Payments Powerhouses: Join Elevandi Chairman Mohanty to explore the forefront of financial technolog

in this issue ink>1ink> the Payments Powerhouses series of interviews, we will talk to Sopnendu Mohanty, Chairman of the Board of Elevandi and Chief Fintech Officer of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, to discuss the innovative development of fintech, inclusive finance and other cutting-edge topics.

Elevandi is a non-profit organization founded by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in August 2021, and Mohanty serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the organization.

As a senior expert in the field of fintech, Mohanty has been deeply involved in the international financial industry for more than 25 years, and has extensive experience in financial services, technology and innovation. He also serves as the Chief Fintech Officer of the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

Mr. Mohanty, welcome to Payments Powerhouses. After more than 20 years in the field of financial innovation, what prompted you to switch from banking to public service?

Mohanty: Looking back, sometimes I find this experience incredible! In fact, I didn’t deliberately plan this transition. It can be said that it was a coincidence. When the opportunity came, I followed the voice of my heart and made a choice. I have never regretted making such a choice. The past seven years in the public sector of fintech have undoubtedly been the most exciting chapter of my life. I am grateful to have worked with so many colleagues on this journey.

I am glad to hear that! So, what makes you interested in working in the public sector?

Everything here attracts me! Many friends say that I don’t call it work, but enjoy my hobby. I couldn’t agree more. When your career and passion are combined, it can become a source of continuous motivation. You will no longer feel tired because you can always stay focused, energetic, always optimistic, and pursue every opportunity to surpass.

The charm of this job is that it can improve people’s lives and have a profound positive impact. This job gives me the freedom to explore and promote the popularization and fairness of financial services so that they benefit everyone. I am proud to be able to devote myself to such a cause that benefits the public.

Since we are talking about the topic of the public sector, why not talk about Elevandi. What does the name Elevandi mean?

"Elevandi" means "take off", while some people think it means "the wisdom of an elephant". Either interpretation coincides with Elevandi's mission and vision. We are committed to elevating the dialogue dimension in the field of fintech, focusing on the digital economy, financial services, and fair wealth distribution.

Why was Elevandi founded?

The origin of Elevandi can be traced back to the first Singapore Fintech Festival in 2016. The originally planned small-scale conference unexpectedly attracted more than 13,000 participants, which was larger than expected.

As the Singapore Fintech Festival has been successfully held year after year, it has developed into the largest event in the global fintech field, attracting industry elites from more than 130 countries and even leaders from many countries. In view of this grand occasion, we realized that it was necessary to build a strong institution to support the continued prosperity of this event.

Thus, Elevandi came into being. Elevandi's vision is clear: to become a global top knowledge exchange platform without barriers, where everyone can participate equally regardless of identity or wealth. We are committed to building global bridges and promoting cross-border knowledge and insight sharing.

What are the next major milestones for Elevandi?

We are preparing for a high-impact forum in Kigali, Africa, and we have assembled a diverse board of directors that includes key players from Europe, Latin America, Africa, and more.

The Singapore Fintech Festival will continue to be a flagship event, growing in tandem with other series of events to enrich Elevandi's global vision.

Ultimately, we should stay true to our roots and remember why the Singapore Fintech Festival is so popular. As the world's most cost-effective and accessible fintech event, the Singapore Fintech Festival provides a valuable platform for ordinary developers to interact with the world's top talents.

This is the best embodiment of our values. We strive to build a globally recognized knowledge hub that provides resources and support to those who need it at any time.

In 2019, I had the honor of participating in the first Asia-Africa Fintech Festival. It was an exciting event that made me deeply feel the vitality and unlimited potential of the Kenyan fintech field.

It is amazing that we can also plan an event with global impact in Singapore, which fully proves that if you are determined to create a world-class platform, the world's resources and energy will come together to help you make your dream come true.

Given your deep understanding of the public and private sectors, what challenges and opportunities do you think companies in these two sectors face?

For startups, no matter what stage of development or industry they are involved in, there are always key issues that keep founders awake at night: fundraising, talent acquisition, business models, macroeconomic challenges and various licensing procedures. These are the challenges that startups must go through on their journey, whether they are located in Singapore or anywhere else in the world.

