Charis Liau

Ms Charis Liau is the Chief Investment Officer of IFS Asset Management, overseeing the firm’s private credit strategies, unlocking growth opportunities across Asia through secured, alternative lending solutions. With over 20 years of experience across finance, technology, and innovation, Charis is recognised for her strategic leadership, capital markets expertise, and ability to drive organisation growth in fast-evolving financial sectors. 

Her career spans leadership roles across fintech and institutional banking. In 2016, she co-founded and served as CEO of SDAX Financial, a digital investment and asset platform connecting issuers and investors to institutional-grade investment opportunities. Under her leadership, the platform established a strong distribution network and deep sectoral expertise in origination and proprietary credit risk models.

Earlier in her career, Charis spent 13 years with Standard Chartered Bank specialising in corporate and structured finance. She advised a broad portfolio of corporate and institutional clients across Singapore, China, and the wider Asia region—delivering bespoke capital solutions and cross-border financing strategies that supported business expansion and risk management.

A strong advocate for innovation and the future of finance, Charis has been recognized for her leadership and impact. She was an honouree of the Top 10 Outstanding Women in Fintech (2025) as part of the Singapore Fintech Association’s 10 years, 10 voices: Shaping the Future of FinTech initiative. In 2024, she was named one of the Top 50 Finance Leaders across Asia in Aspire’s Future of Finance 50, celebrating women shaping the region’s financial future. She was also named among Singapore’s 100 Women in Tech by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and the Singapore Computer Society (SCS) (2021), and received the Top 12 Fintech Leader and Top 5 Women in Fintech awards by SFA in 2020. She was also a founding member of SFA’s Marketplace Lending Sub-Committee.

Charis holds a First Class Honours degree in Accountancy from NTU, a Certificate in Fintech from MIT, and a Certificate in AI for Healthcare from the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. She is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder.