Regulatory Ramblings: Episode 50 - Hong Kong to Dubai and Back Again Reflections on A Career in FinTech Ep with Syed Musheer Ahmed

Regulatory Ramblings: Episode 50 – Hong Kong to Dubai and Back Again Reflections on A Career in FinTech Ep with Syed Musheer Ahmed

August 2, 2024

Syed Musheer Ahmed has extensive experience in capital markets, fintech, and virtual assets, including a decade as a global markets trader before coming to Hong Kong to attain his MBA from the University of Hong Kong and London Business School’s joint program.

Since 2016, Musheer has contributed extensively to building the region’s fintech and virtual asset ecosystem, particularly as the co-founder and the inaugural general manager of the Fintech Association of Hong Kong.

For the last five years, he has been the managing director of FinStep Asia – a firm he founded to provide venture-building and empower cross-border bridges across Asia. In the interim, from October 2022 to January 2024, he served as a financial markets risk assurance lead as part of the foundational team of the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) in Dubai.

In this episode of Regulatory Ramblings, Musheer chats with host Ajay Shamdasani about his background, growing up in India’s information technology hub, Bangalore, his initial training as an engineer, and his stint as a regulator in the Mideast’s Manhattan.

As the discussion progresses, Musheer reaffirms his faith in Hong Kong as a place for FinTech and crypto entrepreneurs, discussing what it is about the city and the field that continues to attract and amaze him.

He also stresses that in the evolution of FinTech, the field has long since passed the nascent stage and is no longer all that new and glamorous since the advent of the iPhone in 2007 and Satoshi Nakamoto’s paper on Blockchain first released in 2009. Yet, he acknowledges that technological innovation continues, as he shares his thoughts on the regulatory approaches taken across Asia by mainland China, India, Singapore, and Hong Kong – and the similarities and differences between some of the major jurisdictions.

While virtual assets have evolved in some parts of the world, in others, they are still somewhat of a grey zone. Musheer also comments on the prospects for cross-border crypto regulation in the Asia-Pacific or even internationally evolving to harmonized rules, mutual recognition, or common passporting—as was discussed a decade ago for the investment funds sector.

He also shares his views on choosing between stablecoins and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), which are not binary. Musheer emphasizes that it is not an either-or choice because both fulfill different purposes.

The conversation concludes with his assessment of the potential for Hong Kong and mainland China to collaborate with the Middle East’s FinTech and virtual asset hubs, such as Dubai.

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