Ripple has brought in the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) former governor, Raghuram Rajan, to the initial program at Swell 2026, which is the company’s annual conference devoted to payments and digital assets. In a press release from September 4, Ripple said that Raghuram Rajan will attend the Institutional Summit held on October 27. The invitation-only event will open Swell before the larger conference series takes place throughout the rest of October 29. The 2026 edition of Swell will be held at The Shed in New York City. Ripple is merging Swell with their developer-oriented XRPL Apex conference for the first time.
Ripple Is Yet to Reveal Rajan’s Session Details
There is no disclosure on the topic of Rajan’s discussion, the time of the session, or the presentation mode by Ripple. The conference website mentions Rajan as one of the speakers but does not provide any information on whether he will be giving a keynote or panel discussion. Institutional Summit will take place on October 27, and participants must apply for an invitation. Ripple is targeting the program towards people representing banks, investment firms, payment providers, and other financial institutions.
Swell week starts October 27 with the Institutional Summit.
Joining us: Raghuram Rajan, former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, professor of finance at Chicago Booth, and co-leader of the Federal Reserve’s Balance Sheet Policy task force.
Request an invitation:… pic.twitter.com/lRxIJiCMAr
— Swell (@RippleSwell) September 4, 2026
Rajan has had extensive exposure to central banking, international finance, and academia. Rajan was the head of the Reserve Bank of India from September 2013 to September 2016, and he was also the chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He is presently the Katherine Dusak Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the Booth School of Business, University of Chicago. The official lineup of Ripple associates uses Rajan’s designation as an academic.
The next definite step is the release of the full conference schedule. As for Ripple, it has to specify Rajan’s speech topic and time. This same level of uncertainty is present in the cases of several other confirmed speakers as well. While their attendance at the conference has been confirmed but do not reveal what they will discuss. The Swell 2026 kicks off with an Institutional Summit on October 27th. The conference and the XRPL Apex talks will be held till October 29th at The Shed, which is situated in Hudson Yards, Manhattan.
This is not the first association of Ripple with Rajan. In 2024, Ripple established an advisory board to oversee the RLUSD ecosystem and provide strategic, regulatory, and operational guidance. Among its notable members was Raghuram Rajan. Talking about the future of stablecoins, Rajan indicated that these tokens could soon become an integral part of private payment systems.
