Karby Leggett

Karby is Managing Director and Global Head, Official Institutions Group at Standard Chartered Bank where he leads the Sovereign Rating Advisory offering and broader content creation with sovereign, multilateral and development finance institutions. He is also the Head of Digital Assets for the Asia region, where he leads engagement, advocacy and strategic initiatives around the Bank’s digital asset agenda.

In addition to his work with Official Sector and Digital Asset clients, Karby is a standing member of the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable and the London Coalition for Sustainable Sovereign Debt, where he sits in both the Steering Committee and Non-Bonded Working Group. Both forums are designed to tackle key policy, process and product issues related to the global sovereign debt restructuring architecture.

Prior to his current role, Karby held multiple other senior roles at Standard Chartered. He was previously the Global Head, Public Sector and Development Organizations, responsible for covering public sector and related institutions across the Bank’s footprint. He also previously ran the Capital Markets business in the Greater China & North-East Asia region and prior to that was co-head of the SSA DCM business for Standard Chartered, covering a broad range of clients across Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Before joining Standard Chartered, Karby worked at Goldman Sachs where he oversaw the firm’s Europe, Middle East and Africa sovereign risk management and sovereign rating advisory function. Through his career, he has covered and advised governments in China, India, Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Egypt, Libya, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia and Senegal, as well as certain government, multilateral and private sector entities in those and other countries.

Karby has more than three decades of experience in banking, financial and capital markets, risk management, sovereign advisory and international affairs including a decade as foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal where he reported and wrote about China as well as the post 9-11 conflict region in the Middle East.

Karby is a graduate of University of California at Berkeley. He has lived in China, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, and Jerusalem, and speaks fluent Mandarin. He is based in Singapore.