Cohort to Train in Cutting-Edge Suptech Initiatives.
Cambridge, UK – 29 January 2024 – The Cambridge SupTech Lab has accepted eleven inspiring individuals to partake in a transformative 12-month journey through the Lab’s new Innovation Leaders Residency programme. In a competitive process, employees from financial authorities in Colombia, Egypt, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Peru, Philippines, South Africa, Sweden, Tanzania, and Uganda were selected for the inaugural cohort.
The selected individuals will bring a challenge they would like to solve as part of their current role as supervisors, examiners, data scientists, statisticians, economists, and other related positions. They will participate remotely and part time to gain exclusive access to a network of experts, support for the enhancement of their skills and competencies, and assistance in taking their projects to the next level, whether they are focusing on implementing the digital transformation of their business unit or on driving the development of an advanced suptech application.
Examples of projects that Innovation Leaders will be working on throughout the residency year include:
- the development of a technology solution contributing to the monitoring of greenwashing
- a technology-centric approach for preventing fraud from illegal lending apps
- a user-friendly tool for real-time financial education
- a training framework that enables supervisors to develop competencies in data management
- a system of suptech tools that enable layered, integrated, end-to-end analysis and visualisation of data from multiple sources, for purposes of financial consumer protection and market conduct supervision
Sixty-five percent of the members of the first cohort come from lower- income and lower middle-income countries and seven of the eleven members are female. Applications for the next cohort will open in October 2024.
Innovation Leader Pamela Kahwa, Financial Sector Risk and Policy Analyst, Central Bank of Uganda said, “I am excited about the prospect of growing my network, developing more technical skills, and gaining exposure to new innovative ideas through the Innovation Leaders Residency programme. I am keen to advance suptech applications in the areas of high-frequency analysis of liquidity risks in supervised entities and addressing the information asymmetry faced by financial consumers – especially in developing markets. There are not many programmes that focus on the professional development of financial supervisors. The Innovation Leaders Residency programme can help people in roles like mine steer the use of suptech to motivate increased transparency and accountability in the financial sector.”
See what other selected individuals have to say about the potential of supervisory technologies here.
Simone di Castri, co-head of the Cambridge SupTech Lab, said, “The Innovation Leaders Residency creates a new global community united in its mission to accelerate the digital transformation of financial supervision. It enables us to address the need for improved skills in technology, data science, and change management, which an overwhelming majority of financial authority respondents to our most recent State of Suptech survey indicated as areas in which they require the most help. We welcome the inaugural cohort to our programme and look forward to what we can create together.”
Selected Innovation Leaders:
- Anthony Gachanja, Manager – Data Analytics and Regulatory Technology, Central Bank of Kenya
- Beatrice Sablone, Data & Information Strategist, Finansinspektionen Sweden
- Francisco Javier Duque, Deputy Director of Supervisory Methodologies and Corporate Governance, Superintendencia Financiera de Colombia
- Laura López, Chief of Insurance Supervision, Superintendencia de Banca, Seguros y AFP de Peru
- Liezl Neethling, Divisional Head, Credit Risk, South African Reserve Bank
- Oluwasola Dada Ajewole, Deputy Director, Other Financial Institutions Supervision Department, Central Bank of Nigeria
- Pamela Kahwa, Financial Sector Risk and Policy Analyst, Central Bank of Uganda
- Parimal Kumar Shivendu, Assistant General Manager, FinTech Department, Reserve Bank of India
- Reham Ali Sharief, Head of Relationship with Licensees – Consumer & Competition Protection, Central Bank of Egypt
- Rochelle Tomas, Deputy Director, Consumer Protection and Market Conduct, Bangko Sentral Ng Pilipinas
- Rweyemamu Barongo, Principal Computer Analyst Programmer, Bank of Tanzania
About the Cambridge SupTech Lab:
The Cambridge SupTech Lab accelerates the digital transformation of financial supervision and supervisory agencies. The Lab delivers online leadership education, experiential training, research and market intelligence, new analytical frameworks, innovative digital tools, and cutting-edge suptech applications. It drives collaboration across the ecosystem of financial supervision to empower a financial sector that is more sustainable and inclusive. Cambridge SupTech Lab is an initiative of the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School. (www.cambridgesuptechlab.org).
