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Regulatory Ramblings

Regulatory Ramblings: Episode 64 – Building Inclusion Through Sustainable Leadership / The EU Omnibus Proposal with Janet Ledger and Dr. Inna Amesheva

The overarching theme of today’s episode is Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives. In our initial spotlight segment, we speak with Dr. Inna Amesheva of ESG Book in Frankfurt about the growing calls to simplify Europe’s ESG rules.

Following that, we chatted with Janet Ledger, chief executive officer of Community Business, a Hong Kong-based non-governmental organization (NGO), about how ESG can advance the goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Dr. Inna Amesheva is the director and head of ESG Regulatory Solutions at ESG Book in Frankfurt, Germany. In that capacity, she leads the group’s regulatory solutions offerings, focusing on implementing the EU’s Sustainable Finance Action Plan (including regulations such as SFDR and the EU Taxonomy), following SEC Climate recommendations, and following major international developments in the field of sustainability regulation.

She oversees the maintenance of a comprehensive database of global ESG regulatory developments and is also co-chair of the company’s Thought Leadership Committee.

ESG Book was incubated by Arabesque in 2018. It combines cutting-edge technology and proprietary research. ESG Book’s wide range of cloud-based sustainability products and solutions is used by many of the world’s leading financial organizations, which collectively manage over $120 trillion.

The company has offices in London, Frankfurt, Boston, Singapore, Delhi, and Tokyo and serves clients worldwide from offices in Asia, Europe, and North America.

Inna is also an HKU alumnus, having attained her PhD in law from our Faculty of Law.

Janet Ledger is the CEO of Community Business, a renowned and active Hong Kong-based NGO specializing in DE&I in Asia.

With over four decades of work experience, she has built a successful career as a senior leader in multiple fields. A native of Brisbane, Australia, Janet came to Hong Kong in 2015 and joined Community Business as its chief operating officer in 2019. Before that, she specialized in strategic business planning, program management, corporate governance, change management, organizational effectiveness, and talent development.

Her true talents, however, lie in strategic leadership, organizational development, and fostering inclusive environments. She leads Community Business in its mission to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion across Asia. She works with teams to open communication channels, develop talent, and create inclusive environments that drive organizational success.

Janet holds a Bachelor of Psychological Sciences from Swinburne University of Technology and an Advanced Diploma in Program and Project Management. She is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, an alumnus of The Women’s Foundation Mentoring Programme of Hong Kong, and a member of the 30% Club of Hong Kong Steering Committee.

Discussion: A recent article from Bloomberg (linked below) stated that a growing European chorus is seeking more simplified ESG rules. To that end, a group called the Platform on Sustainable Finance advises the European Commission to change its taxonomy. The concern is that current ESG rules are complicated and of limited use.

The episode commences with a brief conversation between Dr. Inna Amesheva and Regulatory Ramblings host Ajay Shamdasani about the Platform on Sustainable Finance, which is seeking substantial changes to rules for corporate reporting of sustainable business activities. Specifically, it wants the European Union’s Taxonomy Regulation to be revised to make it easier for companies to decide which metrics are material to report.

Inna shares her thoughts on the regulation, which was adopted in 2020 and has been characterized by some companies as overly complicated and of limited use.

They go on to discuss the platform’s position that the changes would reduce the reporting burden for non-financial companies by roughly 33% and lead to a significant simplification for financial institutions. Of course, the devil is in the details, and it remains to be seen if such claims are hyperbole or would, in fact, make it easier for EU corporations to comply.

Inna also explains the platform’s contention that corporate reporting burdens could be eased by making some data voluntary and simplifying disclosure templates. Yet, at a time when many stress the importance of greater transparency, making some data voluntary might lead to less disclosure.

The conversation concludes with whether the recommended changes for calculating the so-called green-asset ratio—which measures banks’ investments in sustainable businesses—will dilute standards. It is worth adding that many public interest groups in Europe object to lower ESG standards. ​

Following that, in our longer segment, we speak with Janet Ledger, CEO of Community Business, a Hong Kong-based NGO that is one of the city’s most renowned and active, on how ESG can drive forward the goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion, better known by the acronym DEI.

Janet tells us a little bit about herself, her background, upbringing, education, and professional path. She recounts that she was blessed with a forward-thinking father who empowered and encouraged her at an early age and was not affected by the biases of his generation, which sometimes led to an unfair division of labor based on gender.

She also describes what brought her to community business and when she became interested in ESG and DEI. Janet strongly believes ESG can be used to achieve DEI’s goals and stresses that there are deep links between the two and synergies to be had.

The conversation wraps up with Janet sharing her thoughts on the backlash against DEI in recent years, particularly in Corporate America.

Regulatory Ramblings podcasts is brought to you by The University of Hong Kong – Reg/Tech Lab, HKU-SCF Fintech Academy, Asia Global Institute, and HKU-edX Professional Certificate in Fintech, with support from the HKU Faculty of Law.

