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Since 2016, Britain – and by extension, the global news agenda – has grappled with the backlash of Brexit. The UK's planned exit from the EU has created unprecedented levels of uncertainty about what the future holds for financial services in the UK, EU, and much further beyond.

Guo Shuqing is the head of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC), which was created in 2018 after the merger of local banking and insurance-specific authorities.

The existence of blockchain, or distributed ledger technology (DLT), has prompted fierce debate over its usage, status and capabilities, to the point that some experts feel its namesake undermines the benefits it offers.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) – the UK's all-encompassing financial services regulator – is at any point the subject of either praise or derision, depending on the commentator. But there is rarely any middle ground. It has earnt itself the reputation as one of the European Economic Area's most fine-happy enforcers, with a particular penchant for punishing firms over failures to comply with the new wave of reporting requirements.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (Esma) is responsible for pushing some of the most far-reaching regulatory reforms in the history of finance. Their reforms have two basic aims: investor protection and risk management. These deceptively simple objectives have created complicated regulatory frameworks – and it truly is a team effort.

A regular on lists like these, London-based Clifford Chance partner Owen Lysak advises clients on the full gamut of regulatory issues, from Mifid II to Brexit. But while many of his colleagues and contemporaries remain focused on the latter, Lysak tells IFLR that after three years of Brexit work, he's now beginning to look beyond.

As chief fintech officer of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Sopnendu Mohanty's team has come a long way in the past four years. One of the most iconic experiments has been Project Ubin, which started in November 2016 as an industry collaboration, to explore the use of distributed ledger technology for clearing and settlement. In addition to the existing regulatory sandbox regime, MAS is also exploring a so-called sandbox express – a fast-track regime – to complement its existing offering. The fintech ecosystem in Singapore has more than 500 fintech startups and over 30 innovation labs, which have been instrumental in driving collaboration between financial institutions and fintech startups.

Rachel Kent is Hogan Lovells' head of financial services regulation, where she advises various types of institutions, both public and private.

What could be more influential than the 2008-9 financial crisis, the financial crisis of the century? The catastrophic event led to the collapse of Lehman Brothers and left practically the entire world wondering what went wrong.

As head of the world's largest bank outside of Asia, the influence of our next candidate goes without saying. Rarely a day goes by without Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan, making a gregarious comment on how some fragment of the financial sector is operating in a less than perfect way. With power comes influence, and JPMorgan's sway over the US and global banking sectors is indisputable.