Currency Research New Year’s Meet & GreetHurin Nawawi2026-02-05T09:56:28+00:00

London Reception 2026_Winter Meet & Greet

Thank you for joining us for an evening of fun and drinks to celebrate the start of the new year!

2026 New Year’s Meet & Greet

As Currency Research has done in past years, we once again hosted our annual Meet & Greet reception in London on Wednesday, 4 February 2026

This gathering was a great opportunity to connect with friends and colleagues from across the industry for a casual evening of networking and drinks. We also had a few notable speakers for an informal discussion on currency and payments to kick off the evening.

It was wonderful to see everyone in London this February to connect! We hope to see you again soon at one of our upcoming events.

2026 Speakers

Mark GouldChief Payments Executive, Federal Reserve Financial Services

Julia StreetsFounder and CEO, Streets Consulting

Nick McLarenHead of the Future of Money Division, Bank of England

Advisory Board & Conference Chairs

Richard HaycockChairman

Cyprus
Joined in 2001

See Full Bio

Mr. Richard Haycock has over 30 years of experience within the currency industry, and has devoted his time to increasing the education, communication, and community within this industry. With a degree in Computer Science, Richard has a background in the computer and telecommunications industry, and has established himself as a serial entrepreneur. In 1991, he founded and was CEO of Currency Systems International (CSI), Currency Software Solutions (CSS), and Currency Consulting International (CCI). These companies were sold in 2001 to De La Rue, which resulted in Richard founding Currency Research.

Throughout his career, he has developed a knowledge and understanding of the key areas within the currency industry, and is the Founder and Chairman of the Currency Conference (1992) and Cash Cycle Seminars (ICCOS 1996), Founder and co-Chairman of the International Association for Currency Affairs (2004), co-Founder of Currency News (2004), co-Founder and Chairman of Intelligent Currency Solutions (2008), and the co-Founder and past Chairman of the Coin Conference (2010).

Mr. Haycock specializes in the Future of Currency and Central Banks.

Rufaida HamiltonHead of Payments, South Africa Standard Bank

Johannesburg, South Africa

See Full Bio

Rufaida Hamilton (nee Banoobhai) is the Head of Payments for South Africa at Standard Bank Limited. Along with her Bachelor’s degree in Arts, Bachelor of Commerce Honours degree, executive management, and leadership skills gained from her time at the Harvard Business School, she also boasts 23 years of extensive experience in financial services and payments, traversing the investment, corporate and retail banking segments.

Rufaida has worked for three of the largest banks in South Africa and served in various payment industry roles within the South African payments ecosystem. Amongst that notable role, is her board membership at the Payments Association of South Africa and position as Chairperson of the Board of DandyShelf Limited, which held ownership of the local payment system operator.

As the South African payments industry is transforming, Rufaida led the banking industry program to contribute to the design of the new South African payments industry body. She feeds her deep passion for capacity building in payments expertise and skills, particularly women in payments, and in emerging economies through memberships in the likes of the Women in Payments EMEA Advisory Board and more.

Graeme DonaldFormer Head of Industry Development at Lloyds Banking

Edinburgh, United Kingdom

See Full Bio

Graeme has 42 years’ experience in banking the last 23 of which have been in payments.

After spending 25 years with RBS, Graeme joined HBOS in 2000 as Director of Cash and Clearing Services and then went on to head up the Cash Services business. This was followed by a period when he was responsible for the payment industry interface, product strategy for payments, cash management across corporate, SME, and retail customer segments, and relationship management of the HBOS correspondent banking network. After that, Graeme was responsible for leading the engagement with all aspects of the payments industry and was the nominated colleague in LBG for PSR and Bank of England engagement. He is currently seconded to the New Payment Systems Operator.

Graeme led a small team that invented the Current Account Switch service now actively used by UK banks to provide a consistent, guaranteed, and hassle-free customer current account switching experience. He led the design of Bank of Scotland polymer banknotes, including the limited edition note designed by a school competition that attracted over 4,000 entries and raised over £150,000 for BBC Children in Need. Graeme led and designed the LBG payments industry integration plan, including the sort code strategy, to underpin the integration of LTSB and HBOS. This included providing regular updates to the UK Scheme Companies and to the Bank of England at the Executive Director level.

Graeme is an experienced company director including holding directorships at CHAPS Co and Cheque and Credit Clearing Ltd, positions he held for over 7 years, IPSO, and more recently at Faster Payments.

