June 2025
Pat Patel, Co-CEO of GFTN Forums shares the journey from Elevandi to GFTN and frames the year ahead.
The phrase ‘may you live in interesting times’ is a curious phrase that can be traced back to both the West and East. In the west, it dates back to Joseph Chamberlain (1898), the British statesman, in one of his speeches and then later by Robert Kennedy (1966 – a great year for football) which popularised its use. It has tended to have a positive tone representing exciting times ahead. However, in the East, it has been viewed as rather ironic, taking on a negative tone with some going as far as linking it to a curse. Regardless, this phrase aptly sums up the world we are living in right now, in both senses of the interpretation. There have been extreme highs and lows this year with current geopolitics and geoeconomics creating a state of flux globally and the impacts on financial services and technology have been profound. Similarly, the increasing adoption of new applications of technology, from Agentic AI to Stablecoins and tokenization, is creating many opportunities but is driving as many questions as it addresses questions. The implications on policy and regulatory roadmaps have been immense and has contributed to increasing grey areas that require clarity and harmonisation across geographies.
This is one of the reasons why the Global Finance and Technology Network (GFTN) was set up. To address the unanswered questions by bringing its three distinct communities together to have an open dialogue and advance our collective understanding. Since 2022, Elevandi had been focussed on building a global network and a footprint across Asia, Africa and Europe. In November 2024, Elevandi transitioned to GFTN with the change driven by an expanded mandate and a strengthened leadership team. The focus for GFTN is to harness technology and foster innovation through global partnerships for a more efficient, resilient, and inclusive financial ecosystem. It remains a not-for-profit organisation and will continue to engage with leaders from government, businesses, academia, and civil society to foster international collaborations with our members on technology innovation, application and adoption in financial services. To create change, GFTN has carefully designed four businesses:
- GFTN Forums is developing a globally distributed, partnership-driven network of FinTech forums. It will build on Elevandi’s existing forums, including the flagship SFF, to expand into new geographies, integrate them into a single network, and facilitate greater cross-sectoral and cross-border exchange of insights and collaboration for more robust financial systems and more inclusive financial services.
- GFTN Advisory provides practitioner-led consultancy and capacity building services to authorities in developing countries to develop digital infrastructures, formulate policies to harness technology in financial services, and create robust innovation ecosystems. It also offers private entities market insights to support programmes, market entry and market development.
- GFTN Platforms supports a suite of digital platform services to help small enterprises and FinTech start-ups innovate and thrive. Platform services include enhancing market access, providing analytics and information services, and supporting sustainability reporting.
- GFTN Capital, currently in-train, will help catalyse equity investments into promising early-stage and growth-stage enterprises with the potential for positive social or environmental impact. It will have a global mandate, investing in FinTech and ClimateTech enterprises, providing them with patient capital and, more importantly, access to a global network of potential partners, buyers, and suppliers.
Given the current environment, we are committed to building corridors between different jurisdictions to drive innovation, capital and advance technology adoption. Since the turn of the year, our programmes have been sequentially delivered from East Africa (Rwanda), North-East Asia (Japan), Oceania (Australia). After the Point Zero Forum, we will be working on programmes in South Africa as part of the G20, China, Middle East, Georgia and then the finale in Singapore with the Insights Forum and the Singapore FinTech Festival. The sum of all of the insights, projects and industry engagements across each region will come to a natural annual conclusion in Singapore, which also serves to frame the dialogues and actions required in 2026 for the global community. Interesting times ahead, in every sense of the positive interpretation!