Women in Fintech: Opportunities, Threats and The Way Forward
Date: 7 September 2016
Time: 12.00-2.00pm
Venue:
Thomson Reuters Auditorium
28th Floor, North Tower
One Raffles Quay, Singapore 048583
Itinerary:
12.00-12.30 pm: Registrations, lunch and networking
12.30-12.40 pm: Introductionary speeches
12.40-1.45 pm: Panel discussion
1.45-2.00 pm: Q&A and close
FWA thanks FISD for the kind sponsorship of lunch and Thomson Reuters for sponsoring the venue.
This is a member only event.
From California to China, the banking industry is being challenged by digital disruption. As Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan noted: "Silicon Valley is coming. There are hundreds of startups with a lot of brains and money working on various alternatives to traditional banking."
Fintech investments have grown exponentially in the past decade: from USD 1.8bn in 2010 to USD 19bn in 2015.
Fintech new entrants are targeting some of the most attractive and valuable profit pools in banking today. The open question remains as to whether incumbent banks can embrace innovation, not just talk about blockchain and hack-a-thons, before fintech competitors gain scale and distribution.
Customers are increasingly mobile savvy. Emerging markets often have a high percentage of unbanked population, relatively weak consumer banks, and a high penetration of mobile phones, and are ripe for fintech disruptions.
To date, the payment space is the segment of finance that has been most challenged by tech-driven new entrants. From M-Pesa in Kenya, Tencent's WeChat red envelope in China, and the PayTM wallet in India, non-bank payment options are increasingly well adopted in their home markets.
Alipay and PayPal are leaders in ecommerce online payments. Although payment is a relatively small part of banks' revenue pool, the incumbent banks are at risk of losing important customer transaction data and client relationships.
Banking’s Uber moment is upon us. Banks are forced to consider digital options, or be left behind. The challenge for individuals in this historic transformation is daunting, not least women, who need to equip themselves for the digital world.
How do women position themselves in this new world of fintech? To discuss this issue, we bring together women from various walks of the fintech experience, from crowd-funding, an App provider and a bitcoin advocate for a lively panel discussion and Q&A.
Panelists
Zann Kwan
Founder, CoinStreet, Bitcoin Exchange
Ms. Zann Kwan brings with her 16 years of professional experience in finance and investments before becoming a fintech entrepreneur 2 years ago focusing on bitcoin and blockchain technology.
Her team brought in the first public bitcoin machine in Asia, installed in Citylink Mall in Central Singapore. Her team is currently working on services to increase the usability and accessibility of digital currencies and to develop innovative solutions based on the blockchain technology. She has been featured on Wall Street Journal, the Straits Times, the Business Times, MyPaper, Singapore Radio 93.8 and leading publications on cryptocurrencies. She is also a frequent speaker and panelist on forums and seminars on Digital Currencies and the Blockchain Technology.
Before founding CoinStreet and Bitcoin Exchange, Ms Kwan was Vice President with the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) in real estate portfolio management. Ms Kwan started her career in financial audit with Arthur Andersen and KPMG in Singapore and the United States. Thereafter, she worked in investment management. Before moving back to Singapore, she was the Vice President of Acquisitions in Andalex Group, a real estate developer and investor in New York City.
She is also a co-founder of Worklor, a co-work space dedicated to women entrepreneurs and Organic Eve, an innovation retail and real estate platform for non-toxic products.
Ms Kwan is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Charterholder, Chartered Accountant (CA, Singapore) and a Fellow of Chartered Certified Accountant (FCCA). Ms Kwan is also a board member of ACCESS - The Singapore Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Industry Association. She is also a mother of an active toddler.
Brie Lam
Director, Regulatory & Compliance Services, IHS Markit
Brie Lam is the Product Compliance lead for IHS Markit in APAC. Brie was instrumental in the building of IHS Markit’s kyc.com, a core service within its Regulatory & Compliance suite of offerings. kyc.com provides a standardised, end-to-end managed service that centralises “Know Your Client” (KYC) data and process management for financial institutions.
Prior to joining IHS Markit, Brie spent seven years running her own consultancy business supporting the establishment of offshore multimanager funds, global trading accounts, prime brokerage accounts amongst other fund administration and accounting solutions on behalf of clients including JP Morgan. Before starting her consultancy business, Brie held roles within the financial technology areas at JP Morgan, Credit Suisse and Lazard Asset Management, where she focused on the selection and implementation of portfolio risk-mitigation solutions for both equities and fixed income portfolios.
Brie holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Columbia, and an MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management.
Mouna Aouri Langendorf
Founder, Woomentum
Mouna Aouri is a bridge engineer and a serial tech-entrepreneur. Mouna has been involved in the tech industry since the late-90s. She has also worked for some of the best French and Japanese engineering firms in Tokyo.
Mouna has built her first business in 2005, a local consulting company based in North Africa that managed engineering projects in the region led by French and Japanese engineering firms. One of the most exciting projects that Mouna has led was the launch of the first Mobile wallet technology platform in Tunisia in 2007.
Following the Arab spring revolution in 2011, Mouna has relocated to Singapore with her family. Her deep desire to see more women in technology and for women to play a bigger role in founding the companies of the future led her to found Woomentum. Woomentum is the first crowdfunding platform in Asia for female led startups to raise funds, validate their market and create brand ambassadors. Woomentum is based in Singapore and has now a the fastest growing community in South East Asia.
Maria Paula Oliveira
Strategic Projects & Planning Director, Decision Analytics, Experian, Asia Pacific
Maria Paula Oliveira is the Strategic Projects & Planning Director in Asia Pacific for the Decision Analytics division of Experian, the leading global information services company, that provides data and analytical tools to clients around the world. MP is passionate about strategic innovation and business development. Comfortable leading entrepreneurial ventures from the ground up as well as provoking change within large enterprises, she is particularly interested in how startups and corporations can collaborate to create disruptive offerings. MP has worked with financial and technology businesses in Asia Pacific, Latin America and in the Silicon Valley.
Cynthia Siantar
Co-founder, Call Levels
Cynthia is the co-founder of Call Levels, a Fintech provider of financial monitoring, data analytics and notifications service, optimized for the cloud. She started out as an Investment Consulting Analyst in Mercer, where she advised clients on investment strategies. At HSBC’s Equity Capital Markets (ASEAN) team, Cynthia focused on originating and executing ECM transactions such as IPOs and share placements. Cynthia holds a Masters in Financial Mathematics from Stanford and B.S from London School of Economics. She was recently selected as one of Forbes’ “30 Under 30 Asia” in the Finance category. At Call Levels, Cynthia is responsible for setting the organisation’s overall direction for growth, operations, and communications.
Moderator
Virginie Barbot
Head of Business Development Asia, Deutsche Boerse
Mrs Virginie Barbot was based in London for 10 years prior to decide to move to Singapore where she has been living happily for the past 9 years.
She joined the German exchange operator Deutsche Boerse Group (DBG) in 2011. In her current role she is in charge of developing the Market Data Services business of Deutsche Boerse Group.
Virginie is also responsible for Data Cooperations projects with DBG Asia partners such as the BSE (Bombay Stcok Exchange), the SSE (Shanghai Stock Exchange) and TAIFEX (Taiwan Futures Exchange).
Prior to joining DBG, she was a director in charge of business development for CQG in Singapore.
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