Registration & Networking Early Bird Prizes – First 50 winners to walk away with an JBL Audio Glasses

IDC Welcome Address

Sandra Ng

Group Vice President, and General Manager, Research, Asia/Pacific IDC

Balancing AI Risk vs Reward – Debunking AI Adoption Security Myths vs Reality

Andrew Namboka

Head, Strategy and Innovation (Singapore), NTT DATA, Inc.

Building ‘Living Applications’: Drive Business Value Through AI-Powered Process Transformation

Tired of rigid, manual, and outdated business processes hindering innovation? Discover how Papyrus Converse, powered by IBM watsonx and process mining, enables the creation of “living applications”—dynamic, AI-driven solutions that evolve with your business needs. Empower your business users to reshape complex, decision-heavy workflows in natural language, automate critical decisions, gain real-time insights, and drastically reduce compliance risks. Learn how this integrated approach leverages best-in-class technologies to build and deploy agile, future-proof solutions.

Annemarie Pucher

CEO, ISIS Papyrus Group

AI at Work in Finance: Real Use Cases, Lessons Learned, and Tangible Impact

The financial sector is increasingly adopting AI technologies to enhance efficiency, customer experience, and risk management. This trend is driven by the need for innovative solutions to stay competitive in a rapidly evolving market. The session will explore real-world applications of AI in finance, sharing valuable lessons learned and showcasing tangible impacts on the industry.

Balamurugan Jegatheesan

Chief Architect, FPT Asia Pacific, FPT Corporation

Thorsten Neumann

Head, Data and AI, SC Ventures

Fireside Chat: AI deployment in the digital ecosystem: what you need to know

Philip Lee

Head of Cyberdefense, APAC, Orange Business

Akther Ahmed

Group Vice President, Partners & Alliances, Splunk

Advisory Council Felicitation

Sandra Ng

Group Vice President, and General Manager, Research, Asia/Pacific IDC

Jyoti Lalchandani

Head of WW Events & MD – META, Central Asia, India, IDC

Tea / Coffee & Networking Break

AFSC Awards: Category – Most Innovative Bank / Insurer / Capital Market Firm & Leader in Resiliency

Start of Session Raffle – iPhone 16

Dr. Christopher Lee Marshall

Vice President, Data, Analytics, AI, Sustainability, and Industry Research, IDC Asia/Pacific

Changing the Engine While the Bus Is Running: A Pragmatic Path to Transformation for Heritage BFSIs

In today’s environment, the need for transformation in banking is no longer a debate — it’s a necessity. The convergence of digital disruption, AI acceleration, shifting customer demographics, and the rise of fintechs owning the customer interface leaves traditional banks with a stark choice: evolve or erode.

Yet, for heritage financial institutions, transformation rarely starts with a blank slate. It’s about re-engineering what already works — resilient but legacy-laden systems, established processes, and people structures — to meet the demands of tomorrow.

This session explores what it really takes to transform from the inside out. We’ll unpack strategies for:

• Modernizing the core without breaking the backbone,

• Organizing talent and teams for agility within complex org structures,

• And crafting an investment thesis that balances ambition with accountability.

Michael Yeo

Associate Research Director, Financial Insights, Asia/Pacific IDC

Aabhinna Suresh Khare

Chief Marketing Officer, Nucleus Software,

Chandima Cooray

Chief Innovation Officer, Hatton National Bank, Sri Lanka | Director, ICT Agency of Sri Lanka

From Data Silos to Client Intelligence: Unifying Structured and Unstructured Data for Better Business Execution

Companies are increasingly recognizing that their competitive edge lies not in analyzing structured or unstructured data in isolation, but in intelligently combining both to create actionable, personalized insights.

Jeff Lim

Senior Account Director, ASEAN, KX

Philippe Damay

Senior Presales Engineer, KX

Delivering Trusted GenAI Infrastructure to Power BFSI Transformation

As BFSI organizations scale their AI ambitions, infrastructure becomes the foundation for delivering real transformation—securely, reliably, and at scale. This session explores how Netweb Tech enables trusted GenAI adoption through purpose-built infrastructure designed for compliance, governance, and performance. Learn how financial institutions can move from experimentation to production with confidence, using AI-native private cloud and high-performance computing tailored for regulated environments. Discover practical strategies to unlock the full potential of GenAI while ensuring data sovereignty, operational control, and risk mitigation—the key pillars of trust in today’s dynamic financial services landscape.

Sandeep Lodha

CEO, Netweb Pte. Ltd.

Lunch Roundtable: Building an AI-ready Digital Infrastructure for BFSI – A Strategic Framework for Resiliency, Agility and Governance

The rise of generative AI, data-driven services, and evolving regulatory demands is reshaping how financial institutions design and operate their digital infrastructure. Success now depends on more than just adopting new technologies — it requires a strategic framework that aligns vision, architecture, operations, and governance to support innovation at scale.

