SINGAPORE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 3, 2025--
The Global Finance & Technology Network (GFTN) announced today the appointment of Her Majesty Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Financial Health (UNSGSA), as Chair of the International Advisory Board (IAB). The other new members of the IAB are Mr Agustín Carstens and Mr Sanjiv Bajaj, effective 1 July, 2025.
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The appointment of these globally respected leaders to its IAB marks a key landmark for GFTN, a Singapore-headquartered not-for-profit organisation that leverages technology and innovation to create more efficient, resilient, and inclusive financial systems through global collaboration.
“We warmly welcome Queen Máxima, Mr Agustín Carstens, and Mr Sanjiv Bajaj to the GFTN International Advisory Board,” said Mr Ravi Menon, Chairman of the Board of Directors, GFTN. “Their visionary leadership, breadth of experience and steadfast commitment to advancing financial innovation and inclusion will be invaluable for GFTN as we build bridges across policy, technology, and finance to foster a more purposeful financial ecosystem worldwide.”
Queen Máxima, UNSGSA, is a distinguished advocate for global financial health. She has leveraged her professional background in finance to champion accessible and resilient financial systems worldwide. From 2009-2024 she served as the UNSGSA for financial inclusion for development to improve worldwide access to financial services, especially for the underserved such as low-income households, women, smallholder farmers and SMEs. Nearly 80% of adults now have access to a payment account (Global Findex 2021), but access alone is not enough. As the UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Financial Health, Queen Máxima will focus on financial products, services and policies that prioritise the financial well-being of people by enabling people to manage their day-to-day finance, protect themselves against financial risks with savings and insurance, allow them to invest in short and long-term goals and create confidence in their financial future. Through strategic and sustained advocacy, Queen Máxima encourages cooperation and commitment among political leaders, regulators, global standard-setting bodies, civil society, and the private sector, to meet the needs of financially underserved groups. Queen Máxima’s work continue to shape policies that empower individuals and communities to achieve greater economic well-being and financial health.
Mr Agustín Carstens is a globally recognised economist and central banker who has played a key role in both national and international finance. As governor of Banco de México and Mexico’s Secretary of Finance, he led the country through challenging economic times, notably implementing innovative strategies during the 2008 global financial crisis that safeguarded Mexico’s macroeconomic stability. On the global stage, Mr Carstens was Deputy Managing Director at the International Monetary Fund and has served as the General Manager of the Bank for International Settlements from 2017-2025. At the BIS, he promoted modernisation and innovation in central banking, launching initiatives to enhance the functioning of the global financial system by developing public goods and fostering collaboration amongst central banks.
Mr Sanjiv Bajaj is one of India’s most influential financial leaders. Under his leadership, Bajaj Finserv has grown into one of India’s most diversified and innovative financial services groups, offering solutions across lending, insurance, and investments. Mr Bajaj has championed a digital-first, consumer-centric approach, transforming how millions of Indians access financial products. He has also served as President of the Confederation of Indian Industry and was a member of the Steering Committee appointed by the Government of India for B20 as part of India’s G20 Presidency for FY 2022-23.
About GFTN
The Global Finance & Technology Network (GFTN) is a Singapore-headquartered organisation that leverages technology and innovation to create more efficient, resilient, and inclusive financial systems through global collaboration. GFTN hosts a worldwide network of forums (including its flagship event, the Singapore FinTech Festival); advises governments and companies on policies and the development of digital ecosystems and innovation within the financial sector; offers digital infrastructure solutions; and plans to invest in financial technology startups through its upcoming venture fund, with a focus on inclusion and sustainability.
Queen Máxima of the Netherlands Appointed Chair of Global Finance & Technology Network’s International Advisory Board
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powellsaid Sunday the Department of Justice has served the central bank with subpoenas and threatened it with a criminal indictment over his testimony this summer about the Fed’s building renovations.
The move represents an unprecedented escalation in President Donald Trump’s battle with the Fed, an independent agency he's repeatedly attacked for not cutting its key interest rate as sharply as he prefers. The renewed fight will likely rattle financial markets Monday and could over time escalate borrowing costs for mortgages and other loans.
The subpoenas relate to Powell’s testimony before the Senate Banking Committee in June, the Fed chair said, regarding the Fed’s $2.5 billion renovation of two office buildings, a project Trump has criticized as excessive.
Here's the latest:
Stocks are falling on Wall Street after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the Department of Justice had served the central bank with subpoenas and threatened it with a criminal indictment over his testimony about the Fed’s building renovations.
The S&P 500 fell 0.3% in early trading Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 384 points, or 0.8%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.2%.
