In this episode of Financial Markets iNSiGHTS, host Tina Kane speaks with Emmanuel Ashifi, founder and CEO of Sika Financial Group, about the challenges of FX liquidity – and efficient settlement – in emerging and frontier markets.

They discuss how fragmented, manual settlement processes impact working capital liquidity, strain national foreign exchange reserves and impact cross-border trade flow. Emmanuel explains why extending mature-market models isn’t the right approach in these markets, and how purpose-built settlement infrastructure reflecting the particular nuances of less developed economies can bring greater trust, transparency and resilience to trading and supply chain lifecycles, and better meet the needs of financial market participants underserved by current financial market infrastructures.