T. S. Shankar joins SEDA’s Payments Expert Witness Practice

“Shankar has extensive understanding of the payments infrastructure around the world including the SWIFT system in the USA,” said Peter Selman, Chairman and Managing Partner of SEDA Experts.

Shankar is a highly experienced global payments professional with over two decades in Correspondent Banking covering Cross Border Payments and Trade Finance. His career included stints at Bank of America and Standard Chartered Bank, where he was the Global Product head for Financial Institutions – Payments. In this role his focus was on currency clearing including USD, EURO, RMB, GBP and Continuous linked settlement (CLS).

Since 2022, Mr. Shankar has served as the Asia Head for the Bankers Association of Finance and Trade (“BAFT”), based in Washington DC, where he leads initiatives to enhance the payments and trade framework across the Asia Pacific region. Before joining BAFT, he was a Senior Principal at Infosys Consulting, USA, from 2021 to 2022, focusing on Payments and Trade Finance. From 2019 to 2021, Mr. Shankar led the Asian operations for Traydstream, a fintech firm focusing on digitizing trade finance. He established the company’s regional presence and drove key initiatives like the first regional pilot with a major bank and spearheading Series A fundraising efforts.Previously, he was at Western Union Business Solutions from 2018 to 2019, where he developed a B2B payments business in Asia.

Mr. Shankar’s role at Standard Chartered Bank between 2009 and 2017 as Managing Director involved leading global teams and managing high-profile projects such as SWIFT GPI and blockchain initiatives. During this period, he also served as Global Head of Payments and Liquidity, Product Management in Correspondent Banking. He directed operations across major financial centers, managing a P&L of $350 million and overseeing liabilities exceeding $25 billion. Mr. Shankar played a pivotal role in advancing the bank’s payment systems, including the integration of blockchain technology and the implementation of the SWIFT Global Payments Innovation (GPI) initiative, which significantly enhanced transparency and efficiency in cross-border transactions.

He contributed to improving the bank’s Continuous Linked Settlement (CLS) systems and adeptly navigated regulatory challenges, notably developing contingency plans for the bank’s USD clearing business and spearheading entry into new markets like Myanmar.

At Bank of America from 2005 to 2009, Mr. Shankar led the Trade Finance and Payments division for Southern Asia, where he established the correspondent banking operations and initiated a Trade Risk Distribution business that optimized risk-adjusted returns.