Speakers
Sohini Rajola
Executive Director, Growth
National Payments Corporation Of India (NPCI)
Sohini Rajola, Executive Director – Growth, NPCI
Driving digital transformation across India's payments ecosystem, with a focus on growth, innovation, market strategy, and strategic partnerships.
As Executive Director – Growth at NPCI, Sohini is responsible for driving the growth and adoption of some of India's most widely adopted payment platforms, enhancing product offerings, expanding market reach, and enabling seamless digital payment experiences at scale. The role involves working closely with banks, fintechs, merchants, regulators, and ecosystem partners to strengthen collaboration, accelerate innovation, and support the continued evolution of India's digital payments landscape.
Bringing over two decades of leadership experience across payments and banking, spanning product innovation, go-to-market strategy, cross-border payments, digital banking, cards, customer experience, and ecosystem development. Throughout this journey, the focus has been on shaping products and platforms that address evolving customer needs, accelerating digital adoption, and fostering collaboration across financial institutions, fintechs, regulators, and global payment networks. This experience has provided a unique perspective on how technology, partnerships, and policy can come together to drive meaningful transformation at scale.
Committed to advancing financial inclusion through trusted, accessible, and future-ready payment solutions that serve consumers, businesses, and institutions alike. The focus remains on contributing to a more connected, inclusive, and resilient digital payments ecosystem for India. Previously served as Asia Pacific Regional Head at Western Union and Digital Banking & Cards Head at Axis Bank.
Speaking at SFF 2026
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4:00–4:40pmThu 19 NovPolicy StageHall 3, Singapore EXPOOpen
Technology Rewiring
The Price of Connection: What It Actually Takes to Build Cross-Border Payment Cooperation
Policy StageHall 3, Singapore EXPOOpen
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Joyce BoExecutive Vice President, Core Payments, Asia PacificMastercard
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Sohini RajolaExecutive Director, GrowthNational Payments Corporation Of India (NPCI)
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Andrew McCormackChief Executive OfficerNexus Global Payments
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Carlos ÁlvarezChief Risk Officer, Member of Executive TeamFLAR
About this session
Interoperability is widely recognised as a goal, but connecting one country’s payment system to another takes more than technology. It requires alignment on regulation, standards, governance and commercial incentives — as well as negotiation over how costs, risks and benefits are shared. This panel brings together the networks, national payment schemes, policymakers and multilateral hubs working to make cross-border payments more connected, examining where regulatory and commercial frictions persist, how different payment ecosystems can connect and scale across markets, and what smaller or newer markets need to participate on viable terms.
The discussion will explore where cross-border payment cooperation is working in practice, what it takes to make connections sustainable, and whether the biggest barriers to greater connectivity are technical, regulatory or commercial. -