This exclusive executive roundtable, led by IDC, is tailored for senior BFSI technology and business leaders who have completed the IDC Digital Infrastructure Operating Model self-assessment. The session will explore your organization’s digital infrastructure maturity across five core dimensions — Vision, Funding, Architecture, Operations, and Governance — and how these capabilities can be enhanced to support AI initiatives, real-time service delivery, and digital infrastructure agility & resiliency.

Participants will gain actionable insights into:

• What it takes to architect an AI-ready infrastructure that balances agility, compliance, and performance across distributed environments.

• How financial institutions are aligning infrastructure decisions with business strategy and regulatory expectations.

• The role of trusted partners — including digital infrastructure providers, managed service providers and network specialists — in accelerating infrastructure modernization and reducing operational complexity.

• Why secure, programmable, and high-performance connectivity is critical to enabling real-time insights, seamless AI integration, and governance across cloud, edge, and datacenter ecosystems.

• How to unlock the full value of AI and enterprise data by building an interconnected digital foundation that is secure, responsive, and adaptive to evolving business needs.

This session will help BFSI technology and business leaders define their next steps in digital infrastructure modernization journey and identify strategic levers to unlock the full potential of AI, automation, and resilient digital financial services.

William Lee

Senior Research Director, IDC Asia/Pacific

Govind Choudhary

VP, Strategy & Business Development, Asia Pacific, Digital Realty

Andrew Bennett

CTO and Head – Complex Solutions team, AMEA and BT

AFSC Awards: Category – Leader in Infrastructure Modernization & Leader in Customer Engagement

Dr. Ashish Kakar

Research Director, Financial Insights, IDC Asia/Pacific

Panel Discussion – IT Teams for the AI Future: Attracting, Retaining, and Upskilling Talent for FutureTech

As IT organizations evolve into AI-infused enterprises, talent development has become critical. This session will delve into skill assessment, gap analysis, and strategies to equip IT teams with the tools and knowledge needed to thrive in a rapidly changing landscape.

Ed Bharucha

Chief Information Officer, Mizuho Securities AeJ

Jackson Ng

Chief Technology Officer & Chief Operating Officer, Azimut Investment Management

Sandra Ng

Group Vice President, and General Manager, Research, Asia/Pacific IDC

Dr Ke-Wei Huang

Executive Director, Asian Institute of Digital Finance , National University of Singapore (NUS)

Bryan Lee

Managing Director, Head of Technology Architecture, Bank of Singapore

Eric Chau

Deputy Chief Technology & Digital Officer , CIMB Bank, Vietnam

Panel Discussion – Building Asian Payment Rails and Adopting Emerging CBDC Landscape

As Asia advances in digital finance, IT leaders play a critical role in building secure, scalable payment rails and integrating emerging Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). This panel will explore the technical foundations required for real-time, cross-border transactions, focusing on blockchain, API interoperability, and cybersecurity. Gain insights into how the IT sector is driving the infrastructure behind Asia’s next-generation payment systems.

Dr. Christopher Lee Marshall

Vice President, Data, Analytics, AI, Sustainability, and Industry Research, IDC Asia/Pacific

Jyothirlatha B

Chief Technology Officer, Godrej Capital

Ramesh Narayanaswamy

Chief Technology Officer, Aditya Birla Capital

Anand Mohan

Senior Vice President, Citibank

Guillaume Cordina

Executive Director, Head of Open Banking & Platforms , Standard Chartered Bank

Kelvin Teo

Co-Founder, Funding Societies

AFSC Awards: Category: Leader in Intelligent Banking/Insurance & Leader in Sustainable Finance

Jyoti Lalchandani

Head of WW Events & MD – META, Central Asia, India, IDC

Mega Raffle Announcement: MacBook Pro

Summary & Close

Cocktails & Networking

Panel Discussion – Navigating the New Geopolitical Landscape: Strategic Tech Choices for Future-Ready Financial Services

As geopolitical uncertainty intensifies, global banks are being forced to rethink their IT strategies with unprecedented urgency. Trade wars, sanctions, data localization mandates, and the fragmentation of the global tech ecosystem are prompting banks to reassess core technology choices—from cloud infrastructure and cross-border data flow to vendor dependencies and cybersecurity frameworks.

This session explores how IT leaders in the banking sector are navigating these pressures. Designed for IT strategists, architects, and decision-makers, this session provides a roadmap for building agile and secure technology infrastructures that can withstand the shifting geopolitical tides.

Dr. Ashish Kakar

Research Director, Financial Insights, IDC Asia/Pacific

Sourabh Chitrachar

Regional Vice President / Head Asia Technology Strategy & Operations, Liberty Mutual Insurance

Muhammad Suhada

Chief Technology Officer, PT. MNC Kapital Indonesia Tbk

Ratikant Sahu

Executive Director, Group Technology and Operations , UOB

Frankie Shuai

APAC CISO, DWS Group (Asset Management subsidiary of Deutsche Bank)

Gean Lau

Managing Director, Group Technology Architecture , OCBC

Abhijit Banerjee

Vice President, Risk Data & Services (RDS), Corporate Solutions, Swiss Re