Speakers
T. S. Shankar
Asia Reprsentative
BAFT (Bankers Association for Finance and Trade)
Shankar is a consummate professional with over three decades of experience in financial services across banks. Non-banks, FinTech's and now with BAFT (Bankers Association for Finance and Trade), (Bankers Association for Finance and Trade a 103-year-old advocacy organization for Trade and Payments.
He has worked in Global and regional responsibilities including the US, Singapore, and India in various leadership roles in sales and product development. Currently based in Singapore, Shankar’s remit includes all of Asia Pacific where BAFT constituents are based.
A keen follower of developments across the banking industry with a specific focus on transaction banking, Shankar has also invested in and advices Fintech's, working with bright minds with brilliant ideas.
Speaking at SFF 2026
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4:40–5:10pmThu 19 NovPolicy StageHall 3, Singapore EXPOOpenModerator
Technology Rewiring
Financing Financial Infrastructure in Emerging Markets
Policy StageHall 3, Singapore EXPOOpenModerator
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Hon. Ebson UangutaGovernorBank of Namibia
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Dr. Shaji Krishnan VChairmanNABARD
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T. S. ShankarAsia ReprsentativeBAFT (Bankers Association for Finance and Trade)Moderator
About this session
Building the infrastructure for financial inclusion and cross-border connectivity is one challenge. Financing it is another, and it's the one that usually gets skipped over in the excitement about what could be built. Is the binding constraint on financial inclusion the technology, or the capital to build and sustain it?
This panel brings together leaders from a small economy building its own digital public infrastructure, a hub positioning itself to draw global capital into a fast-growing regional market, and a development bank whose entire mandate is getting credit to populations mainstream finance still doesn't reach. The dialogue will focus on where the funding for this actually comes from, state budgets, development finance, or private capital drawn in by the right market positioning, and what it takes for a smaller or developing market to make itself genuinely investable. -

