WHERE FMIs SHAPE THE FUTURE
WFC – the World Forum of Central Securities Depositories will take place in the vibrant city of Almaty, nestled amidst the stunning Tien Shan mountains. The event, hosted by the Kazakhstan Central Securities Depository (KCSD), is set to bring together over 250 industry leaders, experts, and visionaries from across the global financial ecosystem.
This year’s theme, “Evolving Landscape of CSDs: Navigating Challenges, Opportunities, and the Future of Post-Trade Infrastructures”, will spark dynamic discussions on the future of the post-trade industry. Expert speakers from across the globe will address key topics such as the role of CSDs in transforming financial markets, advancements in settlement efficiency, embracing new technologies like AI and blockchain, and fostering global connectivity.
Join us in Almaty from September 23-26, 2025, to engage with the leading minds in the industry, build meaningful connections, and contribute to the ongoing transformation of the post-trade landscape. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to shape the future of the financial ecosystem.
Agenda
Pre-Forum Day: 23 September 2025 (Tuesday)
| Welcome Coffee (Member Associations only) |
| WFC Board Meeting (Member Associations only) |
| Coffee Break (Member Associations only) |
| Parallel Meetings of the CSD Associations (Member Associations only) |
| Welcome Reception (All registered forum participants) |
DAY ONE: 24TH SEPTEMBER 2025 (WEDNESDAY)
| Registration and Welcome Coffee |
| Welcome Speech |
| Opening Plenary Session: Evolving Role of CSDs in Transforming the Global Financial Market Landscape |
| Coffee Break |
| Keynote Speech |
| Executive Panel Session I: Diversification and Development of New Initiatives in the Post-Trade Industry |
| Group Photo |
| Lunch |
| Panel Session I: Settlement Efficiency: Strategies for Improvement |
| Keynote Speech |
| Coffee Break |
| Panel Session II: Transformation of CSDs’ IT Architecture |
| Free time |
| Dinner |
Day Two: 25th September 2025 (Thursday)
| Welcome Coffee |
| Keynote Speech |
| Executive Panel Session II: The Future of CSDs: Embracing AI, Blockchain and Digital Assets |
| Coffee Break |
| Panel Session III: Bridging the Markets: Fostering Global Connectivity and Interoperability |
| Case Study Presentation I: The Role of the Post-Trade Community in Advancing Sustainable Development |
| Lunch |
| Case Study Presentation II: Building Efficient Risk Management within the PFMI Framework |
| Panel Session IV: Establishing Effective Business Continuity Processes to Mitigate Risks in the Post-Trade Industry |
| Case Study Presentation III: Data as an Asset: Sharing, Reporting and Monetization |
| Coffee Break |
| Presentation WFC2027 |
| Closing Speech by WFC Chair |
| Farewell Dinner |
Day Three: 26th September 2025 (Friday) Cultural Program Schedule
| Departure from the hotels to the cultural program |
| Arrival at the Medeu station |
| Scenic cable car ascent to the Shymbulak resort |
| Cultural activities: Ceramics masterclass, Horseback riding through mountain trails |
| Lunch at Big Chef’s restaurant |
Speakers
Mark Gem
Mark Gem Chair of Risk Committee, Clearstream
Mark Gem has been with Clearstream for over 20 years and a board member since 2007, leading the network management, primary markets and compliance areas. He was responsible for Clearstream’s T2S strategy. He currently chairs Clearstream’s Risk Committee, amongst many other things oversaw the post-Brexit organization of Clearstream’s UK business and Clearstream’s overall response to the COVID-19 crisis and to the war in Ukraine. He is a member of the Swift board. He has chaired ECSDA, the European CSD Association, since 2021.
Abdulla Jaffar Abdin
Abdulla Jaffar Abdin Chief Operating Officer, Bahrain Clear
Abdulla Abdin has Masters in Business Administration from the University of Glamorgan UK, and currently holds the position of Chief Operating Officer – Bahrain Clear. He is the President of the African Middle East Depositories Association (AMEDA), and Vice Chairman of World Forum of Central Depositories (WFC). Mr. Abdin has over 35 years of experience in Banking and Capital Market structure, regulations and operations.
Dr. Ekrem Arikan
Dr. Ekrem Arikan Chief Executive Officer, Board Member, Merkezi Kayıt Kuruluşu, Türkiye's Central Securities Depository
He began his career at Microsoft (1998–2006), where he managed the development of Windows operating systems for Turkish-speaking markets as a program manager. He later held management roles at Ziraat Bankası Group companies, Ziraat Teknoloji and Ziraat Hayat Emeklilik, overseeing IT, corporate development and strategic initiatives. In 2015, he joined EPİAŞ, Energy Exchange of Türkiye, as Strategy Development Director.
