In an industry often dominated by technologists and entrepreneurs racing to disrupt traditional finance, Jacky Tsoi represents something remarkably different. A qualified accountant by training, a visionary by choice, and a bridge builder by conviction. Over two decades, this journey from mastering balance sheets to pioneering blockchain corridors across continents tells a story not of abandoning roots, but of applying foundational rigor to build something entirely new.
“My journey as a qualified accountant was the perfect foundation,” Jacky Tsoi reflects. “It taught me rigor, financial discipline, and a deep understanding of how businesses truly operate. But I always looked beyond the balance sheet. I was fascinated by the flow of value.”
That fascination would take Jacky Tsoi from corporate finance into operational roles where finance met technology, witnessing firsthand how legacy financial systems created friction, inefficiency, and most troublingly, exclusion. The 2008 financial crisis became a pivotal inflection point, exposing systemic weaknesses while simultaneously opening doors for technology driven solutions.
“I realized that my core skills, risk management, governance, and strategic planning, were exactly what was needed to build trustworthy and sustainable FinTech ventures,” Jacky explains. “So I made the deliberate pivot, not away from my roots, but by applying them to build the future.”
This wasn’t abandonment of accounting principles. It was their evolution into something more dynamic, more inclusive, and ultimately more impactful.
THREE REVELATIONS THAT SHAPED A VISION
Every transformative leader can point to specific moments when understanding crystallized into conviction. For Jacky, three experiences stand out as foundational to the vision that would guide decades of innovation.
The first came during post-merger integrations, revealing how fragmented and incompatible financial systems remained even within a single merged entity. These weren’t just technical challenges but fundamental architectural failures. “This planted the seed for the power of interoperable platforms,” Jacky recalls. The insight was profound. If companies couldn’t talk to each other financially after merger, how could entire economies truly integrate?
The second revelation arrived while launching a mobile wallet in a Southeast Asian market characterized by high mobile penetration but devastatingly low banking access. “We weren’t just moving money; we were moving people from the informal to the formal economy,” Jacky notes. This was the moment when FinTech’s true potential crystallized. Technology wasn’t merely about efficiency or convenience. It was about fundamentally restructuring who had access to economic opportunity.
The third defining experience came through navigating initial regulatory uncertainty around blockchain. “Innovation cannot happen in a vacuum,” Jacky emphasizes. “It must be built in collaboration with the very ecosystems it aims to change.” This understanding would become foundational to everything that followed, transforming how innovation itself was conceptualized and executed.
THE ASIA-EUROPE DIVIDE: TWO PHILOSOPHIES, ONE FUTURE
Having operated extensively across both Asian and European FinTech ecosystems, Jacky has developed a nuanced understanding of their fundamental philosophical differences. These aren’t merely regulatory variations but represent distinct approaches to innovation itself.
“The EU, with its GDPR and PSD2, is a regulation first, innovation second environment,” Jacky observes. “It creates a high bar for data privacy and security, fostering a very structured and reliable ecosystem. Innovation is often incremental.”
Asia presents a starkly different landscape. “Asia is largely innovation first, regulation follows. The diversity of markets, the leapfrogging of legacy banking, and massive consumer demand have created a petri dish for hyper-innovation, from super-apps to integrated social commerce payments.”
The distinction is illuminating. Asia solves for scale and convenience. Europe solves for compliance and consumer rights. Neither approach is inherently superior. The future, Jacky believes, lies in synthesizing these philosophies. “The future lies in blending these approaches.”
This synthesis represents more than diplomatic middle ground. It suggests that sustainable innovation requires both the bold experimentation of Asia and the careful consumer protection of Europe. The question isn’t which approach wins, but how to integrate their respective strengths.
BUILDING TRUST IN INVISIBLE TECHNOLOGY
For all the technological sophistication underlying modern FinTech, Jacky’s approach to balancing disruption with stability begins with a deceptively simple principle.
“The technology should be invisible to the user’s trust,” Jacky explains. “People don’t need to understand cryptographic hashing; they need to feel certain their money is safe.”
