Megan Devlin, Program Coordinator of The Digital Finance Future series, thanks Sakal Mao, Commercial Counselor at the Royal Embassy of Cambodia, for attending the session.

Dewi Meidiwaty, First Secretary of Media & Sociocultural Affairs at the Embassy of Indonesia, listens to the presentation on overcoming cultural and behavioral barriers to financial inclusion in her home country’s region.

Frank Justice, Vice President of Convening at Meridian International Center, greets Jaljeet Kumar, Second Secretary at the Embassy of the Republic of the Fiji Islands, before kicking off The Digital Finance Future session.

Kyle Holloway leads his table in the first breakout discussion exploring the importance of considering cultural context when designing strategies, products and systems for advancing financial inclusion.

Moira Whelan, Partner at Blue Dot Strategies, shares the business community’s perspective during the discussion while Kay McGowan, Director of Digital Finance at USAID, smiles.

Mukti Setianto, Second Secretary at the Embassy of Indonesia, and Mohsin Chandna, Economic Minister at the Embassy of Pakistan, reflect on their table’s conversation about the various approaches to societal and behavioral change that can help people see the benefits of their own financial inclusion.

On right, Zara Qureshi, former Research Manager of Asia for InterMedia, shares her perspective on the need for cross-sector collaboration to ensure that policies, regulations and laws around digital finance are culturally relevant yet inclusive.

Participants of The Digital Finance Future session on March 9 engage in simultaneous table conversations about the role of RegTech and culture in advancing economic inclusion.

Ivo Jenik, Financial Sector Specialist at CGAP, shares some of the research his think tank has done around RegTech and the advancement of economic inclusion.

Diplomats from the Embassy of Indonesia – Media & Sociocultural Officer Victor Pattianakotta and Economic Officer Rut Nastiti – describe their country’s new initiatives for advancing financial inclusion, namely the newly created regulatory sandbox as well as the Central Bank’s FinTech Office.

Dr. Jay Rosengard defines “RegTech” as the distinct technology designed to help enforce regulations – just like ‘FinTech’ is technology for financial institutions.

Mannie T’Chawi, Co-Founder of LayerCake and a participant of all the regional sessions of The Digital Finance Future, shares takeaways from his table’s discussion on culture, behavior and technology in digital finance environment.