Mrs. Chuchi G. Fonacier, Deputy Governor, Supervision and Examination Sector, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas

Chuchi G. Fonacier is the deputy governor of the Supervision and Examination Sector of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). She started her career with BSP in 1984 as a bank examiner and became assistant governor in 2017. She was designated as BSP’s point person on two important legislative measures passed by the Philippine Congress – the Securitszation Act, and the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) Act. In 2008, she headed BSP’s primary supervisory unit that handles specially-challenged banks, where a record number of challenged banks were successfully resolved. As deputy governor, she is a member and BSP-designated representative in different interagency and international committees such as the Financial Sector Forum (FSF), Working Group on Banking Supervision (WGBS) of the Executives’ Meeting of East Asia Pacific Central Banks (EMEAP), and the Credit Information Corporations Project.

Mr. Vladislav Solodkiy, Managing Partner, Life.SREDA

Solodkiy was recognised by UK magazine Institutional Investor as one of the TOP35 most influential fintech-persons in the world. He established Life. SREDA four years ago, which has invested in 22 start-ups in US, UK, Germany, CIS, Singapore, Philippines, India and Vietnam, including Simple, Moven, Fidor Bank, SumUp, Anthemis Group, Mobikon, and Lenddo. For the last one and a half years, the company heavily supported the fintech ecosystem in Singapore. It invested in eight companies; launched Inspir Asia co-working space and accelerator; and helped the Monetary Authority of Singapore in promoting Singapore as fintech hub across the world by launching www.BAAS.IS, the first pan-Asian bank-as-a-service-platform.

Mr. Roy Villareal, Customer Franchise Director, Citi Philippines

Roy Villareal is the customer franchise director for Citibank N.A., Philippines. He has overall responsibility for customer experience, marketing, digital banking, analytics & insights, and business training for the consumer business. He has been with Citi for 22 years. Prior to Citi, he worked for SAS Philippines, Inc. as application and data specialist.

Mr. Edwin R. Bautista, President & COO, Union Bank

Edwin R. Bautista, serves as president and chief operating officer of the bank. He is also currently director of UnionBank, City Savings Bank, Inc., First Union Plans, Inc., Union Properties, Inc. and First Union Direct Corp. Bautista has a superior track record in banking, spanning more than 25 years of experience. Since joining UnionBank in 1997 as Senior Vice President, he has driven the growth of the Bank’s transaction banking, commercial banking, operations and consumer finance centres. In 2006, he served as president of IBank, which was acquired by UnionBank, until its merger with the Bank. Prior to UnionBank, Bautista headed Citibank Philippine's global transaction services group. As UnionBank is undertaking its "digital transformation", Bautista's proven, game-changing skills are expected to come to the fore again, making sure that they complete the journey without anyone being "left behind".

Mr. Malikkhan Kotadia, Mentor, The FinLab.com

Kotadia is a senior global banker, financial technology (fintech) expert, futurist, spiritualist, acclaimed author and community builder. In his 18-year-long career, he has managed global roles in leading multinational banks, run billion dollar businesses in various markets and driven key innovations in the financial services industry. He spent nearly 14 years at Citibank in varied roles in digital banking, e-payments and innovations, and was last SVP-global digital transformation. Prior to this, he headed digital marketing for the global consumer bank and the merchant payments product for Citi India. Kotadia is a passionate digital evangelist, futurist and and a sought-after keynote speaker, panellist and moderator at leading fintech, digital & emerging tech conferences across Asia Pacific. He is also mentor at a leading fintech accelerator in Singapore, and is advisor to some exciting global start-ups across fintech, IoT, AI, blockchain, big data and edutech.

Mrs. Abigail Marie Casanova, First Vice President, Retail Credit Operations Group Head, Retail Banking Segment, Security Bank

Abbie Casanova heads the retail credit operations group of Security Bank. Her responsibility covers the end-to-end spectrum of the consumer loans cycle from the approval processing, after sales services to Collections for all consumer products of the bank. Since joining the bank, she has driven major process improvements that supported business growth, improved customer experience and minimised losses. Prior to Security Bank, she was with BDO heading the developer segment of the home loans business. She also held roles previously at GE Money and Citibank, N.A. Recently, she did her post-graduate studies on global business at the University of Oxford.

Mr. Miguel Cuneta, Co-Founder, Chief Community Officer at Satoshi Citadel Industries

Cuneta is the co-founder and the chief community officer of Satoshi Citadel Industries (SCI). Founded in 2014, SCI has been at the forefront of the blockchain industry in the Philippines, with an ecosystem of services ranging from payments, remittance, mobile money, and others, all powered by the technology behind Bitcoin. SCI is pioneering a lot of cutting edge fintech apps not just in the Philippines, but globally, and was recently venture-backed by Kakao Investment, the venture arm of South Korean messaging app giant Kakao Talk.

