Dr. Budi Setiawan is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the IRC Finance and Digital Economy, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia. He holds a doctorate from the Doctoral School of Management and Business Administration Sciences at the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences (formerly Szent István University) under the Stipendium Hungaricum Programme. His academic training also includes participation in the Research Training in Banking and Finance at the University of Limoges, France (2019), and the Economic Research Methodology Workshop at SGH Warsaw School of Economics, Poland (2022), both supported by the European Union. With nine years of professional experience in finance, investment, and marketing across national and multinational companies, his research interests span financial inclusion, financial technology (FinTech), SME finance, and financial inclusion. At IRC-FDE, he aims to advance impactful research in digital finance and inclusive economic development while strengthening international academic collaboration, including co-authoring the book chapter “Economic and Business Trajectory: Indonesia, Asia, and Europe”. He has also published and reviewed several papers in reputable journals indexed by Scopus, ABDC, and the Web of Science.