How does Elevandi bridge the gap and drive the fintech ecosystem forward?

We analyze each link in detail and produce insights that are far-reaching in both the public and private sectors, and integrate these valuable insights into the strategic planning of startups.

At the same time, Elevandi can also proactively reveal potential problems, especially in industries with strong regulatory intensity, where the risks caused by lagging policy changes are particularly significant. It takes time for innovative ideas to be conceived and implemented in the market. If there are unclear regulations or adverse changes in the process, all the investment and value may be lost in an instant.

This is one of Elevandi’s key responsibilities. We are committed to starting key conversations early to prevent problems before they happen. The Fintech Regulatory Sandbox launched by the Monetary Authority of Singapore is an example of Elevandi’s forward-thinking, which shows the role of policy foresight in promoting industry development.

Our onboarding process can help companies maintain a more comprehensive, prudent and balanced development momentum on their respective growth paths.

This year’s largest fintech event, the Singapore Fintech Festival, is underway. What is different from previous events?

This year’s Fintech Festival is a bold break. Usually, global conferences revolve around a single topic and retell success stories through the mouths of others.

This year, we invited the protagonists of the success stories to speak directly, allowing those behind the success to tell their glorious chapters in person, bringing a new change to the technology festival. This means that instead of listening to others talking about XX’s extraordinary achievements in the Philippines, XX will take the stage to share first-hand experiences.

Granted, it’s a bold move to bring these low-profile industry elites to the fore, but given the need for resilience in the post-pandemic era, we think it’s worth the risk. And that requires taking risks, taking the lead, and bringing together the best of all industries, each with their own unique story.

From Nobel Prize winners dissecting the social impact of ESG to Stuart Haber, co-inventor of blockchain, this year’s Singapore Fintech Festival (SFF 2022) brought together speakers from many different fields to create a feast of cross-disciplinary storytelling.

Are there any stories you’re particularly looking forward to hearing?

Project Ruby immediately comes to mind, where we invited core members of the project to show how fintech can work with the international security industry to combat child pornography, a moving example of using data analysis to expose evil and protect innocence.

We also invited speakers who hold different views from us, such as those who hold dissenting positions on climate change and those who are cautious about digital transformation.

The leaders of the digital banks of the future will also be present and in the spotlight. Almost all the key companies that have obtained digital banking licenses in recent years will gather in Singapore to seize this opportunity and showcase their style as the leaders of the future financial industry. I am sure these companies will bring exciting stories to everyone during the event.

The theme of this year's Singapore Fintech Festival is "Building Resilient Business Models in Fluctuation and Change". In your opinion, have investors and business leaders been focusing on the "wrong" business performance indicators?

This is a hot topic at present, and KPIs and performance indicators that were once regarded as golden rules are now under re-examination.

Throw away all the external noise and you will find that a successful business should have the following characteristics:

Practical

Achieve positive cash flow

Have a real impact on public life

Create value that customers can intuitively feel

Traditional valuation indicators are increasingly questioned, and you can see that many adjustments are underway to adapt to the new reality.

After the uncertain developments and many variables in the past few years, what advice do you have for business leaders and executives?

Personally, I certainly hope that the situation is not so dire. But going through low times is an integral part of the business journey. These low times are invaluable and provide valuable lessons beyond the pages of a book.

For example, despite skepticism about the sustainability and profitability of digital banks, in this special period of global inflation, digital banks may become the vanguard of financial industry transformation with their innovative models.

Sustainability has been one of the core topics of the Singapore FinTech Festival since 2019. How has the conversation on sustainability evolved in recent years, especially under the dual impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and global economic challenges?

Today, public awareness of ESG has increased significantly. This trend is reflected in the data. The discussion around ESG standard setting, information disclosure, and classification systems is becoming increasingly heated and in-depth.

As CTO of Elevandi and an advocate of the ESG technology field, my mission is to explore and promote the technology platforms needed to support the widespread adoption of ESG concepts.

In this regard, the availability of data forms the cornerstone of the entire infrastructure. Such data must be verified, monitored, and cannot be tampered with. Before ESG adoption can be widely adopted, it is critical to ensure that platforms have unconditional access to high-quality data.

