How the Singapore Regulator MAS Views AI in Finance

In a keynote address at the Singapore FinTech Festival 2025, Chia Der Jiun, Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), laid out how MAS intends to guide the use of artificial intelligence (AI) across the financial sector. Here are the highlights and key notes I took away from the speech.

He focused on one central aim: for financial institutions (FIs) to adopt AI productively and safely, and for the workforce to have the skills to use AI.

To get there, MAS is acting on four fronts:

1. Anchoring leading AI capabilities in Singapore
2. Supporting broader AI adoption across FIs
3. Building strong AI governance and risk management
4. Upskilling an AI-ready financial workforce

How AI Is Already Being Used in Finance

Mr Chia noted that AI adoption and experimentation are gaining momentum across the financial sector.

At a basic level, FIs are using AI to support general work processes such as:

• information search and retrieval
• summarising content
• generating first drafts
• speech-to-text transcription
• translation across multiple languages

Beyond that, AI “co-pilots” have been piloted or deployed in more specialised functions, including:

• software development
• marketing
• customer service
• client advisory
• analysis of financial markets
• credit underwriting
• fraud detection

He also highlighted an emerging area: the use of autonomous agents in more complex processes, such as:

• processing credit applications from underwriting to approval
• administering standard insurance claims end-to-end
• developing consumer agents that collect information and execute transactions

MAS’s Aim: Productive and Safe AI Adoption

Mr Chia described the growing adoption of AI as a sign of “significant transformation in financial services.”

MAS’s stated aim is:

• for FIs to adopt AI productively and safely, and
• for the workforce to have the skills to use AI.

To do this, MAS is working on four fronts, which he then explained in turn.

1. Anchoring Leading AI Capabilities in Singapore

First, MAS wants to anchor strong AI capabilities in Singapore’s financial sector.

Mr Chia said that more than thirty FIs have established AI competency centres in Singapore, working on solutions that support both the local market and their global operations, across front-, middle- and back-office functions.

MAS welcomes more FIs to anchor AI competencies in Singapore.

BuildFin.ai: A New Initiative

To help FIs with leading AI capabilities tackle more complex problems, Mr Chia announced a new initiative: BuildFin.ai.

• BuildFin.ai will bring together technology providers and research institutes to work with FIs on complex AI problems of common interest.
• The goal is to create shared resources and solutions that benefit the overall ecosystem.

MAS and its FI partners have identified the first common problem statement:
existing large language models are not fully ready to handle Singlish and Singapore’s mix of languages and dialects.

• A*STAR will partner FIs to develop a Voice-to-Text AI model for the financial industry.
• This model will transcribe conversations in Singlish and a mix of commonly spoken languages and dialects.
• By working together, they can pool data, build a better model, and ultimately serve customers better.

2. Supporting FIs Earlier in Their AI Journey

Second, MAS is supporting FIs that are earlier in their AI adoption journey, by providing shared resources to “start and scale”.

This is done through PathFin.ai, a collaborative initiative with the industry.

PathFin.ai: Sharing Use Cases and Best Practices

On PathFin.ai:

• FIs and tech companies share their AI adoption experience and successful use cases.
• The platform provides a library of industry-validated solutions and best practices.

Using this shared resource, FIs can reduce the time and effort needed to:

• search for effective AI solutions
• implement them in their own organisations

Mr Chia gave examples of solutions featured on PathFin.ai:

• an AI solution to optimise multi-currency cash management for corporate treasuries
• an agentic AI solution for end-to-end insurance claims processing

When PathFin.ai was launched in July, there were 20 participating FIs.
By the time of his speech, this had grown to over 100, and MAS welcomes more participants to join.

3. Building Strong AI Governance and Safety

Third, Mr Chia turned to governance and safety, which he described as essential as AI adoption grows.

He observed that one of the key factors influencing:

• the pace of AI use, and
• the extent of AI autonomy allowed in work processes

is the robustness of guardrails and controls across the AI life cycle.

FIs have told MAS that they want more regulatory clarity.

Project MindForge and the AI Risk Framework

In response, MAS did not rush ahead with prescriptive regulation.

Instead, more than two years ago, MAS started an industry consortium called Project MindForge to:

• develop a shared appreciation of AI risks and governance, and
• co-develop an AI risk framework.

This AI risk framework, which sets out the key risks around AI use, was published in early 2024.

New Guidelines on AI Risk Management

In July, Mr Chia had shared that MAS was developing a set of AI supervisory guidelines.

In this speech, he announced that MAS would publish the Guidelines on AI Risk Management for consultation.

According to him, these proposed Guidelines will:

• set expectations for FIs to identify AI risks
• require FIs to implement controls across the entire AI life cycle
• be appropriate to the scale and risk of AI use
• be principles-based rather than prescriptive

He described them as flexible guardrails designed to enable responsible innovation in a fast-moving space.

AI Risk Management Executive Handbook

In parallel, the Project MindForge consortium is publishing an AI Risk Management Executive Handbook.

This Handbook:

• sets out the key components of good AI risk management, and
• will be followed next year by a detailed document containing actionable insights and industry good practices, to serve as a companion guide for FIs implementing the MAS Guidelines.

How the Guidelines and Handbook Work Together

Mr Chia explained that the Guidelines and Handbook will work together.

For example:

• the Guidelines will require risk materiality assessments
• the Handbook will provide examples of how such assessments are done

He described these two initiatives as MAS’s approach towards safe and responsible AI adoption:

• the Guidelines set out a flexible regulatory framework
• the Handbook can be dynamically updated to stay up-to-date and industry-relevant

4. Upskilling an AI-Ready Financial Workforce

Fourth, MAS is focused on supporting the upskilling of the financial workforce.

Mr Chia emphasised that people and talent drive organisational success, and that MAS wants finance professionals to have the skills to make effective use of AI and to manage its risks.

Gen AI Jobs Transformation Map

MAS has published a Gen AI Jobs Transformation Map for the financial sector.

This map:

• identifies the impact of generative AI on key job roles
• sets out the upskilling needed as these roles are transformed and augmented by AI

Guided by this map, MAS and the Institute of Banking and Finance are partnering FIs to equip their employees with AI literacy and skills.

AI as a Powerful River: Why Governance Matters

In his conclusion, Mr Chia used the Mississippi River as an analogy.

He described how the river enabled the growth of industry, agriculture and commerce, but also needed levees and floodwalls to prevent flood damage and disruption.

He likened AI to this river:

• AI can bring benefits across the financial sector and to consumers and businesses
• but uncontrolled AI use can cause consumer harm and risks to financial stability

His message was that there must be:

• governance and guardrails for safe adoption, and
• training of the workforce to work with AI

This, he said, is what MAS has set out to do in collaboration with the financial industry.

These remarks were delivered on 13 November 2025 at the Singapore FinTech Festival 2025, which marked the 10th edition of the Festival. Mr Chia’s comments on AI formed one of the two “transformative themes” he highlighted for the next 10 years of finance, the other being tokenisation.

Main Picture Credit: Singapore FinTech Festival