Cross-border trade digitisation platform dltledgers has hired Farooq Siddiqi as its co-CEO, effective immediately.

Siddiqi joins the company following a short stint at Falcon Group as CEO of Asia Pacific. Prior to joining Falcon Group, Siddiqi spent 19 years at Standard Chartered, where he had worked his way up through various regional and global roles within trade and cash management to become global head of trade finance.

In his new role, Siddiqi will split responsibilities with dltledgers’ founder and CEO, Samir Neji. Based out of the company’s Singapore headquarters, his immediate plans include geographic expansion, deploying the company’s recently launched trade finance registry, and leading the roll-out of SmartFIN, an SME financing programme, while his future plans involve introducing transactional lending models for supplier financing and inventory financing.

“Covid-19 has impacted businesses dramatically, especially the small and medium-sized companies. If these companies do not adopt more efficient, digitised solutions quickly, they are at real risk. Even large enterprises and banks suffer by sticking with traditional operating processes within trade finance,” says Siddiqi. “It is imperative for the industry to review newer models, especially those deploying blockchain technology, to bring about streamlined, transparent processes that benefit all stakeholders. I believe now is an opportune time to step up efforts to bring about these industry changes. Therefore, I am thrilled to be joining the team to help further this vision.”

Welcoming Siddiqi to the role, Neji says: “We see huge expectation gaps between the seekers and financiers in the market, due to the volatility and risks involved in financing. Having an industry veteran like Farooq join our team in this critical post-Covid period will aid us immensely. Farooq is the perfect fit because he has global experience, is a strategic thinker, is customer-focused, and has the ability to execute. For him to join dltledgers is as promising a signal as we could hope for. I am ecstatic to welcome him to the team.”

Falcon Group is yet to announce Siddiqi’s replacement.