FINANCIAL CUSTOMER PROTECTION

Anna is the Senior Program Officer at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Her role is to leverage technology to enable financial regulators in managing the risks posed by emerging financial services models without impeding the innovation required to drive financial inclusion. Anna sits on boards for the Alliance for Innovative Regulation and FSD Kenya. Anna has 20 years’ experience in public policy with an expertise in financial regulation, digital financial services and consumer protection. In her most recent senior leadership role, Anna built the innovation department at the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority. This included developing the world’s first ‘Regulatory Sandbox’, creating an international network of financial regulators to promote pro-innovation regulation (the Global Financial Innovation Network) and developing policy on issues like cloud computing, machine learning and crypto assets. Anna was the accountable executive for FCDO-funded technical assistance programs to Nigeria and was a member of UK Financial Services Investment Board and Fintech Delivery Board. This role builds on a broad career across a range of public sector organizations, including the UK Government, European Commission and the Scottish Parliament.

Bindu is the Chair, Co-Founder and Managing Trustee of Dvara Holdings. Bindu is the Founder of Dvara Health Finance. Prior to this, she was Board Chair of Northern Arc Capital from 2009 – 2018. She also worked in ICICI Bank’s microfinance team between 2001 and 2005 and was head of the new product development team within their Rural Banking Group in 2007.

She has an under-graduate degree in Economics from Madras University and Masters Degrees from the Institute of Rural Management (IRMA) and Harvard University’s John. F. Kennedy School of Government.

Bindu has co-edited “Financial Engineering for Low-Income Households”, a book published by SAGE. She has also published in the Economic and Political Weekly, OECD Trade Paper Series and the Small Enterprise Development Journal. She was a member of three RBI Committees: financial inclusion, SME finance and housing securitisation. She was a member of the Taskforce of the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Board of India (2017). She was a member of the Government of India’s High Level Committee on Women (2014-15) and the Tamil Nadu Government’s Expert Committee on Revival of MSMEs (2022).

She is an Independent Director of NeoGrowth Credit, Avanti Finance and Syngenta Foundation. Bindu was a recipient of the ET Prime Women’s Leadership Award in 2020.

Rajesh Bansal is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of The Reserve Bank Innovation Hub. He is a highly regarded thought leader in the areas of digital financial services and digital infrastructure, Mr. Bansal has nearly three decades of global experience in designing digital IDs, electronic payment products, and cash transfers, to enable inclusive development in multiple Asian and African markets. Prior to joining RBIH, he was a senior adviser at Carnegie India, where he led the center’s Technology and Society program.

Mr Bansal has previously served at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in various capacities, including in areas of technology, payment systems, and financial inclusion. He is one of the key architects of India’s journey from cash to cash-lite by actively promoting policies, strengthening institutions, governance frameworks, and designing new products and solutions for scale and adoption. Mr Bansal was a member of the founding team of Aadhaar and specifically led the design of India’s Direct Benefits Transfer system which is benefiting hundreds of millions of low-income clients. He also played a key role in creating India Stack, digital ID-based infrastructure for a presence less and cashless service delivery platform in India. He has been a member of a number of committees of the Government of India and the RBI.

Mr Bansal is a frequent speaker, moderator, and panellist on financial innovation and inclusion in academic circles, conferences and fintech festivals nationally and internationally. He has authored a number of articles and opinion pieces in leading publications ranging from The Economic Times to The Print. A recipient of the prestigious Golden Jubilee scholarship scheme of the RBI, Mr Bansal holds a Master’s degree from Duke University in International Development Policy, USA.