This philosophy drives a comprehensive design approach where financial stability and trust are embedded from inception rather than added as afterthoughts. Robust KYC and AML frameworks, transparent terms of service, ironclad cybersecurity, and clear communication become foundational design elements, not compliance checkboxes.
Perhaps most notably, Jacky treats regulators as design partners rather than obstacles. “Disruption is meaningless if it doesn’t earn and maintain the public’s trust.” This collaborative stance has proven both pragmatically effective and philosophically consistent with a broader vision of sustainable innovation.
The blockchain based cross-border remittance corridor between Asia and Europe exemplifies this approach. The project required convincing multiple regulators, integrating with traditional correspondent banks for fiat conversion, and designing user experiences as simple as sending a text message.
“The reward was seeing transaction costs drop from over 10% to under 3% and settlement times reduce from days to minutes,” Jacky notes. “It proved that blockchain’s value isn’t in being a rebellious technology, but in being a superior utility for a real-world problem.”
AI AS THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM
While many leaders discuss AI as a tool or enhancement, Jacky envisions something more fundamental. “AI will move from being a tool to being the core central nervous system of financial services.”
Current applications in hyper-personalization and fraud detection represent only the beginning. The next wave involves predictive financial provisioning, where digital wallets or bank accounts automatically manage cash flow, invest spare change, or secure microloans based on behavioral patterns. AI will revolutionize risk assessment, moving beyond traditional credit scores toward more holistic, dynamic, and fair evaluation.
“The critical challenge will be ethical AI, ensuring algorithms are transparent, fair, and free from bias,” Jacky emphasizes. This isn’t merely a technical challenge but an ethical imperative that will determine whether AI democratizes financial access or entrenches existing inequities.
THE INVISIBLE PLUMBING OF SMART CITIES
Jacky’s involvement in Smart City development reveals how FinTech transcends traditional financial services to become fundamental urban infrastructure.
“A Smart City is fundamentally a city with efficient, seamless transactions, of data, energy, mobility, and capital,” Jacky explains. The work has focused on creating unified payments layers that enable integrated urban life. Imagine a single digital identity and wallet allowing citizens to pay for public transport, access government services, verify credentials for library membership, and trade carbon credits.
“FinTech is the invisible plumbing that makes this integrated urban life possible, turning a city from a collection of services into a cohesive, responsive ecosystem.”
This vision transcends payment processing to reimagine how urban populations interact with civic infrastructure. The technology becomes not an end but a means toward fundamentally more efficient, responsive, and equitable cities.
PROACTIVE ENGAGEMENT, NOT REACTIVE COMPLIANCE
Navigating complex regulatory environments across multiple jurisdictions has become a defining characteristic of Jacky’s career. The approach is notably proactive rather than defensive.
“We initiate dialogue early, often before we have a finished product,” Jacky explains. “We frame our innovations in terms of the public policy goals regulators care about: financial inclusion, consumer protection, and systemic stability.”
This strategy involves educating regulators on technology while genuinely listening to their concerns, building relationships of mutual respect. “It’s not about lobbying for lower standards; it’s about demonstrating how we can meet their policy objectives in new, more efficient ways.”
When asked what regulators should prioritize, Jacky advocates for technology agnostic, principle based regulation. “Instead of regulating specific technologies like blockchain, they should regulate the activities and risks, whether they occur on a blockchain or a traditional database.”
Key priorities should include clarity on digital asset classification, interoperability standards to prevent walled gardens, and regulatory sandbox approaches allowing live, supervised testing of new models. The goal is regulating outcomes, not technologies.
GOVERNANCE AS COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
With extensive corporate governance experience spanning multiple industries, Jacky brings an unusual perspective to fast moving FinTech environments.
“Governance is the anchor that keeps a fast-moving FinTech ship from capsizing,” Jacky notes. This background compels asking “what if” questions early, building strong independent risk and audit committees even in startup environments, and ensuring growth pursuits are tempered by clear understanding of risk appetite, ethical boundaries, and long term sustainability.
