevent fraud and facilitate more security feature to support cross border remittances (peer to peer, B2B, B2C flows).
What do you see as your main differentiators?
Part of our differentiation is our service model, and that applies whether you’re talking about banks, non-banks or corporates. Building expertise in verticals is important for us, and API connectivity is making it faster to integrate with bank systems.
We believe the qualities of a service provider embodies around Trust, Scalability/reliability, Partnership, Safety, resiliency and Innovation. We strive to embody these qualities with Best in Class Service – not just to our clients but their customers too.
We’re also leveraging blockchain wherever we can. For example, we recently worked on a GIFT City pilot for six banks in India using blockchain. Instead of waiting for the US to open, banks can benefit from onshore clearing of dollar transactions, instantaneously and 24/7, using our Onyx proprietary Coin Network.
What are your thoughts on the current environment?
The geopolitical headwinds are definitely there, with 70+ elections taking place around the world this year. But in Asia there’s a lot of activity and energy. The region is still a manufacturing hub, evolving to value-added services, and we still have the ability to provide the resources needed for domestic consumption. Then there’s the growing focus on Data/AI, which the firm is exploring to help us reimagine entire business workflows, fuel better insights and help enhance further efficiencies in the financial services sector.
Meanwhile, digitisation efforts continue and will benefit everyone by increasing operational efficiency, improving cross-border remittances, and making payments more seamless, frictionless and transparent.
More broadly, what other topics do you feel passionate about?
When I went to school and then college in the Midwest, there was not much ethnic diversity, but I felt at home – maybe because my cousins were American, and they helped me acclimatise. But I feel that it’s important to hold up the Asian flag – the culture can be a bit less vocal, so advocate for yourself, speak up and be a voice for the community.
On another note, we have a lot of business resource groups within the firm that enable people to help through mentoring or by sponsoring projects. A few years ago, I was a sponsor for a school challenge which involved partnering with a Singapore university to give underprivileged school children a chance to participate in projects. The kids were really creative when pitching their ideas, and one of the sponsoring government agencies was going to take some of the winning ideas forward. You learn so much by getting involved in something like that.