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Regulatory Ramblings

Regulatory Ramblings: Episode 63 – Reflections of a Compliance Officer/Legal and Compliance Hiring Trends in 2025 (Hong Kong) with Brian Yeung, Kirsty Crean, and Raoul Montgomery

As the theme of this episode is compliance, we first hear from Raoul Montgomery and Kirsty Crean of executive search and recruitment firm Arion House in Hong Kong about hiring trends in the legal and compliance space post-Chinese New Year. It is when many professionals decide to pursue new roles and, sometimes, entirely new careers. Following that is a chat with Brian Yeung, Interactive Brokers’ Hong Kong-based general counsel and head of compliance for APAC.

Kirsty Crean is a director with Arion House in Hong Kong. A top-tier provider of executive search and market intelligence services, specializing in regulatory compliance, ESG governance, financial crime compliance, legal, and risk management, the firm also has a presence in London.

​Having read Criminology at Northumbria University in the UK, Kirsty’s search career began in 2015 when she started working for a boutique firm in London, placing senior legal and compliance professionals across banks, hedge funds, asset management firms, and brokers. She moved to Hong Kong in 2018 and joined Arion House in 2023 as a director covering the regional compliance market.

Raoul Montgomery has been a research consultant with Arion House since September 2019 and focuses on markets in the Asia-Pacific region. He joined after attaining a bachelor of arts degree in history with politics and public administration from the University of Hong Kong, where he is currently also pursuing a law degree.

Having worked with a number of non-governmental organizations, he is fluent in English, Hindi, and Spanish.

Brian Yeung is Interactive Brokers’ general counsel and head of compliance for the Asia Pacific region. Based in Hong Kong, it is a role he has held for over four and a half years. He has been with the firm for almost 12 years since 2013, starting off as its head of legal and compliance for APAC (excluding Japan).

Prior to that, Brian was Institnet’s APAC legal and compliance manager in Hong Kong, and before that, he was head of compliance for Australia for BGC Partners based in Sydney.

Having grown up in Hong Kong, he attended Yew Chung International School before pursuing an undergraduate degree in commerce, accounting, and finance at the University of New South Wales. He ultimately attained his juris doctor degree from Sydney’s University of Technology. A solicitor, he is admitted to the Supreme Court of New South Wales.

Discussion:

A month and a half into 2025, and with the Lunar New Year behind us as well, many in places like Hong Kong customarily wait until they receive their customary Chinese New Year bonuses before tendering their resignation letters to seek better pay, seniority, prestige, greater responsibility, or simply more satisfaction with other employers—and the legal and compliance space is no different.

In that spirit, today’s episode commences with a spotlight segment where Kirsty and Raoul share their thoughts on hiring trends in the legal and compliance space in Hong Kong and, to some degree, Singapore and the APAC region more generally post-Chinese New Year. They share with Regulatory Ramblings host Ajay Shamdasani the areas where the financial sector is hiring, with insurance and crypto-compliance being key drivers for employment.

Kirsty and Raoul also share their thoughts on how firms hire legal and compliance staff at more senior levels versus middle to junior ranks. Some banking and financial institutions and multinational corporations, more broadly, are moving more towards retainment mode. That is evidenced by the hiring freezes at some banks in the region.

The conversation concludes with what it takes to be a good compliance officer—beyond just knowing the rules, regulations, and general knowledge of the sector in which one seeks employment. As our guests make clear, while a legal or accounting degree and/or experience will always put one in good stead, in-house/general counsel and compliance officers need soft skills, too.

Following that, our discussion with Brian Yeung of Interactive Brokers delves into why he pursued a law degree. He also describes how he saw himself making a difference by becoming a compliance officer, which, he recalls, occurred against the backdrop of the 2001 Enron scandal leading to the collapse of venerable accounting giant Arthur Anderson and the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (2002) in the US, which forever put a global spotlight on the importance of good corporate governance and the compliance profession writ large.

It is a profession that Brian took well to, one he still finds years later to be incredibly stimulating and rewarding. As he says, “There is no typical day for me.”

While sharing what his biggest challenges are, Brian stresses the importance of work-life balance and considers himself profoundly blessed to be able to leave at a reasonable hour each day to spend time with his family after a long day at the office. He contrasts that with the life he might have had as a solicitor in private practice, where the perpetual dread of racking up enough billable hours annually would likely have impacted his family life, notwithstanding the potentially higher rewards and prestige.

While acknowledging that compliance has long been associated with the legal and accounting professions, he does not believe one necessarily needs to complete a degree in either of those subjects to have a successful compliance career. Although a law degree can be useful, an investigative mind is also a valuable asset to those considering entering the field.

Regulatory Ramblings podcasts is brought to you by The University of Hong Kong – Reg/Tech Lab, HKU-SCF Fintech Academy, Asia Global Institute, and HKU-edX Professional Certificate in Fintech, with support from the HKU Faculty of Law.

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Website: https://www.hkufintech.com/regulatoryramblings 

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Regulatory Ramblings

Regulatory Ramblings: Episode 62 – The Green Belt and Road Initiative/Open-Source Intelligence & Non-English Language Online Research with Dr. Oriol Caudevilla and Skip Schiphorst

In the first part of this episode in our Regulatory Ramblings Spotlight section, we’ll speak with legal scholar Dr. Oriol Caudevilla on the green aspects of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI, as it is more colloquially known. We’ll follow that up with a chat with Skip Schiphorst, a former Dutch Marine, Iraq War veteran, and master linguist, about his penchant for languages and doing online, open-source research in languages other than English—especially Russian, Arabic, and Mandarin Chinese—and how English isn’t necessarily the easiest language to search in.