In 2016, he was appointed Executive Vice President for IT at Takasbank, where he contributed to major financial market infrastructure projects such as the BISTECH transition, blockchain-based digital asset initiatives (BiGA), establishment of R&D center, and the development of clearing and collateral management systems. In April 2019, he assumed the role of General Manager and Board Member of Merkezi Kayıt Kuruluşu (MKK), Türkiye’s Central Securities Depository. He pioneered in his management period the development of numerous new products and services such as; custody services provided to the Turkish Mercantile Exchange, establishment of the Omnibus Account structure and membership of Euroclear Bank and the Azerbaijan CSD (Milli Deposit Merkezi), founding of the Crowdfunding Platform (CFS), development of the Electronic Trade Repository (e-TR), implementation of the Electronic General Meeting (e-GMS) system across various international capital markets. Additionally, he facilitated the acquisition of the MKK GABİM company from the Turkish Association of Appraisers. Moreover, he led development and establishment of the Data Analysis Platform (VAP), Investor Information Center (e-YATIRIMCI), Bearer Shares Registry System (HPKS), Investor Risk Monitoring System (YRTS), Intermediary Institutions Data Analysis Platform (PUSULA) and the Real Estate Based and Developing Financial Instruments Information System (GEFAS) platform.
Badiuddin Akber
Badiuddin Akber Chief Executive Officer, Central Depository Company of Pakistan Limited
He is recognized as a trusted leader in Pakistan’s capital market and has represented the country at international forums. As a matter of pride for CDC and Pakistan’s financial and capital market, Mr. Akber is currently serving as Chairman of the Asia-Pacific Central Securities Depository Group (ACG) for the term of 2024-2027, and as ACG Chairman, he is also representing the Asia- Pacific region on the Executive Board of the World Forum of CSDs (WFC).
Mr. Akber has demonstrated extensive expertise in the spheres of Financial Management, Clearing & Settlement, Risk Management, Operations, Product Development, and Project Management in the Pakistan Capital Market. As Chief Operating Officer at NCCPL, he played an instrumental role in implementing significant capital market reforms, including the Revamping of Capital Gain Tax Regime, Unique Identification Number (UIN), Institutions’ Risk Management System, Straight Through Processing of Market Settlements, and UIN Information System (UIS). He also led the introduction of Leverage Products such as Margin Trading, Margin Financing, and Securities Lending & Borrowing.
Mr. Akber completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce from the University of Karachi and attained various professional degrees in accounts and finance from prestigious national and international institutions. He is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Cost & Management Accountants of Pakistan (FCMA), and holds the ACMA-CGMA (Chartered Global Management Accountants) qualification from the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA – UK), as well as the Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CMA – Ontario, Canada) qualification.
In addition to his role at CDC, Mr. Akber serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of CDC Share Registrar Services Limited. Moreover, he is also serving as a Director on the Board of ITMinds Limited, and Naymat Collateral Management Company Ltd. Mr. Akber also represents CDC on the Pakistan Business Council and has attended the Annual International Institute for Securities Market Growth and Development by the US Securities & Exchange Commission and various seminars and conferences in the UK, India, Europe, and Far-East countries on risk management, clearing & settlement, and surveillance of capital market operations.
Bruce Butterill
Bruce Butterill Executive Director, ACSDA
Prior to becoming a consultant Bruce spent 19 years with CDS, the Canadian Depository for Securities, where at various times, as a member of the Executive Management Committee, he was the senior executive responsible for national operations, international relations and the product management/development functions.
Yedil Medeu
Yedil Medeu WFC Chairman, Chairman of the Management Board of Central Securities Depository (KCSD)
Yedil Medeu is the Chairman of the Management Board at the Kazakhstan Central Securities Depository (KCSD). He was appointed to this position following his tenure as Deputy Chairman of the Management Board, a role he held since June 2021. With more than 15 years of experience in Kazakhstan’s securities market, Mr. Medeu possesses deep expertise in financial market infrastructure, regulatory oversight, and policy development.
Prior to joining KCSD, Mr. Medeu was the Director of the Securities Market Department at the Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market. In this role, he oversaw the supervision of securities market intermediaries and played a pivotal role in developing strategic policy frameworks to foster securities market development in alignment with national socio-economic priorities. His professional journey also includes an eight-year tenure at the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan, where he contributed significantly to the Securities Market Department.
Mr. Medeu holds a Master’s degree in Public Economics from the National Graduate School of Policy Studies in Tokyo (Japan), equipping him with a comprehensive perspective on financial regulation and economic policy..
