Countdown
The countdown is underway as we look forward to welcoming participants to Singapore.
Financial digitalization is reshaping the future of money, payments, and the global financial system. Innovations such as tokenised deposits, stablecoins, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), and next-generation cross-border payment infrastructures are transforming the way economies connect, transact, and respond to emerging challenges. At the same time, these advances are unfolding amid increasing geopolitical fragmentation, competing digital strategies, and evolving global payment architectures-raising important questions about financial stability, monetary policy, and international cooperation.
The 10th Joint Regional Financing Arrangements (RFA) Research Seminar will bring together leading academics, policymakers, and experts from RFAs, international financial institutions, central banks, and finance ministries to examine the opportunities and challenges presented by this rapidly evolving landscape.
Through keynote presentations, research sessions, and a high-level policy panel, participants will explore the implications of digital finance for cross-border payments, monetary policy transmission, market liquidity, crisis management, and the future architecture of the global financial safety net. Discussions will also consider how innovation can support trade, economic growth, and financial inclusion while mitigating the geopolitical and regulatory risks associated with an increasingly fragmented world.
The seminar will serve as a platform for dialogue, knowledge exchange, and collaboration, fostering practical policy insights and strengthening international cooperation to ensure that digital financial innovation contributes to a more resilient, inclusive, and interconnected global financial system.
Programme
Registration
Welcome Remarks
Yasuto Watanabe, Director/CEO, AMRO
Introductory Remarks
Fahad M. Alturki, Director-General, AMF
“A new era of digital finance: innovation, competition and stability in a tokenised world”
Will Cong, President’s Chair Professor of Finance, Computing and Data Science, and Associate Dean of Nanyang Business School
The keynote will provide a strategic overview of how digitalisation is transforming money, banking, and global finance. It will examine how payment systems and various forms of digital money (public and private) are evolving and interacting. The address will also highlight the implications for financial stability and assess the potential risks of fragmentation in the global financial system.
Digital transformation of money and payments: stablecoins, tokenised deposits, and new cross-border payment systems.
Chair: Dong He, Chief Economist, AMRO
This session examines how digital innovation is transforming money and payment systems worldwide. It discusses how private digital money and new settlement technologies can improve efficiency, programmability, and financial inclusion, while balancing risks to monetary sovereignty and financial stability. The discussion will explore how innovation can be harnessed while preserving trust and stability in the monetary system with particular attention to stablecoins, tokenised bank deposits, and emerging infrastructures for cross-border payments.
, Manager, Knowledge and Innovation Section, Capacity Development & Innovation Department, AMF - “Tokenizing Real-World Assets: Policy Pathways for Real Estate Tokenization in the Arab Region” (2026)
, ESM - “Global Stablecoins in 2030: A European Perspective” (XXXX)
, Deputy Director of Economic Research, FLAR - “The adoption of fast payment systems (FPS) in Latin America: the role of financial literacy and cash-related beliefs”(2024)
, Senior Financial Specialist, AMRO - “ASEAN+3 cross-border payments, regional connectivity, and way forward”(2026)
Discussion/Q&A: 25 mins
Photo Session and Coffee Break
Public money in the digital age: central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), monetary policy and the future monetary system
Chair: Carlos Giraldo, Chief Economist, FLAR
This session explores how CBDCs could reshape the monetary system and redefine the role of public money in an increasingly digital financial ecosystem. It examines how CBDCs may interact with private forms of digital money, influence bank intermediation, and affect monetary policy transmission and liquidity conditions. The discussion will analyse key design choices, operational challenges, and emerging practical experiences, including cross-border CBDC initiatives to assess how innovation in public money can enhance efficiency and financial inclusion while safeguarding monetary stability.
, Senior Economist, European Central Bank - “Monetary Consequences and Stablecoin Regulation”(2024)
, Chief Economist, Central Reserve Bank of Peru - “Digital money and Central Bank Balance Sheet”(2022)
, Assistant Professor, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology - “CBDC: Unified Ledger for Smart Contracts Pursuing Proven Blockchain Objectives within Regulatory Requirements”(2025)
, Executive Director, Macroprudential Surveillance Department, Monetary Authority of Singapore
Discussion/Q&A: 25 mins
Dinner
End of Day 1
Financial stability in a digital monetary system: runs, disintermediation, and backstops?
Chair: Sofiene Gaaloul, Executive Director, Capacity Development & Innovation Department, AMF
This session examines how digitalization may reshape financial stability risks within the banking and monetary system. Faster and more accessible digital payment instruments could accelerate deposit outflows and amplify bank run dynamics, while also altering bank funding structures and the transmission of market stress. The discussion will explore how digital money interacts with government bond markets and broader financial conditions and consider the implications for crisis management. It will also assess the policy toolkit available to safeguard stability as policymakers adapt financial safety nets to an increasingly fast-moving and interconnected digital environment. Building on these insights, the session will assess the implications of digitalization for crisis management and the effectiveness of the global and regional financial safety nets.
, Economist, Andersen Institute for Finance and Economics - “Stablecoins: A Revolutionary Payment Technology with Financial Risks”(2025)
, Advisor and Chief of the Macro-financial and Structural Policies Division, Strategy, Policy, and Review Department, International Monetary Fund (IMF) - “Stablecoin Shocks”(2024)
, Division Chief, Western Hemisphere Department, IMF - “Crypto Assets and CBDCs in Latin America and the Caribbean: Opportunities and Risks”, Latin American Journal of Central Banking(2024)
, Deputy Director-General, Digital Currency, Payment and Settlement Systems Department, Bank of Japan - “Central Bank Digital Currency Experiments Progress on the Pilot Program”(2026)
Discussion/Q&A: 25 mins
Coffee Break
Digital finance, trade and growth in a geo-fragmented world: risks, opportunities, and policy priorities
Chair: Nicola Giammarioli, Secretary General, European Stability Mechanism (ESM)
This policy panel discusses how digital financial innovation can support economic growth, trade integration, and financial inclusion in an increasingly geo-fragmented world. Recent crises — including the Middle East conflict and its effects on correspondent banking access, commodity trade finance, and regional payment architecture — have made the geopolitical dimension of digital finance impossible to ignore. The discussion will examine how faster, and more affordable cross-border payments and digital public infrastructure can strengthen economic connectivity and competitiveness, and how geopolitical pressures are complicating that ambition Panellists will also consider how policymakers can balance national industrial and strategic objectives with the need to preserve open, efficient, and resilient global financial networks and identify practical priorities for international cooperation to ensure that digital finance becomes a force for integration rather than a new axis of geopolitical division.
, Board Member, Central Bank of Chile
, Advisor and Chief of the Macro-financial and Structural Policies Division in the SPR Department, IMF
, Professor of Economics, Portland State University
, Executive Director, South East Asian Central Banks (SEACEN) Research and Training Centre
Closing remarks
Nicola Giammarioli, Secretary General, ESM
Lunch
End of Day 2