“A well-governed company attracts better partners, talent, and capital. It’s a competitive advantage, not a bureaucratic hurdle.”
Service on boards across conglomerate and financial service companies provides ground level views of real economy pain points. “I see how supply chain finance can unlock working capital, how IoT data from a shipping container can trigger an insurance payment, and how a retailer struggles with reconciliation across 20 different payment methods. This keeps our FinTech solutions grounded, practical, and directly tied to creating business value.”
The governance challenges unique to technology and financial services companies stem primarily from velocity of change. Traditional boards might review five year strategies. FinTech boards must be agile enough to pivot in five months. This creates unique challenges in cybersecurity oversight, data ethics, and talent management.
“The board must have the technical literacy to understand emerging risks like AI bias or DeFi protocols, and the culture to foster innovation while maintaining control,” Jacky emphasizes. “The stakes are higher because a single operational failure can lead to catastrophic loss of customer trust and capital.”
LEADERSHIP THROUGH EMPOWERED TEAMS
Jacky’s leadership principles reflect both strategic vision and operational pragmatism. The core tenets are deceptively straightforward yet demanding in practice.
Vision with Execution: “A great idea is worthless without the operational rigor to deliver it.”
Empowered Teams: “I hire people smarter than me and give them the autonomy and safety to fail fast and learn.”
Intellectual Curiosity: “We must all be perpetual students in this industry.”
Prudent Courage: “Be bold in vision but prudent in risk management.”
Lead with Trust: “Your team’s trust is your most valuable currency.”
This philosophy extends to partnership cultivation. Large scale FinTech initiatives require ecosystem thinking. “No single company can do it alone,” Jacky observes. The focus is creating win-win-win ecosystems where banks see distribution channels, telcos see value added services, and governments see partners in public policy. Success requires immense time investment in aligning incentives and ensuring every partner derives clear value.
THE JOB TO BE DONE
Driving adoption of cutting edge solutions requires ruthless focus on practical problem solving rather than technological elegance.
“We don’t lead with the technology; we lead with the problem it solves,” Jacky explains. For consumers, experiences must be 10x better than alternatives: simpler, faster, cheaper. For businesses, clear ROI demonstrated through pilot programs and phased rollouts de-risks decisions. Education frames new solutions as natural evolution of existing practices rather than revolutionary disruption.
This grounded approach has proven essential across diverse markets and use cases, ensuring innovations achieve actual adoption rather than merely generating buzz.
THE NEXT FIVE YEARS: DEATH OF CORRESPONDENT BANKING
Looking ahead, Jacky sees fundamental transformation in cross-border payments across Asia.
“The next five years will see the demise of the traditional, opaque correspondent banking model for retail and SME payments,” Jacky predicts. The rise of interconnected real time payment systems, like India’s UPI linking with Singapore’s PayNow, combined with maturation of Central Bank Digital Currencies for wholesale settlement, will transform the landscape.
“The end-user experience will become as seamless as domestic transfers, with full transparency on cost and delivery time.”
For Asian FinTechs, massive opportunities exist to export super-app and embedded finance models to emerging markets in Latin America and Africa. “They have mastered the art of building ecosystems that blend commerce, social interaction, and finance.” Their expertise serving diverse, mobile first populations represents globally relevant capabilities. “The key is to localize deeply, not just translate an app.”
FROM NATIONAL CHAMPIONS TO REGIONAL POWERHOUSE
Positioning Asia as the global leader in digital payments and blockchain innovation requires transcending national competition.
“Asia must move from being a collection of national champions to a cohesive, interoperable regional bloc,” Jacky argues. “This requires political will to harmonize regulatory standards and data privacy laws.”
More public-private partnerships to build regional infrastructure, including Pan-Asian digital identity frameworks, could create network effects no other region can match. “By fostering collaboration over competition at a macro level, Asia can create a network effect that no other region can match.”
