Enterprise IT News - GFTN’s pragmatic playbook for cross‑border digital infrastructure

An Interview with James Boey, CEO of GFTN forums

Observers may note the Japan–India corridor emerging as a pragmatic blueprint for cross‑border digital finance and technology collaboration. 

It pairs Japan’s institutional trust and discipline with India’s speed, scale and engineering talent. The corridor, a topic of conversation between James Boey, co-CEO of GFTN (Global Finance Technology Network) and Enterprise IT News, is being built not as conventional trade lanes but as a co‑curated platform for next‑generation financial infrastructure.

Japan brings capital, institutional trust, and disciplined execution while India supplies speed, scale, deep engineering talent. India has proven large-scale payment innovations like UPI or Unified Payments Interface.

UPI is a real‑time digital payment system that lets people and businesses transfer money instantly between bank accounts using a mobile app, without needing bank account numbers.

As James put it, “Japan ranks high in trust” while “India has speed, India has skills”. It is a combination which James pointed out makes the corridor “more powerful together than alone”. 

Odisha
According to James, Singapore is helping the state government of Odisha, India, to build out a fintech and insurtech hub.

This aligns with GFTN’s four-pillar programme around capacity development and training, attracting startups and founders, developing global capability centres or GCCs for multinational back-office operations, and convening public-private policy/regulatory dialogue to address challenges with solutions.

He also added, “Japan investment in Odisha is not new. The largest bank in Japan, MUFG, has already started to set up local operations in Bangalore. Likewise for SMBC, which started a GCC in Chennai.”

Engagement with regions like Odisha, is intended to unlock social impact, talent development, and new GCC opportunities beyond already saturated tech hubs. 


Singapore itself has a payments fintech company that is tapping into India’s large talent pool, with a large component residing in Odisha.

“So, there is already underlying work done there, and what we are doing is bringing all the components together – the talent, the work, the founders, the investment; as of today the policy needs to be addressed, the challenges need to be worked around, the solutions need to be made available. 

“We are facilitating that.”

Facilitating quantum use cases
At the Black Swan Summit in Perth which GFTN organised, quantum emerged as one of the main themes. James warned that quantum “may quietly come and impact us (in a way) that we are not prepared for,” and stressed the need for collaborative experimentation.

To address this, GFTN has launched a quantum finance initiative – a shared experimentation framework or sandbox called Q-Finex – which intends to give banks and fintechs a common environment to trial quantum use cases.

James made it clear that success will require cross‑institutional problem statements and implementation partners – citing collaboration with the University of Western Australia (UWA), engineering partners like ST Engineering and banks – so pilots can move beyond proof‑of‑concepts.

What will success look like for this region
GFTN, is a global ecosystem builder that connects regulators, financial institutions, and startups. It operates at the intersection of technology, policy, finance, to be able to co-create and implement next‑generation digital finance infrastructure across markets.

Quantum is only one of many technologies the finance industry is anticipating as it ponders how other technologies like AI and Web3 will play out as a tech stack for digital financial infrastructure.

The execution is always the failing point.

James Boey
When asked about what constitutes success from GFTN’s view, James’ response was pragmatic and took into account the multiple stakeholders involved.

For policymakers, success means harmonised frameworks – for example, interoperable digital identity, payment rails and data‑flow arrangements that enable meaningful sandboxing and cross‑border experimentation. “The execution is always the failing point,” James noted, pointing out that MoUs alone often lead nowhere without concrete sandbox and deployment pathways.

For institutions, he said, measurable progress is scaling deployments beyond pilots. For startups and talent, success looks like cross‑border distribution channels, investor flows, and skills mobility. 

In all of this, ASEAN’s role is pivotal. Despite its heterogeneity and complexity, the Southeast Asia region is “very unique with high potential” and “has a lot to offer compared to many other regions”.

James is optimistic in his conclusion about this region. “There is a lot of growth. If you total up the population in Southeast Asia, the region is actually very strong. So, if we get our act right together, walk in the same footsteps, all arrows pointing in the same general direction… I think we are in a good state.”

Source: GFTN’s pragmatic playbook for cross‑border digital infrastructure