Bank Negara Malaysia will be hosting their inaugural MyFintech Week 2019, which the organisation claims to be Malaysia’s first flagship fintech event. The event will be taking place during mid-June, in Sasana Kijang, Kuala Lumpur.

The event will be held in conjunction with Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC)’s Malaysia Tech Week 2019.

On top of its exhibition floor, MyFintech Week 2019 looks to bring together more than 100 influencers to take the state and speak about the world of fintech, to the theme “Shifting Tides: Future of Finance”. Some of its topics will encompass financial inclusion, digital economy, insurtech, islamic finance and cybersecurity.

The organisers have yet to release a full list of its 100 speakers that will be sharing their insights into the industry, but some of names that have been revealed to us include

Chris Skinner – Finanser.com Blogger & Author

Chris Skinner is a self-named futurist, and is a well-known independent commentator on fintech and financial markets on his blog, the Finanser.com. Chris has also authored bestselling books on banking, particularly banking in these technologically-powered times, titled Digital Bank, ValueWeb, and its new sequel, Digital Human.

Beyond his writing, Chris serves as advisor, and even chairs the European networking group, the Financial Services Club, a prestigious club that allows for networking between members and regulators, and practitioners with futurists. He is also a regular commentator on BBC News, Sky News, CNBC and Bloomberg.

Chris Skinner has also judged various awards shows relating to technology and banking, and is a contributor to the World Economic Forum.

Tobias Adrian – International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Tobias Adrian is the Financial Counsellor and Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He leads the IMF’s work in a variety of sectors, from surveillance, monetary and macroprudential policies, capital markets, and many others. Tobias also helps IMF member countries with things like their central banking, regulation of financial systems, and etc.

Utilising his Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Tobias  is also published extensively in economics and finance journals, including the American Economic Review and the Journal of Finance.

 Arthur Yuen – Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA)

Arthur Yuen is a regulator representative from Hong Kong, serving as the Deputy Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA). The HKMA has recently embarked on Virtual Banking License issuing exercise, having already issued 8 licenses so far.

Hong Kong is popularly considered one of the top fintech hubs in Asia, often in competition with Singapore, and has so far been keen on developing the region’s fintech, as part of an overall Greater Bay Area development ambition with Hong Kong housing its fintech talent.

Arthur Yuen is a regular speaker representing the Hong Kong regulator, and may even be tapped as the next HKMA Chief Executive.

Jamie Woodruff – Ethical Hacker

Jamie Woodruff is known as Europe’s number 1 ethical hacker. He came to prominence when he hacked Facebook as part of a student competition, in which he was studying computer information systems. Since then, Jamie has helped to uncover security holes in numerous operations, even Kim Kardashian’s website, which he hacked to reveal that it was putting fans’ data at risk.

Jamie takes an interest in the importance of system and network security, and is known for disclosing vulnerabilities in world-famous applications, like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Apple and Google.

Jamie is currently serving as CTO of an IT Support and security company in the UK, specialising in training, cloud solutions, penetration testing and support schools. He also serves as the cyber safety advisor at the Cyber Smile Foundation, which focuses on online cyberbullying.

Farid Alias – Maybank

Abdul Farid Alias now serves as the President and CEO of Maybank Malaysia. He helms Maybank’s overall business growth and regionalisation strategies, whose goal is to ensure the delivery of long-term value for everyone in Maybank, from shareholders to customers.

Previously, he was Deputy President and Head of Bank at Global Banking, where he worked on corporate banking, investment banking, transaction banking, client coverage and global markets. Prior to that, he had two decades in investment banking and capital markets, serving under companies like JP Morgan, Asean Bankers Malaysia Berhand, Schroders, and etc. Farid was also named CEO Champion for Malaysian Organisation at the Life At Work Awards 2018.

Awarded CEO Champion for Malaysian Organisation at the LIFE AT WORK Awards 2018.

Jim Lai – Tencent

Tencent needs no explanation for tech enthusiasts, standing as one of the companies that helped propel e-wallets in its home base, China, with WeChat Pay. Subsequently, the ripple effect of China’s adoption has driven many Southeast Asian regions to also consider e-wallets as their strategy towards cashlessness. Malaysia is no different.

In fact, Malaysia is the first recipient of WeChat Pay in a local currency outside of China.

Jim Lai serves as the Vice President and Head of Fintech in Tencent. Jim has opined before that one of the secret to Tencent’s behemoth status in fintech right now is that they cure the ‘pain point’ of users, specifically by deploying a customer-centric internal culture that finally resulted in effective and cost-effective products.

Henry Ma – WeBank

Henry serves as the Chief Innovation Officer of WeBank, a digital bank initiated by Tencent.

In his role as Vice President and CIO of WeBank, Henry oversees the strategic planning and development of fintech in WeBank. Prior to his stint with WeBank, Henry also served as a General Manager at Ping An, another China-based fintech behemoth. Henry Ma received his Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree with Highest Honors from UC Berkeley and a Master of Science (MSc) degree in Computer Science from Stanford University.

Henry also lived and worked in Silicon Valley for about a decade, where he completed IT integration and constructed the management system for many well-known enterprises.

Tengku Zafrul (Group CEO, CIMB)

Tengku Dato’ Sri Zafrul is the current Group CEO of CIMB Bank, one of the leaders in Islamic finance. Zafrul is also a member of APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC), representing and promoting Malaysia in intra-trade and collaboration within Asia Pacific.

On top of his reputation as a known fitness enthusiast, Zafrul has served as CEO since February 2015, and also its country head in Malaysia. So far, Zafrul has been at the head of 11 different companies, like Tune Money, Maybank, Citibank, and many others.

He is also Chairman at Enactus Singapore, Chairman for Enactus Malaysia Foundation and Council Member at Association of Banks In Malaysia and on the board of 7 other companies.The CEO

Zafrul also sits on the Boards of Kuala Lumpur Business Club, and a member of the National Higher Education Entrepreneurship Council.

Neal Cross  – Picturewealth & Formerly with DBS Bank

Neal Cross was until very recently, the Chief Innovation Officer of Singapore’s DBS Bank, which is known to embark on technologically-forward practices in line with fintech principles. Now, Neal focuses his efforts on Picturewelath, a neo-wealth startup in Australia that allows users to get a general picture of their finances based on aggregated information from bank accounts, expenses, cryptocurrencies and assets. The goal is to showcase a snapshot of one’s overall financial position, or their “Welfie”.

During his time in DBS, Neal Cross was recognised as the most disruptive Chief Innovation Officer globally, thanks to his efforts innovating DBS Bank’s operations to be more future-orientated. DBS Bank was also recognised for its digitisation agenda under his leadership by the Euromoney ‘Awards for Excellence.

Vincent Fong – Chief Editor, Fintech News Malaysia

The event will also feature a familiar face to followers of our site. Our Chief Editor, Vincent Fong will be moderating a session during the event.

Vincent is a contributing editor for Fintech News Singapore, Fintech News Switzerland, Fintech News Hong Kong and Fintech News Middle East. His role as an editor across multiple key markets gives him broad insights into key trends and movements within the global fintech arena.

He is considered by some as a keen observer to the industry and a community builder.

Beyond these speakers, Bank Negara Malaysia has also set aside a few sessions to discuss their own viewpoints on current financial industry goings-ons, and many of them will pertain to future fintech developments. More information about the upcoming MyFintech Week and upcoming announcements of speakers or events can be found on their website here.