Firas Raad, a Jordanian National, is the World Bank Country Manager in Malaysia. He was formerly the Country Manager for Kuwait. Raad joined the World Bank in 2002 as a Senior Health Policy Specialist. More recently, he was working in the Health, Nutrition and Population (HNP) Global Practice. He has extensive health policy experience in various countries in the Middle East and North Africa region. Prior to 2009, Raad focused on implementing health sector reforms in Lebanon, Palestine and Egypt. He also served as the World Bank Human Development Coordinator for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.
Dato’ Sri Jajakhan Kader Gani is the Chief executive Officer of Jadeline Exchange Sdn. Bhd. and was recently elected as the President of the Malaysian Association of Money Service Business (“MAMSB”) in September 2020. He has more than 17 years experience in the financial services industry, having started his career as a remisier with OSK Securities in 2003 and founded Vital Rate in 2005. In 2017, Vital Rate was acquired by Merchantrade Asia Sdn. Bhd. In 2018 Jajakhan was appointed as the CEO and director of Jadeline Exchange Sdn Bhd.
Isaku Endo is a Senior Financial Sector Specialist in Finance, Competitiveness and Innovation Global Practice at the World Bank. Currently, based in Manila, he serves as a World Bank financial sector coordinator and leads the World Bank’s financial sector engagement for the Philippines. He is specialized in financial market infrastructures, payment systems, and remittances. Prior to this, he served as a financial sector focal point for Indonesia based in Jakarta. Prior to moving the regional department, as a global expert, he provided policy and regulatory advice on Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism and financial market infrastructures and participated in the Financial Sector Assessment Program missions.
Nik Mohamed Din is Director of the Money Services Business Regulation Department in Bank Negara Malaysia (the Bank) since July 2016. He is responsible for the regulation, supervision and development of the exchange currency, money remittance and currency wholesale business in Malaysia. Prior to this, Nik was Director of the MIFC Promotions Unit in the same organisation since October 2011. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Economics and Accounting from the University of Bristol in 1991. He later obtained a Master in Business Administration degree from the Warwick Business School of the University of Warwick in 2000. He also holds a Chartered Banker qualification from the Asian Institute of Chartered Bankers since 2018.
Ramasamy K Veeran is the founder and Managing Director of Merchantrade Asia Sdn Bhd, a money services business operator in Malaysia. In addition to money changing and wholesale currency business, Merchantrade provides comprehensive over the counter to online remittance services. Merchantrade is also an international money transfer operator providing remittance platform for global banks and partners. Further, an e-money issuer, Merchantrade offers card based e-wallet services. Mr. Ramasamy is instrumental in bringing institutional shareholders into Merchantrade, namely Sumitomo Corporation and Celcom Axiata. Merchantrade has over 1000 staff.
