The Sri Lanka FinTech Summit 2025 announced its confirmed lineup of speakers, bringing together global and Sri Lankan leaders in digital finance, technology, and regulation to accelerate the country’s transition towards a resilient and inclusive digital economy. The two-day summit will take place on 24–25 September at the BMICH in Colombo.
The summit will feature more than 25 speakers across government, financial institutions, global fintech leaders, and industry innovators. The summit is led by Damith Pallewatte, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of HNB, serving as Summit Chair, with Dr. Kumudu Megasooriya, Founder and Managing Director of TECXA Limited as the Co-Chair and Channa De Silva, Chairman of the FinTech Forum.
This year’s lineup also brings together the leaders behind India’s UPI revolution, Singapore’s digital finance transformation, and Southeast Asia’s new wave of digital banks, alongside Sri Lanka’s own fintech champions.
Government and Policy Leaders
Government and Policy Leaders include Dr. P. Nandalal Weerasinghe, Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka; Hon. (Eng.) Eranga Weeraratne, Deputy Minister of Digital Economy; Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya, Chief Advisor to the President on Digital Economy and Chairman of ICTA; and international policy specialists such as Anir Chowdhury, President of DXGlobal Foundation (USA), Chek-Tchung Foo, Executive Director of Public Policy at GFTN (Singapore), and K. Chelvakumar, Executive Vice President of the International Fintech Institute at GIFT City (India).
Dilip Asbe, CEO of NPCI, will contribute insights from India’s UPI framework, which has become one of the most widely adopted real-time payment systems in the world and is now expanding across borders, including into Sri Lanka.
Sopnendu Mohanty, who helped position Singapore as a global fintech hub during his tenure at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, now leads GFTN’s global effort to connect innovators, capital, and regulators.
Global Fintech CEOs and Innovators
Representing India’s UPI-led payments revolution, Rithesh Pai of PhonePe brings the perspective of a platform that anchors one of the world’s largest digital payment ecosystems.
Neal Cross, renowned for driving DBS’s digital transformation into a global benchmark, now brings an innovation lens from Australia’s fast-growing wealthtech sector through his work at PictureWealth.
Also featured is Sheyantha Abeykoon, Group CEO of Boost, Malaysia’s first homegrown digital bank, which has rapidly positioned itself as a driver of financial inclusion in Southeast Asia.
Other global fintech CEOs and innovators include Elizabeth Rossiello, Founder and CEO of AZA Finance (UK); Nshuti Mbabazi, Managing Director of the Better Than Cash Alliance (Rwanda); Brad Jones, Director of Blue Lotus Partners (Australia); and André Casterman, Founder of Casterman Advisory (Belgium).
Technology and Industry Experts
Technology and Industry Experts will bring perspectives from across the digital finance ecosystem, including Ghassan Jumblat, Fintech Director of Integrated Communication Channel DMCC (UAE); Rahul Bhargava, World Bank Consultant and Global Fintech Institute Industry Fellow (Singapore); Monica Jasuja, Chief Expansion and Innovation Officer of Emerging Payments Association Asia (India); Gianluca Bin, Founder of Rakstar Solutions LLC (UAE); Dan Ameresekere, Chairman of DesignOne (UAE); Brad Smith, CEO and Founder of Vector Business Navigation (USA); Vinod Sharma, CTO of M-Pesa Africa (Kenya); Niharika Kori, Account Director – India and Country Manager for Sri Lanka and Maldives at SWIFT (India); Sujit Christy, President of Circulo de CISO; and Thushera Kawdawatta, CEO and Chief AI Officer of CoHEAD Therapeutics (Sri Lanka).
Together, these specialists will extend the conversation to frontier technologies including AI, blockchain, and cybersecurity.
Key Themes and Context
The summit will address critical themes shaping the future of financial services, including digital transformation, blockchain applications, artificial intelligence, cross-border payments, and regulatory innovation. With Sri Lanka’s USD 15 billion digital economy target for 2030 in focus, the event aims to align innovation with policy, attract investment, and promote financial inclusion across urban and rural markets.
With UPI now expanding into multiple international corridors, Boost Bank scaling its model across Southeast Asia, and GFTN convening a global ecosystem for collaboration, the summit positions Sri Lanka at the centre of Asia’s digital finance conversation.
Organisers
The Sri Lanka FinTech Summit is organised by TECXA Limited in collaboration with the FinTech Forum Sri Lanka and HNB. It has been designed as a year-round coordination mechanism to connect regulators, financial institutions, technology providers, and startups, and to deliver tangible progress for the nation’s digital economy.
Sopnendu Mohanty, Group CEO, Global Finance & Technology Network (GFTN); former Chief FinTech Officer, Monetary Authority of Singapore
Rithesh Pai, Chief Executive Officer – International Payments, PhonePe
Dilip Asbe, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)
Sheyantha Abeykoon, Group Chief Executive Officer, Boost Holdings (Malaysia)
Neal Cross, Co-founder and Chairman, PictureWealth (Australia); former Chief Innovation Officer, DBS Bank