Saurav Bhatia¶

Digital Assets, Web3, Tokenization, CBDC https://www.linkedin.com/in/sauravbhats | https://x.com/sauravbhats

Summary¶

Venture builder & Blockchain Innovator with 20+ years across banking and fintech. Founder CEO and former founding CXO for two digital banks (SG & HK), combining regulatory-grade risk management with product innovation in digital assets, CBDC, custody, and tokenization. Deep track record shaping strategy, securing regulatory buy-in, and delivering complex programs with C-suite and Board stakeholders. Scaled teams to 100+ FTE and built partnerships that drove >1M client acquisition.

As interim CEO (18-months) for Singapore's first Digital Bank "TRUST", laid foundation to establish bank. Secured regulatory approval, established JV, developed innovative CVPs, & grew to 100+ FTEs. Bank has grown to 1M+ clients, ~20% market share.
As founding CXO of SCB's pioneer digital bank "Mox" in HK, secured a virtual banking license & disrupted the industry through unique CVPs, ecosystem connectivity and vibrant branding. Bank grew to 750K clients, 12% market share.

Education¶

Oxford Blockchain Strategy Programme (Said Business School, University of Oxford, UK)
Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Strategy and Finance (National University of Singapore, Singapore)
Bachelor of Arts (Hons) Economics (University of Delhi, India)

Professional¶

Yirifi.ai (Founder & CEO) — Oct 2023–Present¶

Building digital-asset risk and regulatory compliance platform enabling FIs to safely launch and scale blockchain initiatives.
Creating the world's largest centralized repository of global crypto regulations, case law, and risk scenarios, accelerating compliance mapping and regulatory change management for enterprise clients.
Developing the world's largest single source of truth global repository of crypto regulations, case law, and risk scenarios, intended to accelerate compliance mapping, product governance, and RCSA/control frameworks.
Led Mox Bank (Standard Chartered subsidiary) crypto launch strategy, covering ETF and spot trading offerings for retail clients through comprehensive partner due diligence, governance frameworks, and risk & control assessments.
Scaled to 20-person international team; established OKRs, delivery governance, and cross-functional agile execution models.
Developed AI-powered regulatory intelligence platform providing compliance teams real-time access to supervisory guidance, policy obligations mapping, and automated audit evidence generation.

Standard Chartered Bank, Singapore & Hong Kong — 2014–2023¶

Global Head of Digital Assets – Retail, Private and Wealth — Nov 2021–Sep 2023

Spearheading the bank's digital asset & metaverse journey, by crafting a strategy and securing agreement to launch exploratory initiatives for new technologies such as CBDCs, tokenization, Web3, NFTs, & Crypto Investments.
Delivering trusted cryptocurrency investing for high-net-worth individuals (HNWI) by creating a unified mobile experience. Conducted a comprehensive due diligence & risk assessment of custody & liquidity provider and lobbied with regulators.
Launched central bank digital currencies (CBDC) wallet integration (eNaira and eRMB) enabling customers to buy & hold these currencies. Created the approach to evaluate risks to customers and bank from first in market launches.

Chief Customer & Product Officer – TRUST Bank Singapore — Sep 2019–Nov 2021

As Interim CEO (18 months) & CCPO of the 1st digital bank in Singapore, laid the groundwork to establish the bank.
Created a compelling vision linking partner ecosystems with SCB's banking expertise, driving regulatory lobbying and securing a bank license. Managed a $100M budget scaling to 100FTE, evaluating and selecting best-in-class technology providers.
Defined compelling CVP leveraging NTUC's ecosystem and disruptive product features for deposits, cards and payments leading to successful acquisition growing to 1M+ clients (~20% market share).
Designed seamless multi-channel client experience, relevant to all age-groups, by leveraging physical (in-store) and digital ecosystem assets leading to a best-in-class app with 4.7star App rating & 70% client acquisition through referrals.
Introduced ESG focused proposition with 1st in market Card using Ocean Plastic, savings ~300k plastic bottles.
Articulated "North Star" strategy for AI-enabled data & marketing, including mapping data domains and defining operating models. Resulted in improved cross-channel retargeting & faster decision making for effective monetizing of NTUC data.

