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Osman Faiz
Founder
Asia FiiT
Osman Faiz is the founder of Asia FiiT, which contains a team of visionary practitioners in Asia forged across global financial services, fintech firms, and start-ups; united by a quest for more humanisation and progress in shaping the financial landscape of tomorrow.
Mr. Faiz has over 25 years of international banking experiences across different countries. He started his banking career as a management trainee at American Express Bank and left his home country, Bangladesh as the Chief Operating Officer of Standard Chartered Bank, Bangladesh in 2003. Since then, he served in a variety of roles for Standard Chartered, including Chief Operating Officer and Chief Information Officer in Singapore and Head of Wholesale Banking Operations in East region, Global Head of Core Banking Implementation among others.
Previously, he also served as Chief Information and Operating Officer (CIOO) of AMTD Digital, the integrated digital platform arm of AMTD Group, as well as Head of Operations at PermataBank, 6th largest local bank in Indonesia.
His story
Osman Faiz was just eight when he realised “how men and women were treated differently — and unfairly —especially in Asian culture”. He shares: “We were having dinner as a family, and as my mother cut the chicken and passed it out, she casually mentioned that she had never eaten a chicken leg growing up. The tastiest parts of the chicken were always given to her four brothers to enjoy and she received whatever meat was left.” This revelation left an impression on the young Osman and made him look out for the women around him.
His career
Osman has served over five years as a director of Singapore Clearing House Association (SCHA) and was awarded the Institute of Banking and Finance (IBF) Singapore Fellow Award in technology and operations. He was also named as the Industry Co-Chair of KYC 2.0 together with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (“MAS”) and the Association of Banks, Singapore.
In his continuing work as a thought leader and ally for diversity and inclusion, Osman was awarded the Gender Equality Impact Award 2021, organized by United Women Singapore from the President of Singapore Mdm Halimah Yacob, for his continuous and consistent efforts to advance gender equality and empowerment of women in the workplace and community, across banking to Fintech industries.
In addition, his efforts were recognized by Financial Times (FT), Yahoo Finance, and INvolve as the global top 50 Champion of Women in Business and the HERoes top Advocates for Women in Business in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021.
His passion
Championing gender equality and female empowerment is his lifelong mission, to make the society we live in a more just and equitable one. Osman notes that there is a lot of work to be done in creating more supportive and inclusive workplaces, to empower so many talented women to develop more confidence in themselves and step up to key leadership positions.
Beyond creating diverse and inclusive workplaces, Osman is passionate about advancing financial inclusion through digital mobile banking, especially for the unbanked population in Southeast Asia, in particular, women who have no access to formal financial services such as transactions and savings.
Osman's career
2022 | Feature | CIO News
Driving digital transformation is an important task, says Osman Ershad Faiz.
As the CIOO of AMTD Digital, I am responsible for driving the company’s regional banking initiatives, strategic acquisitions and enhancing overall ...
2021 | Feature | Tatler Asia
Fostering gender equity in the workplace: veteran banker Osman Faiz shares how.
The chief information and operating officer of AMTD Digital shares what it means when men become allies to empowering women in the workplace—and building ...
2021 | Award | United Women Singapore
Osman receives the Gender Equality Impact Award 2021 from President of Singapore Mdm Halimah Yacob.
Osman won this category by a unanimous vote for his dedicated efforts to gender equality across ...
2019 | Speaker | UN Women Bangladesh
Osman Ershad Faiz speaks at the launching of HeForShe, during UN Women Bangladesh.
Do you unconsciously make a decision to treat your son differently from your daughter?
Recommendations
I worked with Osman over a number of years, while we were both performing a variety of roles. Osman is the ultimate professional and has been a true partner to my teams and I during our time at Standard Chartered. He is calm and collected, even during a crisis and always seems to be available and switched on 24 x 7. His in-depth knowledge of banking and technology sets him apart from most others and also enables him to be an excellent decision maker.
Richard Davis
Chief Technology OfficerDanske Bank
I have had the pleasure of knowing Osman since his days in operations in Bangladesh, where he already excelled, having established a well run group in a market where banking knowledge and meticulous operation are still very much a necessity to succeed ... Osman had learned a lot, improved on his skills in a deliberate way, and learned from the more difficult situations he has encountered. It's with pleasure that I would recommend this seasoned banking executive.
Jan Verplancke
NEDBBVA
