Sabih Behzad

Head of Digital Assets & Currencies Transformation

Deutsche Bank AG London

Sabih Behzad serves as the Head of Digital Assets & Currencies Transformation for the Corporate and Investment Bank. In this role, he oversees strategy and execution and seeks to develop and accelerate use cases within the bank. Key areas of focus include tokenisation of assets and money, DeFi and Metaverse.

He represents the bank in various industry bodies and forums. He is a member of the board of Taurus AG, a leading Swiss based digital assets company. Sabih has been with Deutsche Bank for 14 years, working across the Technology and Operations, Investment Bank and Corporate Bank divisions. He has held a variety of roles including leading strategy, managing large change programmes and developing new businesses.

Prior to Deutsche Bank, Sabih worked within the M&A Corporate Finance division of Lehman Brothers in London and started his career in technology consulting with Lucent Technologies before moving on to Accenture.
He has implemented large scale technology projects and run development teams. He has a passion for technology and in particular, all things blockchain and DLT.

Sabih holds a BEng. in Computer Systems Engineering from the University of Manchester and a MBA with a concentration in Finance from London Business School.

He is a Chartered Engineer and a member of the Institute of Engineering and Technology.

Speaking at

12:00–1:30pmTue 23 JunGFTN InsightsRoundtable Room 3, Ground FloorOpen
Blueprint for Digital Assets

Agorá - How Moving Money Matters

GFTN InsightsRoundtable Room 3, Ground FloorOpen
About this session

Project Agorá tests the hypothesis that a multi-currency settlement mechanism that leverages tokenization and programmability could mitigate inefficiencies and frictions in cross-border payments, making them faster, more transparent and safer.
To examine this, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the Institute of International Finance (IIF) combined forces to convene seven central banks and over 40 international financial institutions to test the tokenization of commercial bank deposits and central bank reserves on a unifying ledger. The roundtable will bring together Project Agorá public and private sector participants to reflect on the project and lessons learned.
4:00–5:30pmTue 23 JunGFTN InsightsRoundtable Room 1, Ground FloorOpen
Blueprint for Digital Assets

Practical Settlement Options in Tokenized Markets

GFTN InsightsRoundtable Room 1, Ground FloorOpen
About this session

The development of tokenized settlement assets plays a key role in enhancing liquidity and improving settlement efficiency in financial services. Yet the diversity of settlement assets – regulated stablecoins, tokenized deposits, tokenized central bank reserves – could introduce fragmentation and substitution risk if token interoperability, yield and incentive mechanisms, and financial stability considerations are not well addressed.

This roundtable brings together the financial industry and policymakers to address the multi-faceted considerations for tokenized settlement assets, ensuring they are fit-for-purpose across banking, capital markets, and wholesale payments.
1:00–2:00pmThu 25 JunLaunchpadLaunchpad Room, Level 1Open
Others

From Experiments to Execution: Practical Convergence in Market Structure - Powered by Partior

LaunchpadLaunchpad Room, Level 1Open
About this session

Global finance is moving beyond simple payment rails. The next generation of financial market infrastructure must support a broader universe of digital liabilities, assets, and ledgers - across institutions, asset classes, and jurisdictions.
This panel will explore how multi-chain, multi-asset orchestration connect diverse ledgers and enable practical convergence without relying on a single monolithic platform. Leaders from major global institutions will discuss the implementation of digital cash including tokenised deposits for example with Partior; the LSEG DiSH Trust Account model; and how banks, FMIs, and technology providers are jointly delivering live use cases.
Join this session to see how the industry has productionised services to seamlessly synchronise interbank liquidity as a resilient foundation for the next generation of global financial market infrastructure.

Featured speakers

Hosted by

Sabih Behzad

Speaking at

Agorá - How Moving Money Matters

Practical Settlement Options in Tokenized Markets

From Experiments to Execution: Practical Convergence in Market Structure - Powered by Partior