Mr. Abhishant Pant, Founder, Cashless Journey

Abhishant Pant is a Mumbai-based Indian market fintech expert. His specialisation includes; working with financial technology (fintechs) (lending, know your customer, and payments), Prepaid, Travel Forex, Mobile Money, and Financial Inclusion at the Bottom of the Pyramid. He is closely associated with the fintech world (as mentor) through incubators like Barclays Rise, Zone Startups India, and fintech Startupbootcamp. He has spoken at global forums like UN-G20, UNEP, Swedish government Swedish Institute, TEDx programs. Pant writes regularly on Fintech landscape opportunity and challenges. He brings his unique perspective to fintechs through his "Cashless Journey" experiment. He is extensively covered by media both in India and abroad as "Cashless Man of India". And was recently named among TOP100 Fintech Professionals in Asia by Singapore-based Next Money. His Cashless Journey is now getting made in a documentary by celebrated filmmaker and photographer ED Kashi.

Mr. Xavier Marzan, Country MD, Ascend Money & CEO, TrueMoney Philippines

Xavier Marzan is country managing director at Ascend Money, a digital financial services start-up venture between the Charoen Pokphand Group and Ant Financial (Alipay) and chief executive officer of TrueMoney Philippines, a fintech brand of Ascend. Marzan established TrueMoney’s operations in the Philippines, and in just under a year’s time, grew the fintech organisation to become one of the largest and fastest-growing financial services networks in the country today.

Mr. Michael Ngo Dee, SVP of Supply Chain, Lazada Group

Michael Ngo Dee has been working for the past decade on mobile and web technologies with different types of organisations. Ngo Dee has been spending his time working at Lazada as senior vice president of supply chain in the Philippines, thinking a lot about operational disciplines, specifically on the creation and deployment of supply chain policies, first mile management and reverse logistics driving down the cost structures by breaking down the various functions within the chain and reducing friction between each cog.

Mr. Theo Nassiokas, Director, APAC Cybersecurity at Barclays

A technology risk- and regulatory-focused security leader with over 20 years of diverse experience, with accountability ranging from law enforcement and criminal intelligence to risk and security strategy and policy development and implementation within government and more recently, financial services organisations across Asia Pacific. An acknowledged authority in the areas of security, risk, compliance and e-fraud, Nassiokas has publicly spoken on these topics on many occasions.

Mr. Dante Fuentes, Group Chief Compliance Officer - Security Bank

Dante Fuentes is the group chief compliance officer of Security Bank Corporation and has direct oversight of the non-bank financial institutions which are subsidiaries and affiliates of Security Bank Corporation. He is also the president of the Association of Bank Compliance Officers, Inc. (ABCOMP) since 2005 and presided over the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners-Philippine Chapter (ACFE - Philippines) from 2014 to 2017. He is a senior adviser to the Good Governance Advocates and Practitioners of the Philippines (GGAPP) since 2013 and vice chair for the Banking Sector, National Risk Assessment in 2015 and 2017. Fuentes is also a certified public Accountant, certified fraud Examiner, and certified anti-money laundering (AML) specialist.

Mr. Mario Jordan "Magellan" Fetalino III, Founder and CEO, Acudeen Technologies

Mario Jordan "Magellan" Fetalino III is the founder and chief executive officer of Acudeen Technologies, Inc., an online peer-to-peer marketplace for receivable discounting in the Philippines, regarded by International Data Corporation as one of the top ten fastest growing fintechs in the Philippines. Fetalino created a facility that provides accessible financing to under banked SMEs in the Philippines by letting them sell their receivables from multinationals and blue chip companies to Acudeen's financing partner network. Previously, he served as vice president for digital communications of the international medical publication, Medical Observer, and led the company to two international citations for outstanding services and publication. He also served as the chairman of the board of The Global Filipino Investors, one of the biggest financial education companies in the Philippines.

Mr. Lito Villanueva, Managing Director, FINTQnologies

Villanueva has over 20 solid years of experience in the fields of banking, payments and telecommunications industries. He started the financial technology (fintech) business in the PLDT Group in 2013 with consumer-centric and demand-driven digital financial innovations. So far, it merited more than 30 global and regional accolades, including being cited as one of Asia's 100 Fintech Leaders, the first and only Filipino included in such list. Prior to his current role as managing director of FINTQ (pronounced as fintech), the financial technology arm of Smart's Voyager Innovations under the PLDT Group, he started his career with the economist intelligence unit (EIU) as its associate editor, then with Landbank as one of the pioneer global banking officers when it established its overseas remittance business. This was followed by his stint at the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Group as consultant focusing on mobile money transfers in Mongolia. He was then invited by Visa to be the lead in customer strategy and market activation on global mobile payments covering 35 markets in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. He was elected member of the Asia Board of the Mobile Ecosystem Forum, a global trade body based in London.

