IBF Awards

Biography

Himanshu is Executive Director, Trade Risk Unit, Standard Chartered Bank (Singapore) Limited. In this role, he is responsible for implementing global initiatives to enhance the risk management of the Bank's delivery of Trade products, aligned to regulatory requirements and based on analytics data. 

He manages a portfolio of selected risk-related initiatives and leads in the identification, analysis, and management of risks across all relevant Principal Risk Types and specific portfolios underlying the delivery of Trade products for Europe-based clients. He is also responsible for providing advisory and trade-risk thought perspectives on a range of risk-related opportunities and challenges in the European region and across the markets. He also provides product input for the management of risk events and stressed cases to optimise outcomes for the Bank. 

In his previous role as Head, Trade Innovation for ASEAN, Himanshu formulated and drove the innovation strategy and risk mitigation for the Bank's Trade Finance business in the region. 

He has represented the Bank in committees on the digitisation of trade finance and exchange of electronic records, including Electronic Bill of Lading and other innovation-related initiatives. Between 2019 and 2021, Himanshu supported Maritime Port Authority as well as Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) on the roll-out of digitisation standards and review of amendments to the Electronic Transactions Act. 

A strong proponent of digital transformation, Himanshu was at the forefront of leading industry workshops to help clients adopt digital trade finance as a way to adapt to the impact of COVID-19. He also led the Business sub-stream under the Emerging Stronger Taskforce's Digitalisation of Ecosystem to strengthen the competitiveness among businesses in Singapore. As a result of this workstream, Singapore Trade Data Exchange (SGTraDex) was constituted, and he was named a founding member in the Alliance for Action on Supply Chain Digitalisation. 

He was a core team member supporting Singapore's Trade Finance Registry on the initial use case for duplicate finance avoidance. He also worked alongside representatives from other Banks to design the business requirements for the initiative.

Himanshu has provided feedback to the Monetary Authority of Singapore on trade and digitisation initiatives, Enterprise Singapore on trade finance development, IMDA on measures to promote the digitalisation of trade documents, as well as The Association of Banks in Singapore on the setting up of trade-related committees that would help promote the adoption of digital trade documents. He is regularly invited to present his insights at industry forums. 

He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Engineering from Delhi University and an MBA in Finance from Indian Institute of Management, India.