Dr. Oriol Caudevilla is a highly regarded voice on all things fintech. He is an Honorary Fellow at HKU’s Asian Institute of International Financial Law (AIIFL) and a Board Director and Secretary General at the Global Impact FinTech Forum (GIFT).
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Oriol has published articles and has been cited by international media outlets such as Reuters, Forbes Middle East, the SCMP, Outlook India, China Daily, Asian Investor, Forkast News, and Cointelegraph. He has also hosted The Digital Tomorrow podcast for the past three years.

He shares his views on the potential environmental benefits of Beijing’s BRI with Regulatory Ramblings host Ajay Shamdasani.

Much has been said about the BRI, known in China as the One Belt, One Road—and sometimes labeled the New Silk Road. A global infrastructure development strategy adopted by the Chinese government in 2013 to invest in more than 150 countries and international organizations, the scheme is composed of six urban development land corridors linked by road, rail, energy, and digital infrastructure and the Maritime Silk Road connected by the development of ports.

The idea was simple: transport raw materials to China while carrying its manufactured wares to participating nations.

Oriol fleshes out what he means by the “Green BRI” because, on the surface, the concept seems counterintuitive, as vast amounts of carbon/energy are expended to carry resources toward China and goods from it. As he points out, there are green efficiencies and other benefits to be had from the BRI that will meaningfully impact the planet’s climate.

Skip Schiphorst is the course coordinator and instructor for the Swiss-based firm I-Intelligence’s Arabic, Russian, and Chinese open-source intelligence (OSINT) courses. He served 17 years in the Dutch Marine Corps, the elite corps of the Royal Netherlands Navy, one of the four Armed Forces of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

While serving, he was deployed to several regions, including the Second Iraq War, as a Reconnaissance Marine. Having operated in multiple theaters, his language and cultural skills were extensively used. Skip holds a university degree in Chinese Studies and is keenly interested in incorporating languages within the OSINT/online spectrum.

He shares with Ajay the importance of being able to search for OSINT in languages other than English and how it has a direct application to lawyers, compliance officers, and investigators in regional hubs like Hong Kong and Singapore—and the banking and financial institutions and multinational corporations they serve. As he emphasizes, it is often easier to navigate the internet in Chinese than in English due to the simplicity of the structure of the former language.

Skip describes what it was like to grow up in Switzerland as a young man of Dutch ancestry, his decision to join the Marines in 1997, and how his views on the world and the degree to which outside powers can use military force to change cultures and nations changed over the course of his service. He believes this to be the Asian century, as many Western nations pursue more nativist and isolationist policies.

He also discusses the value of OSINT and multilingual research for due diligence in mergers and acquisitions and know-your-customer searches in anti-money laundering, terrorist financing, and sanctions compliance for banks.

Regulatory Ramblings podcasts is brought to you by The University of Hong Kong – Reg/Tech Lab, HKU-SCF Fintech Academy, Asia Global Institute, and HKU-edX Professional Certificate in Fintech, with support from the HKU Faculty of Law.

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Regulatory Ramblings

Regulatory Ramblings: Episode 60 – The Evolution of Fintech: Asia, The US and the Implications for Inclusion with Theodora Lau

Based in the US, Theodora Lau, or Theo, as she’s known, is Hong Kong-born and bred and the founder of Unconventional Ventures. Her firm’s mission is to develop and grow an ecosystem of financial institutions, corporations, startups, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and accelerators to improve banking and meet the often-unmet needs of consumers, including older adults and women. Theo’s mission is to connect founders with funders, specifically underrepresented entrepreneurs.

She regularly mentors and advises startups in financial services and healthcare/caregiving as part of her work. She is also an advisor to B21 Ventures, which focuses on entrepreneurs disrupting finance and health through artificial intelligence.

Theo has been referred to by the American Banker as one of the “Most Influential Women in FinTech” and is one of few global experts providing authoritative insights on both the US vis a vis Asia.
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Besides being a best-selling author, Theo is an accomplished technologist and is much sought after for her unique insights on the success of super apps in Asia, the evolution of AI, and the disparity in digital adoption between regions. She is also a public speaker, writer, and advisor who seeks to spark innovation in the public and private sectors to benefit forgotten demographics and create a more inclusive society.

Theo regularly discusses AI, gender equity, FinTech, inclusion, and longevity. She is a guest contributor for various top industry events, publications, and podcasts, including Fintech Futures, the American Banker, BBC, the Journal of Digital Banking, Harvard Business Review, Nikkei Asia, MIT Tech Review, Money20/20, Finovate, RISE, FinTech Week Hong Kong, Breaking Banks, Irish Tech News, and the Forbes Technology Council.