Mr. Mikko Perez, Founder and CEO, Ayannah

Mikko Perez is the founder/chief executive officer of Ayannah, a pioneer in providing affordable and accessible digital financial services for the emerging middle class. Prior to this, Perez was part of the founding team of Chikka, a mobile instant messaging start-up, and helped expanding it to China, India, Japan and the US prior to Chikka's acquisition by PLDT. Prior to this, he worked as a private equity fund manager in Singapore and an investment banker at JP Morgan in San Francisco. Having begun his career as a community organiser, helping build social enterprises in rural Philippines, Perez remains actively involved in initiatives that support social entrepreneurship and sustainable development.

Ms. Natividad “Nabbie” N. Alejo, Chairman, BPI Direct BanKo

Natividad Alejo is the chairman of BPI Direct BanKo, Inc. (BanKo). Prior to this post, she served as president of BPI Family Savings Bank. She had also served as head of BPI’s retail clients segment group, overseeing the bank’s relationship with all retail clients, including private banking and overseas Filipino clients. As head of retail, Alejo was responsible for managing the bank’s extensive branch network. Alejo joined BPI in 1979, when the bank acquired Commercial Bank & Trust, and worked in the corporate planning department and as president of BPI Capital Corporation. She then took on a senior management role in the bank’s retail banking business beginning 2007. She was also president of the Investment House Association of the Philippines from 2004 to 2006.She is currently head of the bank subsidiary, BPI Direct BanKo, that is the focal point for the group's financial inclusion initiative.

Ms. Jovilyn Cotio, Supply Chain Finance Consultant, Asian Development Bank (ADB)

Cotio works with corporates and financial institutions to deliver supply chain finance solutions to small and medium-sized enterprises in developing Asia. Prior to joining ADB, she worked across varied roles in different industries including sourcing and people relations for a manufacturing start-up, credit management & business planning for a Japanese bank.

Ms. Pia Bernadette Roman Tayag, Director, Inclusive Finance Advocacy Office and Concurrent Head, Financial Consumer Protection Department Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas

Tayag, is involved in the overall financial inclusion work of the central bank particularly in the areas of policy and regulation, capacity building, advocacy, and relationship building. She also oversees the bank’s principal consumer protection unit that ensures the protection of financial consumer rights by formulating related policies and standards, assessing supervised financial institutions’ adherence to the said standards, and implementing financial learning program and the central bank’s consumer assistance mechanism. Under her leadership, the inclusive finance advocacy staff was a recipient of the 2013 Presidential Lingkod Bayan Award in recognition of the team’s exceptional performance that had a nationwide impact on public interest. In the same year, Tayag was also recognised as Manila 40 under 40 leader in international development.

Mr. Foo Boon Ping, Managing Editor, The Asian Banker

Foo Boon Ping manages the Asian Banker publication business and engages practitioners, customers,partners and media on critical issues that impact the industry. He has more than 19 years of experience in the banking and financial services industry, specialising in strategic branding, marketing communications and consumer insight. Prior to The Asian Banker he was at United Overseas Bank (UOB), covering Singapore and key markets in the region, such as China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.

Mr. Richard Hartung, International Advisor, The Asian Banker

Richard has over 20 years of experience in the payments and consumer financial services industry, primarily in the Asia Pacific region. Following work in retail banking in California and a short stint in government, Richard was part of the team that started up retail banking for Citibank in Japan. Richard joined MasterCard in 1993 and headed up Operations & Systems for the Asia Pacific region. He moved to Keppel TatLee Bank in 1999 and launched a new credit card program that became profitable in just over 1 year. He then managed the integration of Keppelcard into OCBC Bank and was the Card Center Manager at OCBC. Richard set up Transcarta (formerly AsiaPay Solutions) in May 2002 and focuses on assisting cards and payments companies with strategy, operations process enhancement, merchant acquiring risk management, market entry research and other cards business practices.

Ms. Neeti Aggarwal, Senior Research Manager, The Asian Banker

Neeti Aggarwal heads the technology research practice at The Asian Banker. With over 14 years experience in research and publication industry, she specialises in banking research and technology developments across Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa. She earlier worked for five years at The Economic Times, India’s largest selling financial daily. Aggarwal is a CFA Charterholder from CFA Institute USA, and an MBA (Finance) from India.

Mr. Mark Perez, Head, Retail Banking Group, Metropolitan Bank & Trust Company

Mark Perez has been Metrobank’s retail banking group head since January 2013. He supervises retail product management, direct banking channels, decision management and customer analytics, as well as quality and customer experience. In his 20-year career, he served as branch operations and services head of Citibank (Philippines) and held various other senior positions at Metrobank. He also worked with Accenture Manila Consulting Office’s financial services practice from 1998 to 2002 leading branch reengineering, data warehouse, balanced scorecard, and sales transformation projects with banking clients. Perez has also been director and executive committee member of BancNet since April 2013.