Dr. Steven Hu is the Head of Digital Assets, Trade and Working Capital at Standard Chartered. In this role, he spearheads the digital assets strategy for international businesses, driving strategic initiatives across cryptocurrencies, real-world assets (RWA), tokenised securities, and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Steven has been at the forefront of several industry digital assets initiatives aimed at supporting the real economy, including the issuance of asset-backed security tokens in Project Guardian with the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the use of decentralized finance (DeFi) tools for SME financing in Project Dynamo with the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub Hong Kong. In addition to his professional roles, Steven serves as a Professional Council Member at the Global Fintech Institute and an Advisory Council Member at the Global Digital Finance. He has participated in advisory and working committees for central banks, contributing to the design of wholesale and retail CBDCs. Before joining Standard Chartered, Steven led the distributed ledger technology (DLT) program at HSBC liquidity and cash management business. Steven and his team invented HSBC’s award-winning HDSU on-chain payment solution, fulfilling payment needs in next generation asset networks. His prior experience includes working with international banks, including BNP Paribas as well as technology companies driving the digital transformation agenda. Steven earned his Ph.D. from the National University of Singapore. He holds multiple fintech and technology patents and has published journal articles, conference papers, and book chapters. A frequent speaker at international conferences on the future of money and assets, Steven recently published a book chapter titled “Central Bank Digital Currencies: Opportunities and Challenges in the Post-pandemic Era” and co-authored an industry whitepaper titled “Co-creating the Future Ecosystem of Banking with Central Bank Digital Currencies”.