She is the co-author of “Beyond Good: How Technology is Leading a Purpose-Driven Business Revolution” and co-author of “The Metaverse Economy” (both books are now available in paperback editions). Theo is also the host of One Vision, a podcast on innovation and fintech, and runs a weekly LinkedIn newsletter called FinTech Prose on emerging technologies (such as voice-activated/enabled software and AI), inclusion, longevity, fintech, innovation, and using technology for good. Her monthly column on Fintech Futures explores the intersection of FinTech and humanity.

She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in New York and a Master of Science in project management from George Washington University in Washington, DC.

In this episode of Regulatory Ramblings, Theo provides listeners with an in-depth look at the evolving fintech landscape and its regulatory challenges. A common thread in her discussion with our host, Ajay Shamdasani, is the seeming chasm in digital adoption between Asia and the US.

Theo talks about growing up in Hong Kong, eventually heading to the States for education, and her impressions two-plus decades later as having been fortunate enough to have a catbird seat at the beginning of the modern age of digital finance. ​

Having seen FinTech evolve throughout her career, she also recounts the field’s greatest successes in terms of benefits to the financial system and society overall. Theo comments on why the US is so far behind places like Japan and China in terms of digital payment options, noting that in China, the development of the ecosystem is primarily driven by large, big tech juggernauts like WeChat and Tencent. Similarly, in Japan, which she emphasizes has been “pretty cash heavy until recent times,” the nation’s conglomerates are pushing the move towards digital payments. She stresses, however, that while Asia has a rich FinTech ecosystem, it is at different levels of development because the region is not a monolith.

​Theo also shares her thoughts on how long it will be before the US fully embraces digital banking, as many Americans still seem content to write cheques.

​It is in sharp contrast to Hong Kong, where the South China Morning Post reported in mid-December 2024 that, based on figures from the Hong Kong Association of Banks, the use of cheques in the Special Administrative Region has fallen and is expected to continue to decline at an annual rate of between 10-20%. The number of cheque payments in the city dropped by 27% to 4.33 million this November, compared with 5.9 million in November 2021, while the value fell by 22% to HK$468.54 billion per month over the same period.

Other markets, such as the UK, Australia, and Singapore, are also trying to reduce the use of cheques.

Yet, as Theo remarks, the number of regulators in the US might at least partly explain its sluggishness in rolling out more digital payment options.

​Reflecting on the post-Covid world, she points out that worldwide, financial regulators and central banks have been proactive, despite geopolitical issues, to create linkages for seamless cross-border transactions and transfers—as seen by Project Nexus, the Bank of International Settlements Innovation Hub, and the Monetary Authority of Singapore building towards a unified system for fast payments across Southeast Asia, with a planned extension into South Asia.

What used to be siloed and driven by private organizations has led regulators to see the value of interconnectivity now.

The challenge is how FinTech can benefit financial inclusion. There is a widespread perception that tech creators sometimes promise more than they can deliver, especially in terms of bettering the lives of the poor, elderly, illiterate, uneducated, or uninformed.

The problem is not confined to developing nations: 4.2% of US households, or 5.6 million households, are classified as unbanked, with a further 14.2%, or 19 million households, deemed underbanked. The question is, therefore, one of fairer access to the financial apparatus.

​The discussion concludes with Theo stating that it is not technology that poses the most significant challenge. Instead, she says, it is the adoption of tech by local regulators or enterprises and the regulations that enable them. She also remarks on generative AI and machine learning in financial services and whether they can facilitate digital inclusion in the Asia-Pacific and the West while acknowledging the related liability issues and that regulators are perhaps not as tech-savvy as they need to be.

​Looking ahead, Theo notes that a key challenge is that many startups and tech firms generally focus their marketing and sales on younger users—despite more wealth held by older people—because of a perception of a lack of digital competency amongst the latter by entrepreneurs.

​She says another roadblock to tech adoption is by financial institutions themselves, as many banks and MNC CEOs are more focused on the bottom line and fear that large, transformational projects will cost millions and hurt their remuneration.

Regulatory Ramblings podcasts is brought to you by The University of Hong Kong – Reg/Tech Lab, HKU-SCF Fintech Academy, Asia Global Institute, and HKU-edX Professional Certificate in Fintech, with support from the HKU Faculty of Law.

Useful links in this episode:

You might also be interested in:

Connect with RR Podcast at:

LinkedIn: https://hk.linkedin.com/company/hkufintech 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hkufintech.fb/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hkufintech/ 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HKUFinTech 
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@hkufintech
Website: https://www.hkufintech.com/regulatoryramblings 

Connect with the Compliance Podcast Network at:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/compliance-podcast-network/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/compliancepodcastnetwork/
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Fox on Podcasting

Fox on Podcasting – Celebrating Excellence in Podcasting in the International Arena

Join Tom Fox as he explores the world of podcasting, and get ready to be inspired to start your podcast. Today, we begin a three-part series on honoring excellence in podcasting and the Agora Awards. We visit with Ajay Shamdasani and Jonathan Armstrong, both award-winning international podcasters.

In this inaugural episode of the Compliance Podcast Network Agora Awards, Tom introduces two guests, Ajay Shamdasani and Jonathan Armstrong, both leaders in compliance and podcasting. Ajay, a veteran writer, editor, and researcher based in Hong Kong, discusses his background, the inception of his podcasting career, and the themes explored in his shows Regulatory Ramblings and Reglex Perspectives. His approach emphasizes the art of conversation and engaging discussions on law, regulation, and technology.