Satoru Yamadera
Satoru Yamadera Advisor, Asian Development Bank
Mr. Yamadera has been serving the Secretariat of the Asian Bond Markets Initiative (ABMI) of ASEAN+3 since 2014.
He has vast experiences in capital market development, payment systems, fintech, cybersecurity, and regional financial cooperation.
Currently, he leads the ASEAN+3 Bond Market Forum (ABMF), a common platform to foster standardization and harmonization of the bond markets. He also leads the Cross-border Settlement Infrastructure Forum (CSIF) to create cross-border linkages among the central banks and central securities depositories.
Mr. Yamadera has over 25 years of professional experience in central banking including research, banking supervision, and financial cooperation at the Bank of Japan.
Pedro Gurrola-Perez
Pedro Gurrola-Perez Head of Research, The World Federation of Exchanges
Pedro holds a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Montpellier, France, and has published across key academic journals, including the Journal of Financial Market Infrastructures, the Journal of Risk, International Finance, and the Journal of Futures Markets. His recent work includes research on the economics of distributed ledger technologies (DLT), on the network structure of settlement fails, and on the procyclicality of CCP margin models. He has also published research on payment systems, on back-testing methodologies, and on the structure of interest rate futures markets. In 2007 he received the National Award on Derivatives Research, awarded by the Mexican Derivatives Exchange (MexDer). He has served as a member of the Consultative Working Group of ESMA’s CCP Policy Committee and currently serves as a member of the Board of Advisors of the Robert A. Schwartz Center for Trading and Financial Markets Research at Baruch College.
Bryan Pascoe
Bryan Pascoe Chief Executive, International Capital Market Association
Gerard Smith
Gerard Smith Vice President, Head of Post Trade Solutions, Nasdaq
Juliette Kennel
Juliette Kennel Global Head of Industry Engagement Securities and Standards, Swift
Juliette joined Swift in 2004 and is currently Global Head of Industry Engagement for Securities and Standards, based at Swift’s headquarters in Brussels. Juliette is a Board Member of the International Securities Services Association (ISSA) and also serves on of the AMI-SeCo ISO 20022 Task Force. Prior to her current role, Juliette has held several other senior management positions at Swift, including Global Head of Standards, covering diverse financial business areas including international payments, asset servicing, securities settlement, treasury and trade finance, Head of Capital Markets and FX, and Head of Market Infrastructures. Before joining Swift, Juliette developed her expertise and network in the industry, working at Morgan Stanley in London, Société Générale in Paris, and Clearstream in Luxembourg. Juliette holds a dual French and British nationality.
Jesús Sánchez
Jesús Sánchez Head of Domestic Settlement Services, SIX Group
Over 30 years of experience in the industry in various positions, mainly in the areas of Settlement and Custody. Joined Iberclear at BME Group (SIX Group) more than 19 years ago, where has worked in different departments and participated in international working groups. Currently, Head of Domestic Settlement Services in SIX Group. Chairperson of the Settlement Working Group of the European Central Securities Depositories Association (ECSDA), where the ECSDA CSDR Penalties Framework was agreed and where settlement efficiency was one of the key issues, and as well as Chair of the Market Settlement Efficiency (MSE) Workshop of T2S, where relevant efficiency issues are assessed and further discussions in the national communities are supported. Member of the EU T+1 Industry Committee, which is established to drive the transition to a T+1 settlement cycle across the securities markets of the European Union and the European Economic Area, by the transition date to be agreed upon by the EU co-legislators. The Industry Committee will ensure a coordinated, ambitious, efficient, modern, and inclusive approach to achieving settlement efficiency and operational resilience, aligning with international efforts as relevant. Also member of various market committees and expert groups at national and international level such as the T2S CSDs Steering Group (CSG), the Advisory Group on Market Infrastructures for Securities and Collateral (AMI-SeCo), the Spanish National Stakeholder Group (NSG). Prior to joining Iberclear in 2006, worked at Citibank for 14 years, being the Head of Equities and Fixed Income Settlement and Custody departments. Degree in Economics and Business by Universidad Autónoma of Madrid and an Executive Master of Business Administration. Volunteer activities, participating in several NGDOs and also in development initiatives for young people.
Alexandre Kech
Alexandre Kech Chief Executive Officer, Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation
Over the past 25 years, Alex has constructed a unique career combining finance at BNY Mellon, payments/securities infrastructure and standards at SWIFT, and blockchain and digital assets at Onchain Custodian (ONC) and, most recently, Citi Ventures. As co-founder and CEO of ONC, Alex led the Singapore and Shanghai-based team that built custody and prime brokerage services for crypto and other digital assets from scratch. As Blockchain & Digital Asset director at Citi Ventures, he built a team to engage the European ecosystem on emerging use cases for blockchain technologies and digital assets.
