Rahul Bhargava Email & Phone Number

Singapore

Washington, Dc, Us

Providing payments subject matter expertise and advisory services to support WBG technical assistance on projects aligned with the G20 cross-border program, aimed at improving global movement of money, mitigating risks & achieving G20 goals for Speed, Cost, Accessibility and Transparency. It involves close engagement with World Bank, Central Banks, potentially extending to Banks and other payments players in selected emerging markets.

Sydney, New South Wales, Au

This role further strengthens my effort with the global and Asian payments community on bridging global best practices with regional and local initiatives, and resolving friction in money movement as value chains fragment, converge and innovate. To begin with, I intend to contribute to topical areas of domestic payment systems evolution, cross-border interoperability with regionalisation and interlinking, and newer forms of digital money like CBDCs, wallets and stablecoins.

Singapore, Sg

Management Consulting & Advisory Services in Payments, Banking & Emerging Technologies- Training PayTechs, Fintechs, MIs, Banks, Regulator on global cross-border payments- Strategic advisory services to Payments, Banking and Tech clients

Washington Dc, Washington Dc, Us

Joined the AI 2030 Board of Advisors and as Singapore Hub & Chapter Lead championing the local AI 2030 mission, utilizing AI's transformative power for global good while mitigating its risks and fostering community engagement and development in alignment with AI2030's objectives.

Plano, Dallas, Us

An additional role convening and contributing to thought leadership at two leading global payments industry engagement platforms - the Central Bank Payments Conference (CBPC) & Global Payment Summit (GPS). This adds to my efforts in giving more value back and deepening my ongoing dialogue with the global community of central banks, international bodies, regulators, payments market infrastructures, financial institutions, fintechs, solution providers, industry experts and other key stakeholders involved in leading the charge towards an exciting - yet responsible - future of payments!

La Hulpe, Wallonia, Be

• Hand-picked to join 25-strong global strategy team, leading PMI strategy post APAC payments initiatives success• Articulated & executed Swift’s global PMI strategy for evolution of next gen services for 117+ RTGS’, ACHs and Instant PMI communities on Swift • Global business lead for cross-border instant payments service “gpi Instant”, taking it 0-1 from ideation with banking community, design, trials to going live - more recently evolving it into a settlement asset and rails agnostic payments service supporting cross-border instant interlinking and interoperability, in alingment with G20/BIS/CPMI, global PMIs and other stakeholders• Led strategic programs engaging with public sector, international agencies and financial community organisations on public good and market development agenda, including initiatives with BIS IH, CPMI, FSB, World Bank & WEF, regional regulatory forums, central banks & local regulators, local and regional PMIs, bank associations, leading local & global banks, fintech associations & other key stakeholders • Speaker, trainer, facilitator at industry/regulatory forums like Sibos, WBG Payments Week, OMFIF DMI, Milken Institute, Swift Global Fintech Innovation Challenge, WEF ASEAN, EMEAP, SEACEN, SFF, ASEAN WC-PSS etc.• Aligned internal teams including product, innovation, delivery, compliance and others on a consolidated, componentized platform approach for integrating Swift & non-Swift PMIs, and agnostic to settlement of fiat/non-fiat flows• Led industry engagement, RFP responses, consultations, innovation engagement with central banks, PMIs, banks including trialing technologies like AI, DLT, cloud, open banking• Consultatively implemented “Strategy Refresh” in key markets like India to implement multi-year rolling strategy & operating plans• Authored thought leadership on CBDC interoperability, ASEAN Financial Integration, Regional e-Payments and business lead for multiple innovation sprints, including Swift CBDC sandbox trials

La Hulpe, Wallonia, Be

Cologny, Geneva, Ch

Members of the WEF Digital ASEAN initiative voluntarily formed the ASEAN e-Payments Coalition in early 2019. As Lead, coordinating with this amazing group of fellow payments industry leads - across financial institutions, fintechs, payment networks, technology companies providing digital wallets, e-commerce platforms, universities, central banks and other government agencies, international and regional organisations and other interested parties - and driving key actions towards meeting our common goal of helping develop an ASEAN regional e-payments framework!