This vision recognizes that sustainable competitive advantage comes not from individual companies or countries but from creating seamless regional ecosystems that multiply value across borders.
THE MULTIPLIER EFFECT OF MENTORSHIP
When asked about proudest professional achievement, Jacky’s answer reveals values that transcend individual accomplishments.
“My proudest achievement isn’t a single product or deal. It’s the teams and leaders I’ve helped mentor and develop who have gone on to build incredible things themselves.” Watching a junior analyst become a CEO of a promising startup, or seeing a regulator become a champion for sensible innovation, represents legacy that matters most. “It’s a multiplier effect on impact.”
This perspective reframes success from personal achievement to ecosystem development, from individual brilliance to collective advancement. It’s consistent with the broader philosophy that sustainable innovation requires building capacity, not just deploying technology.
ADVICE FOR THE NEXT GENERATION
For young professionals aspiring to build careers in FinTech and payments, Jacky advocates becoming “T-shaped” professionals. Develop deep expertise in one vertical, whether compliance, data science, or product management. That’s the vertical bar of the T. But also cultivate broad understanding of adjacent fields like economics, regulation, psychology, and technology. That’s the horizontal bar.
“FinTech lives at the intersections,” Jacky explains. “Be curious, be humble, and always start with the customer problem, not the tech solution.”
The advice reflects hard-won understanding that sustainable careers in FinTech require both specialized depth and interdisciplinary breadth. Technology alone is insufficient. Understanding human behavior, regulatory frameworks, and economic systems becomes equally essential.
THE NON-NEGOTIABLE FOUNDATION
Personal values driving professional decisions and leadership style come down to three core principles: Integrity, Curiosity, and Empathy.
“Integrity is non-negotiable; it’s the foundation of trust in finance. Curiosity drives continuous learning and prevents complacency. And empathy is crucial for your team, your customers, and even your regulators. You cannot build a solution for someone whose problems you don’t truly understand.”
These values aren’t mere platitudes but operational principles shaping daily decisions and long term strategy. They represent the human foundation beneath technological innovation.
A VISION FOR INCLUSIVE PROSPERITY
Jacky’s long term vision for Asia’s FinTech industry is both ambitious and deeply humanistic.
“My long-term vision is for a financially inclusive, seamlessly connected, and sustainably powered Asia. An Asia where a small farmer in Myanmar has the same access to credit and global markets as a corporation in Tokyo, all through their smartphone.”
The role Jacky hopes to play is as bridge builder, connecting capital with innovation, regulators with entrepreneurs, and different national ecosystems to create truly integrated and prosperous digital economy for all.
This vision transcends technological advancement to embrace fundamental questions about economic justice, opportunity, and shared prosperity. It recognizes that technology’s ultimate value lies not in sophistication but in its capacity to expand human potential and economic inclusion.
THE LEGACY OF CONNECTION
In an industry often celebrated for disruption, Jacky represents a different model of leadership. One grounded in connection rather than disruption, in collaboration rather than competition, in sustainable systems rather than quick wins. The accounting foundation never disappeared. It evolved into understanding that the most important balances aren’t on financial statements but in ecosystems where multiple stakeholders find mutual value.
The bridge building metaphor proves apt. Jacky’s career has been about connecting disparate systems: legacy finance with cutting edge technology, strict European regulation with innovative Asian markets, technical possibilities with human needs, individual ambition with collective advancement.
As Asia continues its remarkable economic ascent, leaders like Jacky provide essential guidance on building financial infrastructure that serves not just efficiency but equity, not just innovation but inclusion, not just growth but genuine human flourishing. The future being built isn’t merely faster or cheaper. It’s fundamentally more accessible, more transparent, and more just.
That future requires leaders who understand both technology and trust, both innovation and integrity, both disruption and stability. Jacky’s journey from accountant to FinTech pioneer demonstrates that the most transformative innovations emerge not from abandoning foundational principles but from applying them with vision, courage, and unwavering commitment to serving all stakeholders in the ecosystems we build.
