Waqar Chaudry

Waqar is the Managing Director and Global Head of Digital Assets within Financing and Securities Services at Standard Chartered, where he leads the Bank’s global digital assets strategy and product rollout. His remit spans digital asset custody, tokenisation, stablecoins, market infrastructure strategy, and related services, working closely with teams across the Corporate and Investment Banking division as well as regulators, market infrastructures, technology partners, and institutional clients globally.

Since joining Standard Chartered in London in 2022, Waqar has played a central role in building and scaling the Bank’s digital assets capabilities, bringing together product, regulatory, operational, and client delivery expertise. Prior to this, he served as Senior Manager, Market Infrastructure and Products at the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Abu Dhabi Global Market, where he was responsible for the authorisation and supervision of virtual asset exchanges, digital asset custodians, broker‑dealers, and banks. He previously spent eight years at the Australian Securities Exchange in Sydney in roles covering exchange‑traded derivatives markets, and earlier in his career worked as a consultant with IBM Global Business Services in the Asia‑Pacific region.

Waqar holds an Executive MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management at UNSW Sydney, a postgraduate qualification in finance from the University of Technology Sydney, and a Bachelor of Information Technology in Software Engineering from the University of South Australia.