Prior to joining HBOS, Graeme was Head of Cash Operations for RBS. His experience in RBS also included time in branch banking, finance, and as an assistant to one of the RBS group board members.

Graeme is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland, a Chartered Banker, and a former Bilsland prize winner.

Gerry GaetzStrategic Advisor for Tata Consultancy Services & Former CEO of Payments Canada

Ottawa, Canada

See Full Bio

Gerry is a Strategic Advisor with Tata Consultancy Services. He is an Advisory Board Member of Currency Research and he is the former President and CEO of Payments Canada, where he oversaw changes to its governance and board structure, and developed a strategy and plan to modernize the Canadian payments system.

Prior to that, Gerry held a number of executive roles at the Bank of Canada, leading Banking Operations, Corporate Services, and Currency. Gerry has been a member of the International Council of Payment Association Chief Executives, a founding member of P7, a group of 11 Asia Pacific payment entities, and the chair of the Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group, comprised of 32 countries. He was a director of Fortress Global Enterprises and Landqart AG in Switzerland. He was a member of an international business ethics accreditation council, based in London. He also co-led the flagship executive leadership program at the Gestalt International Study Center in Massachusetts and co-founded AdAstra, a Canadian charity organization.

Michael Lambert Former Director of Banknotes, Board of Governors of the USA Federal Reserve System

Alexandria, United States of America

See Full Bio

Michael Lambert is former Director of Banknotes for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington, D.C. He was responsible for issuing the nation’s banknotes and for the following programs: Banknote Issuance and Cash Operation, Banknote Planning and Quality, and the Currency Education Program, a global programme designed to reach users of US currency around the world.

In his former capacity, Michael participated with senior officials of the US Department of the Treasury, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the United States Secret Service to coordinate counterfeit deterrence activities for the United States and make banknote design recommendations to the Secretary of the Treasury.

In addition, Michael served on the Executive Committees of the Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group, the Reprographic Research Centre, and the Four Nations, and was actively involved in other international forums, such as CEMLA and the Pacific Rim Banknote Conference.

Xiaochen ZhangChair of the Central Bank AI Conference

Chicago, United States of America

See Full Bio

Xiaochen is the founder and CEO of FinTech4Good, a global network that collaborates with startups, industry leaders, nonprofits, and investors to harness blockchain, AI, metaverse, and cloud computing for social good. He is also an Investor at Gaingels, a leading venture capital network that supports diverse and underrepresented founders in FinTech and artificial intelligence.

With over 20 years of experience in financial markets and international development, Xiaochen has a passion for leveraging emerging technologies to create a better world. As the Global Head of Innovation & GTM at Amazon Web Services (AWS), he led a team that developed and delivered cutting-edge solutions in areas such as digital assets, central bank digital currency, green finance, and regulatory and supervisory technologies.

Jean-Michel Godeffroy Chair of the Central Bank Payments Conference

Paris, France

See Full Bio

Jean-Michel Godeffroy is an independent consultant based in Paris. He retired from the European Central Bank in 2014, after 16 years as director general in charge of payment systems and market infrastructures. In this capacity, he played a key role in the successful implementation of the TARGET2 system, the RTGS for the euro area, and T2S, the integrated securities settlement system for Europe.

He also contributed actively to the SEPA project, whose objective was to create uniform payment instruments in Europe. He chaired the Payment and Settlement Systems Committee of the Eurosystem and the T2S Board. He was a member of the G10/G20 CPSS (now CPMI).

Jean-Michel started his career at Banque de France in 1982 where he was successively a foreign exchange dealer, investment manager, and banking supervisor.

In 1989-1990, he was seconded to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Jean-Michel holds a degree from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (SciencesPo) and an Economics degree from the University of Panthéon-Sorbonne.

Matthew HuntChair of the Global Payments Summit

London, United Kingdom

See Full Bio

Currently working as a strategic advisor with a large professional services firm, Matthew is an active payments industry participant with vast experience in the United Kingdom market.

Previously, Matthew has held key leadership positions at Pay.UK and the Bank of England, and was instrumental in developing strategies that have helped position the UK market as a global leader in critical market infrastructure areas such as Open Banking, Faster Payments, RTGS, and others.

This website uses cookies and third party services. Please read our privacy policy here.

Accept Reject