Jonathan Armstrong, a UK data privacy and protection expert, shares insights into his podcasting journey with shows like Life with GDPR and Tech Law 10. He elaborates on how his background in broadcasting as a child influenced his podcasting style today. The conversation explores the role of podcasting in compliance, the challenges and rewards of starting and maintaining a podcast, and key moments from their podcasting careers, including hard-hitting episodes on modern slavery and AI.

Key highlights:

  • Ajay’s Podcasting Journey and Insights
  • Jonathan’s Podcasting Journey and Insights
  • The Art of Podcasting: Strategies and Reflections
  • The Podcasting Scene in Asia
  • The Podcasting Scene in the UK and EU
  • Podcasting Highlights and Memorable Moments

Resources:

Ajay Shamdasani

Regulatory Ramblings (a joint production of HKU’s Faculty of Law and FinTech Academy)

The Reglex Perspective (produced by Reglex)

LinkedIn Profile

Heart of the Matter (produced by Conventus Law)

Jonathan Armstrong

Life with GDPR

Tech 10 Law

Punter Southall

LinkedIn Profile

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Regulatory Ramblings

Regulatory Ramblings: Episode 59 – Four Decades Fighting Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery – A Diplomat Reflects with Matt Friedman

As a former US and United Nations diplomat, Matthew Friedman has been a true warrior on the frontlines against modern slavery and sex trafficking for over four decades. He is an international human trafficking expert and the CEO of The Mekong Club, a non-governmental organization comprised of Hong Kong’s leading businesses that have joined forces to help end all forms of modern slavery.

The Mekong Club is very active in the ESG space and is well-versed in identifying red flags and appropriate metrics to gauge anti-human trafficking compliance.

Previously, he worked for the United States Agency for International Development and the UN in over 40 countries. Matt offers technical advice to numerous governments, banks, and corporations working to eliminate all forms of modern slavery and authorizes fifteen books. In 2017, he won Asia’s prestigious “Communicator of the Year” Gold Award.

His postings have taken him all over Asia, from Nepal to Bangladesh and Thailand. The Mekong Club works with private sector banks, manufacturers, retailers, and the hospitality sectors to do what they need to do in the fight against human trafficking and slavery.

The topic of modern slavery – more colloquially referred to as human trafficking – is a bleak one. In this episode of Regulatory Ramblings, Matt chats with host Ajay Shamdasani about what the global banking and financial institutions and multinational corporations can do about the matter.

The problem indirectly affects us all: estimates are that 50 million people in the world are currently in some form of slavery. Twenty-seven million of them are engaged in forced labor, of which 82% of this figure is associated with supply chains.

Though many survivors of human slavery put on a brave face and try to go about their lives as best they can, it is debatable whether or not they can truly ever be made whole.

The conversation begins with Matt sharing his background and what drew him to the cause of modern slavery. He also stresses that despite the Mekong Club being an NGO, it works with the private sector, perhaps more so than with other NGOs or state bodies. As he notes, there is a greater impetus to take action to effect change in the private sector than in the public sector.

Working with the private sector is an approach that has served Matt and the Club well because, as he puts it: “The private sector has a sense of urgency, unlike the public sector. If a company does an audit on human trafficking and there is a problem, within fifteen minutes, they will call a meeting of all the relevant stakeholders and work to remediate it. The private sector does more than traditional NGOs because they are closer to the action,” he said. He added that NGOs tended to intellectualize matters, often reducing them to purely academic or legal concerns.

Reflecting on his four decades in the field, Matt also recounts what has changed about human trafficking and what has remained the same. As he points out, the evolution of human trafficking is interesting, going from forced manual labor to compelling enslaved persons to undertake more elaborate crimes such as scam farms and ‘pig butchering’ schemes.
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The discussion concludes with Matt sharing his views on how the financial sector can protect themselves from becoming unwitting participants in human trafficking and the sex trade. There is an intersection between money laundering, financial crime, and human trafficking, he says, and it is something the UN Counter-Trafficking program was created to combat.

The Regulatory Ramblings podcasts are brought to you by the University of Hong Kong—Reg/Tech Lab, HKU-SCF Fintech Academy, Asia Global Institute, and HKU-edX Professional Certificate in Fintech, with support from the HKU Faculty of Law.

Useful links in this episode:

You might also be interested in:

Connect with RR Podcast at:

LinkedIn: https://hk.linkedin.com/company/hkufintech 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hkufintech.fb/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hkufintech/ 
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HKUFinTech 
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@hkufintech
Website: https://www.hkufintech.com/regulatoryramblings 

Connect with the Compliance Podcast Network at:

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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/compliancepodcastnetwork/
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Website: https://compliancepodcastnetwork.net

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Regulatory Ramblings

Regulatory Ramblings: Episode 58 – The AI-fication of Jobs with Huy Nguyen Trieu

Huy Nguyen Trieu is the author of the new book The AI-fication of Jobs. He is the co-founder and Ms. Tram Anh Nguyen of the London-headquartered Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship (CFTE). As a global FinTech knowledge platform, CFTE opened its Abu Dhabi office earlier this year and its Singapore office.

