Prerna Saxena

Head of Asia-Pacific

Prerna Saxena is the Head of Asia-Pacific at the Better than Cash Alliance, a United Nations-based partnership of governments, companies, and international organizations that accelerates the transition from cash to responsible digital payments to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Prerna is responsible for managing Alliance’s initiatives across Asia and leading Alliance’s work on Digital Public Infrastructure. She brings with her over two decades of extensive experience in promoting digital financial inclusion, particularly for underserved women and micro enterprises.

Prerna leads the Alliance’s engagement with India’s G20 Presidency and contributes to G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI). She is a member of the B20 Digital Transformation Taskforce and G20 Empower Taskforce on Financial Inclusion and Business Acceleration. She has also served as Senior Advisor to the Ministry of Finance, Government of India for G20 GPFI Fintech and digital economy related matters.

Prior to her tenure at the Alliance, Prerna managed technical advisory projects with financial institutions across Asia and contributed to investment portfolio development at the International Finance Corporation (World Bank Group). She engaged with regulators, banks, microfinance institutions, housing finance companies, insurance companies, banking agents, industry associations, to design and implement inclusive finance solutions with sharp focus on small and micro merchants, informal businesses and underserved women.

Prerna gained her banking expertise at Export-Import Bank of India and ICICI Bank while based in India, UAE and Hong Kong.

Prerna has participated in Executive Education Programme in Inclusive Finance from Harvard Business School and Fintech Programme from Oxford University. She is a management graduate with specialisation in agriculture sciences and rural finance. Prerna is fluent in Hindi and English. She also speaks Bengali and Urdu.