Written By – Feroz Ahmed
The first day of Money 20/20 Asia made one thing clear from the very start: the conversation around financial services in this region is no longer just about transactions. It is about trust, identity, and the millions of people still waiting to be seen by the systems meant to serve them.
Sessions span digital infrastructure, decentralized finance, AI-powered commerce, and the future of cross-border payments. The event, held in Bangkok, brought together policymakers, financial institutions, and technology leaders from across Asia and beyond.
Setting the Stage: TradFi Meets DeFi
The opening welcome address, delivered by Scarlett Siebr, Chief Strategy and Growth Officer at Money 20/20, and Tracey Davies, President of Money 20/20, set the tone for the day. Their remarks drew attention to what is increasingly becoming the defining tension in global finance: the convergence of Traditional Finance (TradFi) and Decentralized Finance (DeFi), and what that shift means for institutions, regulators, and consumers alike.
Why Bangkok?
Warotai Kosolpisitkul, Under Secretary at Thailand’s Ministry of Finance, addressed a question that was likely on many attendees’ minds: why is a global conference of this scale taking place in Thailand? His answer was grounded in substance. Thailand’s strategic geography, its rapidly growing economy, and its government’s deliberate push toward digital payments make it a natural home for conversations about the future of money. The country’s approach to innovation is notable, he emphasized, not just for its ambition but for its stability and its focus on people. A competitive pricing environment, a ten-year long-term resident visa, and a tax structure designed to attract global talent have helped position Thailand as a serious destination for both investment and innovation.
The central objective, he said, is to ensure that ecosystems are interconnected and that viable enterprises continue to grow.
The Invisible Farmer: A Case for Financial Inclusion
The most compelling address of the morning came from Daranee Saeju, Assistant Governor of the Bank of Thailand, who opened with a striking image: a farmer in Thailand who can now
receive government subsidies with a QR code scan, but still cannot get a loan from a bank. The reason is not that the farmer is idle or uncreditworthy. The farmer grows crops every season, generates revenue year after year, and works without pause. The problem is that none of this activity is visible to the financial system.
“The farmers are not inactive,” she noted. “They are invisible.”
Her remarks built toward a clear diagnosis. Thailand has a real data infrastructure in place. The PromptPay platform processes 96 million transactions daily, which is a remarkable demonstration of digital payment adoption at scale. Digital public infrastructure exists through platforms like NDID and Thai ID. And yet, the data that might tell a bank who a farmer is and what they are worth remains scattered across disconnected silos, islands of information with no road between them.
The solution she outlined is not complex in concept, though significant in execution: connect the data islands to a data highway. Link payment data, identity data, and financial activity data in a way that is secure, governed, and rights-respecting. Digital identity must be portable. And crucially, the infrastructure must come with guardrails, not just roads.
The goal, she emphasized, is not just digitization. It is humanization. When a farmer walks into a bank, they should no longer be treated as a stranger. Inclusion is the target, and it remains a national priority. Looking ahead, the IMF is set to host a conference in Bangkok in October 2026 under the theme “Digital Payment for All,” a signal that Thailand’s ambitions are drawing attention well beyond its own borders.
TradFi and DeFi: Finding Common Ground
A panel session titled “The New Intersection of Money: Where Traditional Finance and Decentralized Finance Converge” surfaced arguments in favor of distributed systems that go beyond financial efficiency. Pei Ling Tin, Co-President of MetaComp Pte. Ltd., made the case that in an era of global crises and geopolitical disruption, no transaction should be held hostage by borders or liquidity constraints. Decentralized finance and distributed ledger technology, in her view, offer infrastructure that is more resilient by design.
Growth Across Asia: Localization as Strategy
A session titled “Powering Growth Across Asia: International Innovation, Local Impact, Limitless Possibilities” turned attention to the practical realities of scaling financial services across a diverse continent. Vira Platonova, Global Head of Visa Direct at Visa, acknowledged that while domestic transactions have become seamless and instant in many markets, cross-border payments remain a genuine challenge. She expressed optimism about what the next few years might bring.
Raymond Ng, CEO of Revolut Singapore, spoke candidly about something that many global companies underestimate: the importance of localization. Understanding users at a granular, cultural level is not a nice-to-have; it is what determines whether a product succeeds or stagnates. He pointed to stablecoins as one possible answer for travellers who want to move through multiple currencies without friction. The real secret to sustainable growth across Asia, he suggested, is finding the balance between international consistency and local relevance.
The Trust Gap in Agentic Commerce
One of the more forward-looking sessions of the day examined what happens when AI agents begin acting on behalf of consumers in e-commerce environments. Zac Cohen, Chief Product Officer at Trulioo, framed the conversation around a basic but pointed question: if an AI agent is doing your shopping, how confident are you that it will get things right, and more critically, how do you protect against fraud when the agent, not the human, is placing the order?
The session did not suggest abandoning the idea. Rather, it pointed to trust as the variable that will determine how quickly agentic commerce can scale. Without robust identity verification and transparent accountability at each step, the convenience of AI-driven shopping could easily become a liability.
AI as Business Infrastructure
Gary Sien of Ant Digital Technologies offered a perspective that complemented the day’s broader themes. AI, in his framing, is no longer a future consideration. It is already reshaping how businesses operate, how services are delivered, and how platforms are built. The organizations that will benefit most are those that treat AI not as a tool to layer on top of existing operations, but as something that requires deliberate infrastructure thinking from the ground up.
His advice to companies looking to stay competitive was direct: think like a startup. Be nimble, move quickly, and stay humble. But do not throw things at AI indiscriminately. Responsible implementation matters as much as speed.
Day one of Money 20/20 Asia reinforced something that resonates closely with Dohatec’s own work at the intersection of governance, technology, and public service: the most meaningful innovation is the kind that reaches the people who have been hardest to reach. Whether that is a farmer waiting for a loan, a traveler navigating three currencies, or a consumer trusting an AI agent to place an order, the question underneath every session was the same. How do we build systems that people can rely on?
Dohatec will continue sharing insights from the conference as the event progresses.