A leading voice in the world of AI, Huy’s book is the product of 10 months of effort and debuted at the recent Singapore FinTech Festival in early November 2024. It explores how AI reshapes the workforce and moves beyond the common question of “Will AI take my job?”

Huy shares with Regulatory Ramblings host Ajay Shamdasani how his book provides a structured framework for understanding AI’s impact from displacement to augmentation and how such changes and trends can be leveraged for future success and insights. It is an accessible, future-focused guide and a must-read for anyone interested in AI’s role in shaping careers, industries, and society.
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As Huy puts it: “AI is a complex, personal topic – 85 percent of workers believe it will significantly impact their jobs. But understanding what that means is often confusing.”
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Huy goes on to describe his professional background: He is an engineer by training and an entrepreneur by nature. As a “big picture” person, he’s interested in the revolution in technology that is transforming finance—what he calls Disruptive Finance.

To quote Huy: “Put simply, we are facing a Napster moment: technology is set to revolutionize finance, which will massively impact the global economy, business, and society.”

His passion, he says, is building and growing businesses—especially in changing environments. This passion led him from being a tech CEO in New York to managing director at an investment bank in London to founding partner at a Hong Kong-based accelerator and now co-founder of the CFTE.

As a managing director at Citi, Huy grew a business that helped Europe’s largest insurance companies, major pension funds, and international banks adapt to an increasingly complex environment.
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He also adores teaching at scale, having co-created some of the largest FinTech courses in the world at Oxford University’s Said Business School, the University of Hong Kong University, Imperial College, and now CFTE.
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As CEO of The Disruptive Group, he’s developing a firm that builds innovative finance businesses that leverage technology and advises CEOs of large organizations. One of TDG’s projects is the CFTE, which is dear to Huy’s heart as he explains the impetus for the body’s creation.

“CFTE is the answer to a very simple question: as a professional in financial services, how do I acquire the skills to be future-proof? The question is simple, but the solution is hard because there is much knowledge to acquire, the industry is changing all the time, and professionals do not have time to learn,” Huy says.  “Together with hundreds of experts [from heads of innovations in banks to CEOs of challenger banks and CEOs of FinTech venture capital firms], we have created a platform that helps the industry acquire this knowledge quickly, from FinTech to artificial intelligence to open banking,” he concluded.

A key observation of the book is that AI and its massive impact on careers portends a shift that will give rise to a class of “supercharged professionals” – those who combine their skills with tech to thrive like never before. And then there are the “creative disruptors,” a select few poised to build entirely new industries from scratch. Huy urges us all to embrace this future, not just for ourselves, but to ensure the potential benefits of AI for everyone.
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“On average, we are all about average most of the time. Yet, the results that can be gained through AI are now consistently above average,” he warns while acknowledging there are no easy answers to how the workforce can ‘raise their game’ to avoid redundancy.
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In addition to London, the CFTE is also based in Singapore and Hong Kong and earlier this year opened an office in Abu Dhabi, given the deep need in the Middle East and, in particular, the GCC nations for education in the technologies that will shape the future of work. The CFTE works with most Tier 1 financial institutions, governments, and central banks.

The Regulatory Ramblings podcasts are brought to you by the University of Hong Kong—Reg/Tech Lab, HKU-SCF Fintech Academy, Asia Global Institute, and HKU-edX Professional Certificate in Fintech, with support from the HKU Faculty of Law.

Useful links in this episode:

  • Follow Huy Nguyen Trieu on LinkedIn

  • “The AI-fication of Jobs” on: Amazon

  • CFTE book page: Webpage

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Regulatory Ramblings: Episode 57 – A Path to Financial Inclusion Through Technology with Eelee Lua

Eelee Lua is chief of staff and a director at xcube.co – a Singapore-based corporate venture studio. A seasoned business leader in technology specializing in risk mitigation and strategic partnerships, having entered the risk and compliance field 13 years ago and has previously held roles at AsiaVerify and the RISQ Group.

Eelee holds a board director accreditation from the Singapore Institute of Directors and actively contributes to industry communities such as the Singapore FinTech Association and Women In Alliances.
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She recently penned an article entitled “Circular Financial Identity—The Missing Piece for Financial Inclusion,” which forms the basis for this episode’s discussion.

In this installment of Regulatory Ramblings, Eelee talks to host Ajay Shamdasani about her piece and how financial inclusion remains a critical global issue, with approximately 1.4 billion people still lacking access to formal financial services. She also shared a little about Defy, an xcube company on a mission to address financial inclusion. Her observation that traditional financial systems often exclude marginalized populations, such as low-income individuals, women, rural communities, and refugees, compelled her to write the article. Financial exclusion not only limits economic opportunities but also perpetuates poverty.

