Aqsa Zubair

Deputy Director, FinTech Supervision

Bermuda Monetary Authority

Aqsa Zubair is Deputy Director in the Supervision (Financial Technology) Department at the Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA), where she leads the regulatory licensing and supervision of digital asset businesses under the Digital Asset Business Act 2018 and the Digital Asset Issuance Act 2020. She also heads the Authority’s Blockchain Forensics and Data Intelligence function, driving the development of advanced supervisory tools and data-led oversight capabilities.

Aqsa plays a central role in shaping Bermuda’s position as a leading jurisdiction for digital asset regulation, advancing a risk-based, innovation-focused regulatory framework that balances market development with robust oversight. She is actively engaged in international regulatory collaboration, including through the Global Financial Innovation Network (GFIN) and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) and works closely with global standard-setters, regulators, and industry participants to help shape the future of financial regulation in an increasingly programmable financial system ensuring regulatory frameworks remain credible, adaptive, and capable of overseeing increasingly complex digital market structure.

Speaking at

4:00–5:30pmTue 23 JunGFTN InsightsRoundtable Room 3, Ground FloorOpen
Empowering Entrepreneurship

The Future of Standard-Setting in Fintech Regulation

GFTN InsightsRoundtable Room 3, Ground FloorOpen
About this session

Countries worldwide are competing to attract fintech investment, talent, and innovation. But understanding the quality of fintech regulation remains a work-in-progress. Are rules and institutions working in lockstep to promote fintech? Are these rules findable, coherent, and comprehensive enough to give firms, consumers, and supervisors genuine confidence? Can they promote innovation, market access as well as economic opportunity?
The Financial Regulatory Futures Index (FRFI) is a joint initiative of the Fintech Foundation and GFTN designed to fill that gap. Structured around five analytical pillars, the FRFI will assess regulatory environments not by perception or reputation, but by reference to verifiable primary sources: statutes, supervisory guidance, licensing frameworks, and enforcement records. Its methodology is being developed by five specialist working groups comprising leading regulators, central bankers, academics, and industry practitioners from over 30 jurisdictions. An Executive Council – comprising globally recognized thought-leaders and experienced policy innovators – will oversee the development of this initiative.
This roundtable will offer one of the first public windows into the emerging draft methodology, including how the Index defines and scores: regulatory clarity and comprehensiveness, consumer protection and market conduct, innovation and market infrastructure, resilience and integrity as well as economic opportunity and market access.
It will open a moderated discussion on the Index's intended policy impact, the trade-offs embedded in any cross-jurisdictional benchmarking exercise, and how the FRFI can best serve as a tool for peer learning and reform rather than as a simplistic league table. Feedback from regulators, practitioners, academics and subject matter experts in this conversation will inform the methodology ahead of its launch at DC Fintech Week in October 2026.
12:00–1:30pmWed 24 JunGFTN InsightsRoundtable Room 3, Ground FloorOpen
Roadmap for AI and Quantum

Building Regulatory Maturity: From Quantum Security to Quantum Advantage

GFTN InsightsRoundtable Room 3, Ground FloorOpen
About this session

To date, regulatory and industry engagement on quantum computing has largely focused on quantum security, with meaningful progress made in raising awareness, developing transition plans, and beginning the migration to post-quantum cryptography.

This roundtable reflects on that momentum and asks a forward-looking question:

What can the quantum security journey teach us about the regulator's role in enabling innovation and quantum applications in financial services?

Starting with the lens of GFIN’s Project Otto – Quantum Maturity for Regulators, this discussion will bring together regulators and industry to:
- Reflect on what has worked well in progressing quantum security from awareness to early implementation
- Discuss the regulatory tools, approaches, and mechanisms that have supported firm engagement and investment
- Explore how these lessons can be applied to support firms in experimenting with, investing in, and ultimately deploying quantum-enabled use cases
- Consider how regulators can balance risk mitigation with enabling growth, ensuring markets are prepared for both the challenges and opportunities quantum technologies present

By connecting lessons and experiences from quantum security to emerging quantum advantage, this roundtable aims to support more coordinated, proactive, and innovation-oriented regulatory approaches to quantum computing in financial services.
12:00–1:30pmThu 25 JunGFTN InsightsRoundtable Room 1, Ground FloorOpen
Blueprint for Digital Assets

Programmable Compliance: Opportunities, Risks, and Real Use-Cases

GFTN InsightsRoundtable Room 1, Ground FloorOpen
About this session

The ever evolving and accelerating world of financial and payment services presents challenges for regulators and market participants. Regulators struggle with establishing an appropriate regulatory framework to effectively address the risks associated with services leveraging innovative technologies and market participants may reject new rules if compliance is perceived as too burdensome and costly.

Technological advancement, however, not only presents challenges but also opportunities as rules and policies may be directly implemented into products and the provision of services to clients. At the roundtable, regulators, academics and industry leaders will explore the potential, risks and limits as well as regulatory requirements on a national and international level of this approach, which is commonly referred to as "programmable compliance".
2:00–3:30pmThu 25 JunGFTN InsightsRoundtable Room 2, Ground FloorOpen
Blueprint for Digital Assets

Building a Practitioner's Guide for Tokenization in Finance: Oversight Panel Convening

GFTN InsightsRoundtable Room 2, Ground FloorOpen
About this session

Tokenization is reshaping financial infrastructure across many economies. The decisions that are being made now on architecture, standards and governance will determine whether that infrastructure serves developed and emerging and developing economies, or leaves some behind. Ensuring that outcome requires senior public sector voices at the centre of these conversations.
This session brings both working groups and the public sector Oversight Panel together for the first time. Working group leads will present their confirmed problem statements on what the evidence shows, and receive feedback and recommendations that working groups will pursue to build the practitioner's guide that will publish at Singapore FinTech Festival in November 2026.
About the initiative
GFTN is launching _Tokenization in Finance: Evidence and Implementation Pathways_, a structured, multi-stakeholder initiative convening two working groups drawn from leading financial institutions, infrastructure providers, and market participants to assemble a practitioner-oriented evidence base spanning spanning digital money and payment rails through to tokenized real-world assets, securities, funds, and capital markets infrastructure. At Singapore FinTech Festival in November 2026, the initiative will publish a practitioner guide designed to give financial institutions a structured basis for sequencing their digital asset strategies, and to equip regulators and finance ministries in emerging and developing economies with implementation pathways they can draw on directly.

Featured speakers

Hosted by

Aqsa Zubair

Speaking at

The Future of Standard-Setting in Fintech Regulation

Building Regulatory Maturity: From Quantum Security to Quantum Advantage

Programmable Compliance: Opportunities, Risks, and Real Use-Cases

Building a Practitioner's Guide for Tokenization in Finance: Oversight Panel Convening