Alex is also involved in industry and standardization initiatives. As the convenor of the ISO TC 68 / SC8 / WG3, which produced the ISO 24165 Digital Token Identifier (DTI), he is a member of the DTI Foundation Product Advisory Committee. He also recently served as co-chair of the Global Digital Finance (gdf.io) custody working group.
Alex earned a bachelor’s degree in translation and an Executive MBA from the Quantic School of Business and Technology while building Onchain Custodian, putting theory into practice in real-time.
Monica Singer
Monica Singer Advisor to ConsenSys Software
Jim Micklethwaite
Jim Micklethwaite Managing Director, Financial Markets, Thomas Murray
Alejandro Berney
Alejandro Berney Director, Caja de Valores
Alejandro Berney has been a Director at Caja de Valores since September 2014 and Investor Relations Officer at BYMA since May 2022.
BYMA is Argentina’s new stock exchange that brings together and represents the main players in the country’s capital market. Through a modern, agile, and competitive platform, twelve trillion pesos (ie USD 12 billion) are traded daily in the equity, fixed income, repo, and financial derivatives markets. BYMA is the necessary evolution for the country’s development, connecting it with global markets and investors.
Before joining Caja de Valores, A. Berney was responsible for the Securities Services business for Citibank in Latin America. Alejandro began his career at Citibank in 1995 as Manager for Latin America in the custody business, initially based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and later in São Paulo, Brazil. He subsequently held various roles in New York in Strategic Planning, Securities Lending, and Sales.
Prior to that, A. Berney worked in various product development, sales, and marketing positions at Banco de Boston and Exxon Argentina.
Alejandro holds a degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Buenos Aires and earned an MBA from CEMA.
Barnaby Nelson
Barnaby Nelson Chief Executive Officer, The Value Exchange
Barney has worked for over 15 years in the post-trade capital markets space: leading transforming custody and cash businesses to the point of market leadership. Until 2018, he led Standard Chartered Bank’s custody business in Asia and prior to that he launched BNP Paribas’ custody business in Asia. Throughout Barney’s career, he has focused on market structure and connectivity as a key theme. Having helped to launch clearing and back office outsourcing solutions in Asia- Pacific, he has since worked with regulators, global exchanges, clearing houses, brokers and investors to ensure that new technologies (such as DLT, AI and others) can be smoothly deployed as players reach for ever improving levels of efficiency. This connectivity continues at #theValueExchange, where Barney’s attention is now focused on delivering actionable, statistical insights on key market dynamics. Leveraging unique benchmarking and insight technologies, Barney is now helping market participants to make the right decisions and giving sales organizations the data and tools they need to maximize their revenues in changing times.
Haruna Jalo-Waziri
Haruna Jalo-Waziri Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Central Securities Clearing System PLC (CSCS)
With three decades of experience spanning Investment Banking, Securities Trading, Pension Funds Administration, Asset Management, Business Development, and Financial Market Regulation, Jalo has a distinguished career in leading successful start-ups and business transformations. An award-winning executive, Jalo is an alumnus of Lagos Business School, IESE Spain, and the Venture Capital Institute of America. He holds degrees in Economics and Business Administration and is a Chartered Stockbroker, an Associate of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment (CISI) UK, and a Life Member of the Institute of Directors, Nigeria.
Beyond his executive role, Jalo actively contributes to global and regional financial market development. He is the Vice Chair of the Africa and Middle East Depositories Association (AMEDA) and represents the World Forum of Central Securities Depositories (WFC) on the Board of the International Securities Services Association (ISSA), Geneva. He sits on a number of industry wide committees, including those of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers, and the Nigerian Economic Summit Group. A passionate advocate for education and social impact, Jalo serves on the boards of several non-profits, including BusinessDay’s Advisory Board, Special Olympics Nigeria, and AIFA Reading Society.
Stanley Chan
Stanley Chan Chief Executive Officer, CMU OmniClear Limited
Bandar Alkahail
Bandar Alkahail Chief of Business Development, Edaa
Venue - The Ritz-Carlton, Almaty
Suggested Accommodation
Visa Information
You can find out whether you need a visa to visit Kazakhstan on the website of the Electronic Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan
Visa regime of the Republic of Kazakhstan for foreign citizеns , or on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Visa regime of the Republic of Kazakhstan for foreign citizens
You can find out whether you need a visa to visit Kazakhstan on the website of the Electronic Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan
Visa regime of the Republic of Kazakhstan for foreign citizеns , or on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Visa regime of the Republic of Kazakhstan for foreign citizens