From The World Bank to Crypto and FinTech

As 2021 starts, I wanted to address the question that many of you have asked me about why I left the World Bank and I am following a career in Crypto and FinTech. I have to say that it has not been an easy journey, starting with zero contacts and a different background than most of private sector professionals. However, my experience allowed me to see very quickly how crypto, blockchain and FinTech will affect almost every part of the financial sector.

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At the World Bank, I got a wide view of the national and international financial architecture. I participated in Financial Sector Assessment Programs, which are evaluations of the financial sectors of countries that contain multi-year recommendations on banks, capital markets, payment systems, deposit insurance, financial inclusion and AML/CFT among other topics. I worked with the Managing Director and CFO of the World Bank preparing brief notes and interventions for his attendance to the Financial Stability Board meetings where the regulations after the Global Financial Crisis were being discussed and approved (e.g. Systemically Important Financial Institutions buffers, resolution plans, OTC derivatives margins and trading, etc.).

During my last year, my project looked at the impacts of the termination of correspondent banking relationships in eight different countries. The truth is that apart from reinforcing their Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) frameworks and monitoring those cancellations, the solutions were not especially obvious for some countries unless the underlying structure of how money moved internationally was changed. I had also looked at the syndicated loan market for the G20 when concerns for infrastructure development in emerging countries appeared. These loans were so complex to settle that there were few companies which could replace the European banks that suddenly stopped financing.

My project looked at the impacts of the termination of correspondent banking relations in eight different countries and the truth was that apart from increasing AML/CFT frameworks and monitoring those cancellations, the solutions were not especially obvious for some countries. The same happened with synidcated loans, their settlement was so comple that there were few companies which woudl do it

At that time, in 2017-2018, companies and MIT professors started coming to the World Bank to explain blockchain technology. Those presentations were full of questions: what would happen to fractional banking, who are the entities mining Bitcoin, what is the degree of privacy of the different cryptocurrencies, how can a cryptocurrency who goes up exponentially in value could be used for payments, etc. The answers were not clear and the technology was not scalable still, so the decision was to monitor the developments and wait. Simultaneously, the Financial Stability Board started to report the market cap of cryptocurrencies in documents circulated for the meetings and begin to follow the advancements of the technology as close as it was tracking artificial intelligence.

After one year following these developments, I was convinced of the potential of technology and wanted to expand my knowledge. For that, I needed to go to the private sector. That is the time when I decided to go to business school and in my admissions essay I wrote that I wanted to explore blockchain and FinTech ‘to make financial products more efficient and affordable’.

After one year following these developments, I was convinced of its potential and wanted to expand my knowledge. For that, I needed to go to the private sector

I remember vividly my first blockchain conference and how I could hardly understand anything. The discussions focused on the technology itself and on the parallel financial sector being created (Decentralized Finance or DeFi) rather than on the implications for the financial system that we all know. Nevertheless, this world had already piqued my curiosity, so while at Wharton, I signed up for Prof. Werbach Blockchain class and went to every single Penn Blockchain Club event I saw. I learnt how Maker DAO and Uniswap worked and I listened to Penn engineer students commenting on whitepapers. I even hosted podcasts with leaders in the space (Jalak Jobanputra , Nitai Bran, John Todaro and Vinny Lingham) and organized visits to blockchain companies (Pantera Capital, Blockchain Capital, IDEO Labs, Consensys, Figure, Oasis Labs, Stellar, 0(1) Labs…).

I remember vividly my first blockchain conference and how I could hardly understand anything

Furthermore, I was very active in the FinTech club and decided to major in Business Analytics, which led me to explore embedded payments and artificial intelligence. I learned how to code, interviewed leaders in such as Eric Rosenthal from Rapyd and hosted seminars with or organized visits to Facebook Payments, Robinhood, SoFi, Uber Money, Finix, VISA, Wealthfront, etc.

I decided to spend the summer of my MBA at a blockchain and FinTech start-up and I chose Ripple. I worked closely with Business Development, Product, Legal and Engineering in order to create a step-by-step cross-functional go-to-market strategy that led the firm into a new continent in less than one year. I enjoyed the agile environment, the rapid iterations on the product, my discussions with them to filter technology partners and how they listened to their clients. Currently, I am a member of the Stanford Digital Currency initiative researching on Central Bank Digital Currencies.

It has taken me three years, but I can say today that I understand the difference of Layer 1 and Layer 2 protocols, the details of custody services, staking, decentralized finance aggregators, lending protocols, embedded payments, machine learning, etc. I have had the privilege to network with numerous blockchain start-ups, payment companies, banks, FinTechs and Venture Capitalists that are in the space. Also, I find it exciting to reflect on what blockchain and Fintech mean for the financial sector: how current settlement platforms will transform (just on January 4th the US allowed banks to use stablecoins for settlements!), will credit cards be replaced with stablecoin payments, will remittances use crypto, will the act of paying disappear, will individuals be able to trade a piece of real estate rather than an ETF, to what extent the concept of narrow bank (1:1 pegs) will return, will an algorithm fully manage your investments, etc.

These past three years have been a steep learning curve, and this is the reason I started this blog so that any person interested in the space can understand the changes that especially blockchain can bring to the monetary and financial systems

It has been a steep learning curve, and this is the reason I started this blog so that any person interested in the space can understand the changes that especially blockchain can bring to the monetary and financial systems. I decided to focus it on blockchain because I found it the hardest to understand given the change in the core infrastructure that this technology is generating. Moreover and as you can notice, I did not start my blog talking about what Bitcoin is, but about the impact that nine-page whitepaper will have in our financial system.

I hope my perspective helps all readers inform themselves about what is happening and encourages them to learn more about it. Please feel free to drop any questions or topics you are interested in. I would love to continue the conversation.

And Happy New Year!