Nasir is CEO of The Luxembourg House of Financial Technology (LHoFT), a public/private sector initiative to drive fintech innovation in Luxembourg. He is also a Non-Executive Board Director of Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB) S.A and sits on the IMF’s High Level Advisory Group on Finance and Technology. Nasir has worked in Financial Services for 20 years. He spent 13 years working within Capital Markets at RBS, ICAP, HSBC and EBS.. As a Fintech entrepreneur, Nasir has built multiple Fintech businesses. Nasir has a BSc from the London School of Economics and is a Sloan Fellow from London Business School.
How did you get to become an expert in your key topics?
I have worked in Finance for over 20 years since leaving university. I have always been in Fintech, first as a financial engineer designing risk management systems for Reuters, then to EBS where I am credited on the patents for what was once the biggest exchange, processing over $220 billion in trading volume per day. As a result of the knowledge acquired and post takeover by ICAP, I was headhunted by banks to set up Algo/HFT trading desk; I went to RBS where I set up and ran the prop HFT desk trading over $10 billion/day in FX and Futures, using machine learning algos. I have never myself coded – I have always been on the business side of financial tech, but fully understand how it can be utilised. Living and working in 9 countries has also helped provide an enriching experience.
What topic areas are you most passionate about?
Dispelling the myth and fear of AI – the maths has not changed radically over the past decade – general autonomous intelligence is still very far away. Data privacy and Data as an asset links with this. Cybersecurity – financial services firms are very bad at protecting themselves and have terrible contingency plans. Probably the most interesting thing to me is the advances in longevity research and the impact this will have on Financial Services. How does finance work when people live to 150?
Which influencers influence you within those key topics?
I must confess, I don’t follow any people in particular on these things. I’m always just looking for generally interesting information. Perhaps in Longevity, Tristan Edwards and Professor David Sinclair from Life BioSciences in the US, along with my old economics Professor, Andrew Scott from LBS.
Outside of your key topics who else influences you?
Jordan Peterson. Arnold Schwarzenegger, my friends, my family.
What are your passions outside of work?
Family, Cricket, Snowboarding, a bit of gaming, the future of schooling.
How would you describe your offline influence?
This is where I focus. I drive change offline, not online. I think its been pretty effective.
If a brand wanted to work with you, what offline / online activities would you be most interested in?
Podcasts, Whitepaper, Speaking, video interviews.
What brands have you worked with?
11:FS, Money2020
Which non-paid activities would you be keen to take part in if the opportunity raised your profile or delivered value to your audience?
I would be interested in providing a quote for a blog or news article and sharing / creating a social post. I would also be interested in speaking at or attend an event, participating in a podcast, and creating video content.
What would be the best way for a brand to contact you?
You can send me a message on Twitter or LinkedIn.