Tokyo, Jp

• Leading Asia Pacific Financial Services Practice for Banking & Payments Portfolio, establishing & leading the Regional Financial Services Strategy & Practice in APAC, in close coordination with FSI Leadership in Global HQ, APAC Regional Leadership, Global Delivery, Clients & Partners• Leading Strategic Projects Portfolio, driving various Innovation and R&D themes for the APAC region for Banking & Public Sector initiatives - including the first Smart City Initiative in the region• Formulate & drive APAC FSI G2M Strategy and build a Solutions Portfolio across Banking, Payments, Digital Channels, Risk Management, Core Banking etc. and Emerging Technologies like Mobility, Gamification, Social, Big Data etc. • APAC Lead for NTT Data’s “Global Banking Collaboration” & “Global Payments Collaboration” Communitie

Dublin 2, Ie

• Deliver Program Management, Business Development & Techno-Functional Expertise to Financial Services initiatives in APAC, with specific focus on Regional Core Banking & Payments related engagements• PMO & Delivery Lead for 2 Regional Core Transformation Programs across countries in APAC region• Business Development activities, Opportunity Pursuits & Capability Building • Led a Regional team of Accenture, banking client & solution provider representatives to implement Cross Products, Statements & Alerts functionality across products, channels & services• Program managed & delivered Business Strategy, Target Operating Model, Business Process Re-engineering, Business Requirements, Gap Fit, Design, Testing & Implementation for a Regional Core Transformation • Regional Technology PMO for a Transformation Program implemented across APAC for multiple core & ancillary applications including CRM, Payments & Alternate Channels • Establishing credibility and deep relationships with internal, external clients and solution vendors

Gogarburn, Gb

• Leading a team of Project Managers & Business Analysts tasked with the delivery of business critical projects for the retail banking portfolio (Liabilities, Contact Centre Services & Alternate Channels including Internet Banking, Mobile Banking, IVR, ATMs and CDMs)• Ensuring functional verification & risk assessment of changes to systems, products and processes• Achieving schedule & quality of delivery to ensure cost saving/revenue generation as per business plan • Interfacing and managing relationships with multiple vendors, internal customers and other stakeholders to ensure the above goals are met • Managing change to the existing implementations and processes

Global, Us

• Managed a team of Business Analysts tasked with various projects in the Fidelity off-shore development centre with CSC India • Lead Consultant for the product development team of Fidelity Corebank setup in the India ODC• Involved in multiple projects across the entire spectrum of the SDLC, including on-site gap assessment workshops, solution authoring and reviews, design reviews, functional verification & implementation• Instrumental in establishing test certification processes, trainings along with contribution to the product road-map• Lead franchise-critical Business Development Initiatives and Knowledge Management initiatives for the 70-strong BA group

Global, Us

• Involved in the setup of the Fidelity Corebank ODC in India• Imparted functional and process training on the product and FSDM concepts • Authored and reviewed various product artifacts for ongoing projects across Asia and the Middle East• Provided organization-wide consultancy as an internal SME for payment systems and retail banking • Gained expertise on test tools to define and manage test processes

Mumbai , Maharashtra, In

• End-to-end Product ownership of the banks inwards remittance business, including P&L responsibility• Design, testing and implementation of the banks online remittance and donation facility• Analysed systems like ACH, Image Cheque Lockboxes, CHAPS, EFT etc. and successfully interfaced them into banks new cross-border remittance management application.• Coordination with various internal teams [sales, customer service, legal, marketing etc.] within the bank and correspondent banks in multiple geographies for implementation of new remittance offerings and also enhancing existing products/processes• Researched & implemented new business opportunities across the United States, Australia and Hong Kong, adding incremental revenue streams and achieving overall annual target

• Identified & implemented system and process improvements for online remittance and EBPP services• Budgeting, revenue planning and directly managing a 15 strong sales team to achieve sales targets• Developing & implementing marketing plans including promotions and product launches in discussion with internal and external stakeholders

Master Of Business Administration (Mba), Information Technology & Management Systems

Bachelor Of Arts (B.A.), Economics (Honors)

Advanced Diploma, Network-Centric Computing

Education record