Yet, all is not lost, and Eelee believes technology may deliver true financial inclusion. A promising solution to bridge this gap is Circular Financial Identity (CFI), she says, “which has the potential to transform financial inclusion efforts worldwide.” The key, she says, is understanding CFI because “unlike traditional digital identities that rely on static information and centralized databases, CFI employs a dynamic, decentralized, and interoperable system,” – thereby enabling “under-documented individuals, including refugees, to gradually build their financial identity by capturing their digital financial footprint across various domains such as earning, spending, borrowing, saving, investing, and lending.”

Eelee says the circularity of data, particularly the continuous accumulation and reuse of financial data, creates a comprehensive, robust, and evolving picture of their financial behavior and capabilities, enabling access to a broader range of financial services.
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“Circular Financial Identity represents a transformative approach to enhancing financial inclusion. By leveraging digital technologies, CFI can provide underserved populations, including refugees, access to essential financial services, reduce costs, and empower marginalized groups. While challenges remain, the potential benefits of CFI make it a critical piece in achieving universal financial inclusion,” she says.

Eelee also shares a little about her background, upbringing, education, and what launched her toward a career in compliance. She also describes what Xcube does and her own “moment of epiphany” when she realized that the world of cryptocurrencies and digital assets was something important that she needed to pay attention to in the coming years.

Looking ahead, while she thinks Web3 will have a marked impact on banking in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, she cautions that many of the world’s financial institutions have yet to consider the interoperability and integration issues of using such technologies in the current world.
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A resolute believer in the power of targeted technology use to aid the perennial global cause of financial inclusion and bring about a more egalitarian world with a more level playing field, the conversation concludes with her reflections on a decade plus in the risk and compliance field and her greatest lessons, challenges, and regrets during that time.

Regulatory Ramblings podcasts is brought to you by The University of Hong Kong – Reg/Tech Lab, HKU-SCF Fintech Academy, Asia Global Institute, and HKU-edX Professional Certificate in Fintech, with support from the HKU Faculty of Law.

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Regulatory Ramblings: Episode 56 – The Intersection of Financial Crime and Cryptocurrencies with Chengyi Ong

Chengyi Ong leads public policy in the Asia-Pacific region for Chainalysis from the firm’s regional headquarters in Singapore. Drawing on Chainalysis’s blockchain data analytics platform, she works with public and private sector stakeholders to distill developments in digital asset markets and their intersections with global and regional regulatory trends.

Before joining Chainalysis, Chengyi spent 13 years at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, holding roles in financial regulation and supervision, financial sector development, and central banking. She also served as the Advisor to the Executive Director for Southeast Asia at the International Monetary Fund.

In this episode of Regulatory Ramblings, she talks to host Ajay Shamdasani about the intersection of money laundering, financial crime, and cryptocurrencies.

The conversation begins with Chengyi describing her upbringing, formative years, career path choice, and time as a regulator at the MAS. She then discusses what Chainalysis does, its market position, and her interest in the digital asset sector.

She shares her views on the rising levels of both crypto-native and non-crypto-native money laundering, why such trends are growing, and the types of crimes emanating from Asia, making reference to key findings from Chainalysis’ recent report on the matter, including the 2024 Crypto Crime Report and the 2024 Crypto Money Laundering Report (links below).
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Chengyi also discusses her thoughts on stablecoins being used for money laundering, what her firm’s report says about the destination of illicit funds, and the best ways to prevent crypto-native money laundering – especially in the Asia-Pacific. To that end, she is candid about what regional regulators should do to tackle this issue, noting that more needs to be done. What ensues is a deeper chat about what regulators’ role in ferreting financial crime should be vis a vis cryptocurrency exchanges and financial institutions – the latter of which are financial gatekeepers in their own right.

The conversation concludes with Chengyi reflecting on the arc of her career and how AML regulations have evolved in APAC over the years. She stresses that in an age of aggressive enforcement actions, sanctions, and not insubstantial fines, it will be imperative for organizations to verify the entities they are transacting with and engaging with. She offers some suggestions as to how they may do so.

Regulatory Ramblings podcasts is brought to you by The University of Hong Kong – Reg/Tech Lab, HKU-SCF Fintech Academy, Asia Global Institute, and HKU-edX Professional Certificate in Fintech, with support from the HKU Faculty of Law.

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Regulatory Ramblings: Episode 55 – A Former Singapore Regulator Reflects on the World of Virtual Assets with Angela Ang

Angela Ang is TRM Labs’ senior policy advisor in Singapore. TRM Labs is a world-renowned blockchain intelligence company. She is also a former regulator, having spent over a decade at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), where she was most recently its deputy director in charge of licensing for payments and crypto service providers. Angela has also been recognized as a LinkedIn Top Voice for Finance in Asia for her thought leadership on digital asset developments in the region.

In this episode of Regulatory Ramblings, she talks to host Ajay Shamdasani about growing up in Singapore, spending time in the US, her education at INSEAD, and ultimately, the early days of her career in a business development capacity at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) where she promoted the Lion City as an international financial center.
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Recalling her experiences as a regulator with fondness, she notes that as a MAS officer, she was privileged to see policymaking at the highest level up close—emphasizing that few jobs enable one to work with ministers and policymakers so early in their careers. Notwithstanding the high intellectual rigor of working for a body as mission-driven as the MAS, she stresses that regulators are people, too.

