Kaushalya Somasundaram

Managing Director, Head of Fintech Partnerships, HSBC

Kaushalya is currently the Global Head of Fintech Partnerships & Strategy for the Corporate & Institutional Digital group in HSBC. In this role, she leads the partnership and corporate venturing for HSBC’s core businesses including Global Liquidity and Cash Management, Global Trade and Receivables Finance, Custody & Security Services, and Global Markets.

In her current capacity, Kaushalya has led HSBC’s efforts in the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) space including the investment in and partnership with R3. Kaushalya has also led HSBC’s partnerships with companies including Tradeshift and Kyriba among others and HSBC’s participation in major industry initiatives such as the Utility Settlement Coin (USC).

Prior to her current role, Kaushalya served as a director in the HSBC Strategic Innovation Investments team and has led investments into Symphony, Tradeshift, R3, Neptune, and KY3P. She has also held senior roles in HSBC across Corporate Development, Strategy and Planning, and Group Audit. In her role within Corporate Development, she has led HSBC’s investment into Markit and subsequent IPO as well as investments into consortiums such as Acadiasoft, OTCDeriv, LCH/LSE and LiquidityMatch.

Kaushalya sits on the board of several portfolio companies including Tradeshift, LiquidityMatch and R3 and invited to participate on committees and boards including World Trade Board, BAFT Innovation Council, Tech City – Fintech Delivery Panel, Fintech Circle Institute and Whitechapel Think tank.

Kaushalya hails from Botswana and holds degrees from Australia prior to moving to the UK in 2006. In 2016, Kaushalya was recognized in the Brummell’s list of the most inspirational women innovators in London. More recently, Kaushalya has been quoted in Finextra, CoinDesk, Reuters, Financial News, Global Trade Review, Bank Innovation and Scottish Accounting Institute.