COVID-19 And The Future of FinTech: Interview with Sean Kiernan, CEO of DAG Global By Hilton Supra And Hirander Misra

 

Hilton Supra, Vice Chairman of Ztudium and citiesabc is joined by Hirander Misra, Chair & CEO GMEX Group & SECDEX and Sean Kiernan, Chief Executive Officer at DAG Global in a new series interview for citiesabc. The three financial industry experts go through the many challenges that financial firms and services face in today’s convoluted world.

The current coronavirus crisis is about to bring a deep economic crisis and, inevitably, financial companies will be in the spotlight. Whether they are big financial services companies or new FinTech challengers, these companies will have a key role as catalysts for the crisis. And the challenges don’t stop there. From the lack of global and functional regulatory frameworks to the development and application of 4IR technologies such as AI and Blockchain, the three experts share their expertise while hinting at what the future of the industry looks like.

Key Takeaways

· About the COVID-19 crisis and Fintech

Hirander Misra: “At the moment the most critical challenge is COVID-19, so let’s see when things go back to normal in what state FinTech will be. Fortunately, many of these fintechs are taking advantage of 4IR technologies and have digitizied their processes and operations. Crisis bring about new ways for storing value and exchanging. In 2008 we saw the birth of Bitcoin. After this crisis we might see a new thing.”

Sean Kiernan: “One of the most immediate takeaways of this crisis is remote working, for example and its widespread implementation across the financial sector. This is affecting already white collar financial sector workers. I also see other opportunities out of this crisis. For example, the higher level of collaboration and partnerships between financial services firms.”

· About 4IR technologies and Regulation

Sean Kiernan: “Blockchain has the potential to become more important and after this crisis there is that opportunity. Especially if regulators can keep up. In fact, this is critical at this stage. Regulatory bodies, national and international, need to talk to each other and set up global standards.”

· About technology in digital banking

Sean Kiernan: “AI is helping digital banks be more competitive as it is better adapted to consumer needs: better UI/UX, customer engagement, data processing and analytics, etc.”

Hirander Misra: “Technology helps by leveraging human interaction through customer service. Chatbots are a great example of it.”

Hirander Misra

Hirander Misra is the Chairman and CEO of GMEX Group (GMEX), offering innovative solutions for the creation & operation of electronic exchanges and post trade infrastructure in securities, FX, derivatives, commodities, crypto & digital tokenized assets. He is also part of the Mauritius Financial Services Commission task force on Digital Finance.

He is also Chairman of MINDEX, the Mauritius based International Derivatives and Commodities Exchange, which is a full ecosystem providing a regulated exchange, clearing house, refinery, vault, office, warehousing, digital marketplace and digital custodian for tokenized gold and other assets enabled by blockchain technology. He is also a Director of USAVE Blockchain offering ethical digital tokenized physical gold.

He is also Founder & Co-Chairman of FinComEco, a fully integrated Financial & Commodities Ecosystem providing services, financing, capacity building and enablement solutions to help improve the livelihoods of Sub Saharan African farmers using blockchain.

He is additionally a Board Director of DAG Global, whose mission is to bridge traditional financial services with emerging digital assets to provide the premier trusted platform to access the digital and crypto economy by way of boutique investment banking services. He is also an adviser to EQI Bank, which will provide innovative banking, trading, custody, lending, clearing and settlement services for fiat and cryptocurrencies.

Sean Kiernan

Sean Kiernan is the Founder and CEO of DAG Global, which aims to become the world’s leading digital assets bank and the first to obtain a full banking licence from the UK’s regulatory authorities. DAG’s mission is to deliver merchant banking services to SMEs and digital firms – providing access to the benefits of digitisation in finance with bespoke service provided by people, empowered by technology and adhering to the highest standards of compliance and security.

He joined from Falcon Private Bank, the first bank in the world to offer crypto products to clients, where he served as the COO and Interim CEO of the London operation until leaving to establish DAG Global.

Prior to that he was responsible for the corporate development of Clariden Leu, a division of Credit Suisse, managing bank-wide due-diligence for Mergers & Acquisitions in Switzerland before moving to London to establish a private bank within the group.

Before that he had a number of high-profile international positions, including Managing Consultant for Zurich Financial Services in Zurich and Moscow.

Mr Kiernan has an MBA from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, where he has been Alumni President, and also a BSc from Georgetown University, Washington DC.

Hilton Supra

Hilton Supra is a business and financial industry veteran and thought leader. Hilton has more than 30 years of Finance, Investment, Banking and Asset Management experience in international markets namely London, Europe, Africa and Asia. This while having a passion for growing businesses, for fashion and new technologies, especially fintech and blockchain where he has been deeply involved since these technologies inception. Now, Hilton is co-leading the fashion directory fashionabc as well as technology startup Ztudium.

From Quantitative Asset Management, Capital Markets, Trading software, Hedge Funds and Private Equity, Hilton has worked for Morgan Grenfell, Deutsche Bank, AXA Investment Management, EIM Fund of Hedge Funds (responsible $2.4bn of $13bn)  and Cheyne Capital. Hilton is a graduate in Engineering from Oxford Brooks University and a Master in Finance at London Business School. Hilton has always been on the leading edge of innovation and technology in banking, derivative trading, quantitative asset management, hedge funds and since 2015 the application of FinTech, AI and blockchain to enterprise solutions.

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