About Sika Financial Group

Built to Solve the World's Most Overlooked Settlement Problem.

We are financial market infrastructure, not a fintech product. Built by practitioners from inside the plumbing of global finance to serve the economies that need it most.

Founding Story

A Straightforward Conviction.

"The financial infrastructure gap between G10 currencies and the rest of the world is not inevitable. It is solvable. The architects of Sika came from deep inside the plumbing of global finance from clearing houses, central banks, correspondent banking networks, and emerging market capital markets. They saw the same problem from different angles: the absence of a credible, neutral, multilaterally-governed FX settlement infrastructure for the currencies that matter most to developing economies."

CLS Group, the dominant FX settlement utility settles approximately 18 currencies, all G10 or developed market. The remaining 160+ traded currency pairs settle bilaterally, often with T+2 or longer finality windows, no systemic netting, and full principal risk on both legs.

Sika was founded to change that. Not as a fintech product. As infrastructure.

Our Values

The Principles We Build By.

Neutrality

Sika operates as neutral infrastructure. We are not a principal in the markets we serve. Our interests are aligned with the stability of the system, not with any single participant.

Resilience

Financial market infrastructure must never fail. We design for operational continuity, redundancy, and recovery across every jurisdiction we serve.

Inclusivity

Every economy deserves access to settlement infrastructure that meets global standards. This is not an aspiration, it is the foundation of our market strategy.

Transparency

We publish our rules, governance frameworks, risk management standards, and participant agreements, meeting the transparency standards expected of a regulated FMU.

Leadership

Built by Practitioners, for the Market.

Sika's leadership team brings deep experience in financial market infrastructure, central banking, and emerging market capital markets.

Emmanuel Ashirifi

Chief Executive Officer

Emmanuel, Founder & CEO of Sika, has 15 years' experience building and scaling financial market infrastructure across North America, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. With a track record in banking, insurance, exchanges, and fintech, he now leads Sika's mission to become the CLS of the Global South.

Abeeda Khan

Chief Financial Officer

Abeeda brings over 15 years in finance and treasury experience from Ernst & Young (EY), Fuze Finance, and multi-market corporates. She oversees capital efficiency, liquidity management, and compliance, ensuring Sika's financial systems meet global governance standards and support scaling infrastructure.

Viral Naik

Chief Technology Officer

Viral brings 30+ years experience in global banking, fintech, and blockchain technology and product engineering. His previous roles include Snr. Dir. Technology at Ripple, Executive Dir. JP Morgan Chase, COO Barclays Bank and SVP Bank of America. He is a leader in building and scaling high performance engineering teams, delivering enterprise grade platforms for crypto, payments, and treasury operations.

Danyah Mohammed

Chief Operations Officer

Danyah comes with 15 years experience from CLS, RBC, State Street, and Barclays having led FX transformation, payments operations, and client delivery. At Sika, she manages operations, governance, and client onboarding, ensuring resilience and regulatory alignment in settlement and liquidity processes.

Tays Lima

Head, Risk and Compliance

Tays is a lawyer with over 10 years experience in risk and compliance from Itaú Unibanco, the largest bank in Brazil and Latin America. She also worked with multiple fintechs, launching regulated digital banking frameworks. At Sika, she leads AML/KYC, risk systems, and regulatory strategy across jurisdictions, balancing defensible governance with efficient client onboarding.

Andrew Durant

Vice President Global Markets

Andrew brings 40 years experience in global markets, holding leadership roles at London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), UBS, CME Group, Crown Agents Bank, and other major banks. He shaped electronic FX trading strategies and built institutional client networks. At Sika, he leads enterprise sales and global markets coverage.

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