However, this is challenging given that data comes from a variety of jurisdictions and there are multiple interpretations of cross-border data flows.

Project Greenprint is the MAS’s firm commitment to the responsible use of ESG data. The project aims to build a transparent, reliable and efficient ESG ecosystem through technology and data resources to promote the development of green and sustainable finance.

Project Greenprint is built around three core actions, the three “Ms”:

Mobilise capital

Monitor implementations

Measure the impact

Although still in its infancy, Project Greenprint represents a promising vision for the future that inspires us all.

Recently, Singapore was ranked first in Asia in the Global Financial Centres Index and ranked third in the world. So, what do you think are the key elements for a city to become a leading fintech hub?

At a macro level, Singapore’s remarkable achievements in fintech are largely due to the government’s all-round support and coordinated strategy. Yes, although Singapore is small in size, we have never stopped moving forward and continue to promote innovation and progress.

At the national level, we embrace an open and enterprising spirit of innovation, while adhering to a high-standard regulatory framework to ensure that we remain robust in the midst of rapid development.

What do you think Singapore is doing very well and should continue to focus on?

Before answering this question, let's take a look at the three types of capital that a startup needs in its growth process: intellectual capital, financial capital and human capital.

In Singapore, we perform well in intellectual and financial capital, but we face challenges in human capital. This is partly due to the natural limitations of Singapore as a small island country, with a small population base that is not enough to meet the needs of rapid global expansion. In addition, despite our best efforts, the speed of talent training is still difficult to match the rapid pace of development of the domestic technology industry.

Therefore, I think we must do more to strengthen human capital construction. This is not easy - people cannot become experts through theoretical learning alone, but require extensive education, practical experience accumulation, and opportunities to participate in diverse projects.

These resources are not limited to local areas, and the world is a treasure land for us to draw nutrients. This means that in order to build a global talent pool, Singapore needs to build an international talent ecosystem to attract elites from all over the world to gather in Singapore and work together, while ensuring that the same results can be seen in India, the Philippines, Indonesia and other places. This goal can only be achieved through global collaboration. For this reason, it is crucial to provide the necessary support and full respect for global talents so that they are willing to take root in Singapore.

Speaking of Singapore's connectivity with the world, discussions and practices on improving cross-border payment connectivity are frequent in the payment industry. How will the QR code payment system interconnection system promoted by the governments of the five ASEAN countries (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines) bring benefits to the Singapore region?

Simplified payment processes will undoubtedly make business activities more convenient and efficient, encourage all parties to actively participate, and promote the prosperity of the entire region.

Especially for cost-sensitive local Asian merchants, such as cafes in small towns, an all-purpose QR code for payment may be the most cost-effective solution.

The universal applicability of QR codes makes it an ideal payment tool for businesses of different sizes.

Regarding the discussion that central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are expected to solve cross-border transfer problems, what do you think of the future development of central bank digital currencies in Southeast Asia?

The best explanation is that the financial industry is gradually moving towards asset tokenization, and this development trend comes with many far-reaching consequences, one of which is the need for a new medium of exchange in the sale and purchase of tokenized assets. Unfortunately, such assets currently exist mainly in the form of highly volatile cryptocurrencies. In this context, central bank digital currencies, as a currency supported and regulated by the central bank, have emerged as an effective means to combat unregulated cryptocurrencies.

You mentioned on LinkedIn that one of the things you are proud of is "uncovering people's ability to make an impact" (or "increasing empathy"), why is this important to you? How do you put it into practice?

"Uncovering people's ability to make an impact" is my personal value proposition, which comes from my upbringing in India, where I grew up in a challenging environment

, I had to rely on the help of many people around me to keep moving forward.

This practice of tapping into the potential of others to make a positive impact was once a survival skill for me. In order to move forward, I needed to not only make friends, but also make friends with capable people who were capable, ambitious and had the ability to make an impact.

This practice has brought me great value in public affairs and has greatly helped me to formulate far-reaching policies. Today, my position allows me to further develop this skill and inspire the potential of my team to jointly achieve the goal.

"Payments Powerhouses" is a monthly feature series focusing on interviews with leaders in the payment and fintech fields in Southeast Asia and around the world.