The discussion then moves on to what TRM Labs does in blockchain intelligence and analytics. Angela describes it: “Blockchain analytics is like Google Maps for blockchain. We help clients make sense of public blockchain data and use it to fight fraud and financial crime.”  She points out that while the immutable ledger functionality of a blockchain is invaluable, it is often not easily understood by clients, likening it to “looking at a satellite image without context.” TRM, she says, helps make sense of blockchain ledgers by layering information about entities and their risk levels to give clients a better picture.
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In that regard, she sees parallels between her time at the MAS and TRM Labs, which also has a compliance-centric business model and is mission-driven. “A lot of our staff have joined [TRM Labs] from the public sector,” Angela says, lauding the firm’s spirit of nimbleness and entrepreneurialism.

She also recounts her first exposure to cryptocurrencies and blockchain in 2015 when her boss asked her to undertake a research project on the subject as part of the MAS capital markets team. Her impressions then and now are that while there is much to be said for the “promise of blockchain,” they need to be weighed against the “technology and risks of investing in crypto”; Angela recalls former MAS head Ravi Menon’s speech, paraphrasing his central policy point of Singapore saying yes to digital asset innovation, but no to cryptocurrency speculation. She said such an approach was prudent for the Lion City to adopt as “crypto will be around for the foreseeable future.”

She then shared her views on the regulation in Asia, stating that the region is leading the pack regarding regulatory clarity. “There has been more movement in crypto regulation across the region, especially in financial hubs like Singapore and Hong Kong,” she says.

​For example, Japan (2017) and Singapore (2020) were amongst the first countries to pioneer bespoke crypto regulation, fully realizing the failures of crypto for the investing public over the past decade, she says. “We need to regulate and think about it [crypto] differently.”

There has been massive movement, for example, Singapore’s rules on custody of crypto assets, expansion of licensing requirements, and Hong Kong’s regulation of over-the-counter crypto trading and its virtual asset service provider (VASP) licensing regime this year.

Yet, with Asian jurisdictions at different levels of development, Angela acknowledges that even with digital assets, every Asian regulator will have their philosophy on how to view crypto. She is broadly optimistic about the direction of things, citing the region’s general move towards greater regulatory clarity.

Citing a deep-dive regional survey by TRM’s policy team, the trend worldwide was overwhelmingly (80%) towards tightening regulation and more consumer protection measures.

“Regulation is about control and the requirements needed to prevent illicit activity. Sufficient enforcement is there to ensure consequences,” Angela said, noting that more levers for action against recalcitrant entities were needed.

She added that the authorities also had the responsibility to deeply understand the technology implementation and controls regulated entities must comply with to ensure they meet the requirements of the regulatory outcomes they have in mind. This also requires having enough skilled people to conduct rigorous supervision as needed.

The conversation then turned to the perceived talent shortage in crypto compliance. While explaining that digital finance was different from traditional finance, she said that older principles of compliance and risk management were still appliable, “but the devil is in the details,” adding: “You need good governance and disclosures; it is the same with traditional finance as with digital finance. There is overlap, but the technology of blockchain and crypto creates differences. For example, verifying ownership of a bank account differs from verifying ownership of a blockchain wallet.”

Technology’s changed landscape also gives rise to the related topics of SupTech and RegTech, which are key parts of what TRM does. As Angela explains, crypto compliance professionals use TRM’s tools for ongoing due diligence and transaction monitoring. Yet, regulators also use TRM’s offerings for RegTech purposes – to obtain real-time information about entities’ activities on the blockchain.

“As regulators build their knowledge of blockchain and crypto, we will see greater opportunities for SupTech applications offering real-time monitoring without adding to the [compliance] burden of regulated entities. The goal of SupTech should be to make tools user-friendly for non-experts such as non-cryptographers and non-asset tracers,” she said.

TRM Labs’ data shows that the total amount of crypto crimes emanating from Asia was US34.8 billion, but that is still just 0.63% of the global total. Angela notes that figure is comparable to traditional finance while acknowledging that crypto is borderless and that organizations and syndicates operate across borders across and from Asia.

She says VASPs have evolved to respond better to crypto crime, citing the loss of trust in recent years. “They are winning it [trust] back. As the industry matures, with more governance and compliance, they realize their role in fighting crime,” she said, emphasizing TRM’s role in working with the public and private sectors.

Angela stresses that VASPs have lower rates of crypto crimes with proper licensing and mandated risk controls than in less regulated jurisdictions. While noting that there are different degrees of risk controls, “few exchanges in the world now exist with no risk controls,” she says. Those are high-risk exchanges and conduits for bad actors moving outside regulated parameters. Most exchanges have degrees of risk control, and there has been a leveling up of crypto regulation worldwide.”

Looking ahead, she pointed to market misconduct as an evolving area in digital finance. The Madrid-based International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) FinTech Taskforce has singled it out as a priority item for crypto regulators, she says.

Regulatory Ramblings podcasts is brought to you by The University of Hong Kong – Reg/Tech Lab, HKU-SCF Fintech Academy, Asia Global Institute, and HKU-edX Professional Certificate in Fintech, with support from the HKU Faculty of Law.

Useful links in this episode:

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