Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, Kirby
Search every verified Raj Kumar interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Raj Kumar, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Kirby, participated in a panel at the Global Inclusive Growth Summit on June 17, 2025, titled "What crypto gets right." During the discussion, Kumar stated that approximately two billion people worldwide are unbanked and face challenges with fees and transactions. He described the current moment as an "inflection point" where there is a willingness to combine the history and consistency of financial markets with modern technology. Kumar emphasized that trust is essential, comparing the need for regulatory oversight in crypto to the Federal Aviation Administration's role in aviation. He noted that regulation can foster innovation while ensuring safety and security. Kumar also discussed the importance of partnerships, saying that "innovation can only happen when partnerships happen" and that no single entity has all the solutions. He referenced an example from the COVID-19 pandemic where frontline healthcare workers in Venezuela were paid using USDC, a stablecoin, which he described as a demonstration of crypto "getting it right." Kumar added that money now moves "instantly, cheaply, securely, safely" in a manner similar to messages.
“There's about two billion people in the world that are disconnected from the financial system, right? They're not banked and they face as a result a lot of fees, a lot of challenges doing transactions, getting access to money.”
“The last mile is a really important piece. We're B2B, not B2C. Finding last mile partners is the most important thing in many respects that we can do. This is the way money will move.”
“If there's no trust in that digital dollar or digital currency or whatever it might be, then it's game over.”
“Regulation actually breeds innovation but it also ensures safety and security. I'm not going to get on an airplane that the FAA hasn't blessed. I'm not going to use a credit card that various bureaus may or may not exist in a few weeks but that I know are protecting me.”
“We are very excited about the promise of what stablecoin can bring because we see it as an extension of what we're already doing as a network provider and the role we play being a natural extension into crypto.”
“Starting in COVID, frontline healthcare workers in Venezuela were not getting paid and needed help. We enabled to take that money, digitized it, turned it into USDC, and were able to go right over the top into their phones so they could get that aid.”
“Money moves the same way now as messages do—instantly, cheaply, securely, safely. The example with Venezuela is a great lens through which we can see that crypto can get it and is getting it right.”
“Trust is everything. We've had several decades in the market to facilitate trust and our brand is now synonymous with that. We facilitate the flow of payments between buyers and sellers securely across 150 million merchant locations around the world.”
“Innovation can only happen when partnerships happen. No one has it all solved and figured out on their own. The opportunity to get access to the people making the framework happen is very exciting.”
“The beauty of this inflection point is a willingness across an ecosystem to take the history, longevity, and consistency of financial markets and marry it with modern-day tech to get the best of both worlds.”
Forget the jargon—this session cuts through the hype to focus on what really matters as digital assets and blockchain reshape ...
Sign in to search the full transcript archive, filter by topic, and access every quote from Raj Kumar.
The summary and quote tags on this profile are produced with AI assistance from verified, first-person interview transcripts, then checked by our team to confirm the speaker's identity and the accuracy of every quote. See how we verify →