Global Head, Growth Strategy – Retail Bank — Jan 2019–Jan 2020

Designed a Retail Bank Transformation strategy to exit RoE dragging businesses and harness emerging trends to grow business & build structural advantage targeting 5% ROE improvement and a 15% customer satisfaction increase.
Conducted in-depth due diligence to launch experimental business models with FinTech & BigTech (Google Cloud, JUMO, MatchMove and Hyphen) to create new revenue streams, deep client relationship and expand ecosystem presence.

Chief Financial Officer, Mox Bank, HK — Feb 2018–Dec 2018

Founding CXO and CFO, pioneered the launch of SCB's digital bank in Hong Kong "Mox", partnering with the CEO to set strategic vision, secure banking license and develop a robust deployment plan.
Developed unique CVP on "smarter banking, saving and spending", with 1st in market product features, streamlined ecosystem access & powerful brand awareness. Bank scaled to 750K clients, capturing 12% market share.
Mox Bank became the most popular app in HK, across all categories (not just finance) with a 4.8 star rating on Apple Appstore. Recognized as the Best banking App in Asia and #19 best Banking App featured on SCMP.
Recommended the early adoption of a private blockchain based core banking system, Thought Machine, now standard for new banks. Evaluated alternative cloud native tech for bank deployment, targeting 30% lower cost & 60% faster deployment.
Collaborated on crafting the JV structure including commercial negotiations (acquisition targets, marketing, access to channels & data). IP license structure enabled SCB to leverage technology development for future global digital bank rollouts.
Prepared finance roadmap, integrating technology platforms (ledger, regulatory reporting, treasury, and client analytics), while embedding controls, policies, and processes resulting in streamlined operations and nimble business outcomes.

Global Head, Digital Insights – Digital Banking — Jun 2017–Dec 2018

Conceived & implemented a cutting-edge mobile app across 32 countries within 4-months, providing 24x7 access to business metrics. Garnered high net promoter scores (NPS), and improved transparency & accessibility.
Conceptualized a digital strategy for Marketing, leveraging data management platforms to analyze end-to-end client journey across sales & customer service channels & client segments, to drive business performance and achieve business objectives.

Global Head of Finance, Group Retail Banking — Aug 2014–Jun 2017

Managed Financial Strategy, FP&A, Sales Performance & Client Analytics for $5bn Retail Bank with 9m clients in 32 countries.
Partnered with Global Retail CEO to conceive, secure Board buy-in, and drive execution of City Strategy, including restructuring of unprofitable portfolios & shrinking non-core footprint by 25%, resulting in an 2% increase in ROE.
Maximized the divestiture value of Private Equity business ($2.2bn AUM, 83 companies) by proposing individual asset sales, obtaining board approval, & effectuating the sales while considering commercial, entity structure, and regulatory implications.
$200mn Cost Transformation, delivering 5% Staff Reductions, 10% Branch Rationalisation & 14% Operational efficiency.
Collaborated with Global Retail CEO to restructure global sales force with capacity framework for target setting, tracking, and gap remediation. Relaunched 3rd Party Sales in India and Malaysia with board approval, achieving 10% new sales growth.
Led a rigorous assessment of strategic alliances with industry leaders (Disney, Cathay, Samsung, Uber, etc), evaluated commercials & partnership monetization, resulting in a ~20% increase in client acquisition and cross-selling.
Revamped Global client analytics and enhanced data warehouse to identify cross-sell opportunities, applying advanced driver attribution models (TD Rollover, CASA Mortgage link, and Mispricing) driving an ~9% boost in cross sell revenue.

Citibank N. A., Singapore — 2005–2014¶

Role	Period
Global Finance Head, Private Bank Ops & Tech	Apr 2013–Aug 2014
Asia Chief Operating Officer (Technology), Institutional Clients Group	Apr 2011–Mar 2013
Asia Regional Finance – Institutional Clients Group	Jan 2009–Apr 2011
VP Finance, Technology Infrastructure	Mar 2007–Jan 2009
Manager, Operations & Technology – Consumer Banking	May 2005–Feb 2007

IT&T Limited (acquired by Capgemini), India | Web Strategist — 2000–2003¶

LP Technologies, India | Founder — 1999–2000¶

Key Skills¶