Powell characterized the threat of criminal charges as pretexts to undermine the Fed’s independence in setting interest rates, its main tool for fighting inflation. The threat is the latest escalation in President Trump’s feud with the Fed.
▶ Read more about the financial markets
She says she had “a very good conversation” with Trump on Monday morning about topics including “security with respect to our sovereignties.”
Last week, Sheinbaum had said she was seeking a conversation with Trump or U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the U.S. president made comments in an interview that he was ready to confront drug cartels on the ground and repeated the accusation that cartels were running Mexico.
Trump’s offers of using U.S. forces against Mexican cartels took on a new weight after the Trump administration deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Sheinbaum was expected to share more about their conversation later Monday.
A leader of the Canadian government is visiting China this week for the first time in nearly a decade, a bid to rebuild his country’s fractured relations with the world’s second-largest economy — and reduce Canada’s dependence on the United States, its neighbor and until recently one of its most supportive and unswerving allies.
The push by Prime Minster Mark Carney, who arrives Wednesday, is part of a major rethink as ties sour with the United States — the world’s No. 1 economy and long the largest trading partner for Canada by far.
Carney aims to double Canada’s non-U.S. exports in the next decade in the face of President Trump’s tariffs and the American leader’s musing that Canada could become “the 51st state.”
▶ Read more about relations between Canada and China
The comment by a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson came in response to a question at a regular daily briefing. President Trump has said he would like to make a deal to acquire Greenland, a semiautonomous region of NATO ally Denmark, to prevent Russia or China from taking it over.
Tensions have grown between Washington, Denmark and Greenland this month as Trump and his administration push the issue and the White House considers a range of options, including military force, to acquire the vast Arctic island.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has warned that an American takeover of Greenland would mark the end of NATO.
▶ Read more about the U.S. and Greenland
Trump said Sunday that he is “inclined” to keep ExxonMobil out of Venezuela after its top executive was skeptical about oil investment efforts in the country after the toppling of former President Nicolás Maduro.
“I didn’t like Exxon’s response,” Trump said to reporters on Air Force One as he departed West Palm Beach, Florida. “They’re playing too cute.”
During a meeting Friday with oil executives, Trump tried to assuage the concerns of the companies and said they would be dealing directly with the U.S., rather than the Venezuelan government.
Some, however, weren’t convinced.
“If we look at the commercial constructs and frameworks in place today in Venezuela, today it’s uninvestable,” said Darren Woods, CEO of ExxonMobil, the largest U.S. oil company.
An ExxonMobil spokesperson did not immediately respond Sunday to a request for comment.
▶ Read more about Trump’s comments on ExxonMobil
Trump’s motorcade took a different route than usual to the airport as he was departing Florida on Sunday due to a “suspicious object,” according to the White House.
The object, which the White House did not describe, was discovered during security sweeps in advance of Trump’s arrival at Palm Beach International Airport.
“A further investigation was warranted and the presidential motorcade route was adjusted accordingly,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Sunday.
The president, when asked about the package by reporters, said, “I know nothing about it.”
Anthony Guglielmi, the spokesman for U.S. Secret Service, said the secondary route was taken just as a precaution and that “that is standard protocol.”
▶ Read more about the “suspicious object”
Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.
Iran had no direct reaction to Trump’s comments, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, speaking to foreign diplomats in Tehran, insisted “the situation has come under total control” in fiery remarks that blamed Israel and the U.S. for the violence, without offering evidence.
▶ Read more about the possible negotiations and follow live updates
Fed Chair Powell said Sunday the DOJ has served the central bank with subpoenas and threatened it with a criminal indictment over his testimony this summer about the Fed’s building renovations.
The move represents an unprecedented escalation in Trump’s battle with the Fed, an independent agency he has repeatedly attacked for not cutting its key interest rate as sharply as he prefers. The renewed fight will likely rattle financial markets Monday and could over time escalate borrowing costs for mortgages and other loans.
The subpoenas relate to Powell’s testimony before the Senate Banking Committee in June, the Fed chair said, regarding the Fed’s $2.5 billion renovation of two office buildings, a project that Trump has criticized as excessive.
Powell on Sunday cast off what has up to this point been a restrained approach to Trump’s criticisms and personal insults, which he has mostly ignored. Instead, Powell issued a video statement in which he bluntly characterized the threat of criminal charges as simple “pretexts” to undermine the Fed’s independence when it comes to setting interest rates.
▶ Read more about the subpoenas
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters while in flight on Air Force One to Joint Base Andrews, Md., Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
President Donald Trump waves after arriving on Air Force One from Florida, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
