Singapore FinTech Festival: Most important announcements and speeches by MAS

The Singapore FinTech Festival saw PLENTY of product and industry announcements. Here’s a list of some of the most important announcements, media releases and speeches by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Singapore’s central bank and integrated financial regulator.

Opening Address by Mr Lawrence Wong, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, and Deputy Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore

What this is about:

5 Es – Enhance; Empower; Envision; Encourage and Engage – sets the backdrop for Singapore’s FinTech journey to harness the full potential of technology and innovation.

Each of the 5 Es covers an important but distinct aspect, and their totality enables Singapore to harness the full potential of technology for our financial industry.

a. Enhance, Empower, and Envision bring forth the capabilities of technology.

b. Encourage allows us to be relentless in pushing the frontiers of innovation and technology.

c. Engage ensures that the benefits from this pursuit are widespread.

The Singapore Government and MAS will walk this journey with you, to support and collaborate with the FinTech community in this joint endeavour

Read the full Opening Address by Mr Lawrence Wong here.

FinTech in its Element: Water, Metal, Fire, Wood, Earth” – Speech by Mr Ravi Menon, Managing Director, Monetary Authority of Singapore

What this is about:

Five key problems that FinTech collaboration in Singapore is trying to solve.

The five key outcomes we want to achieve through our collaborative FinTech projects are:

• instant remittance
• atomic settlement 
• programmable money
• tokenised assets
• trusted sustainability data

The five desired outcomes – instant remittance, atomic settlement, programmable money, tokenised assets, and trusted sustainability data – remind us that everything we do in Finance, Technology, and FinTech must have a larger purpose.  We want to expand economic opportunity, enhance social inclusion, reduce risks, and protect our planet.

Read the full FinTech in its Element: Water, Metal, Fire, Wood, Earth” – Speech by Mr Ravi Menon here.

Financial Planning for Singaporeans Enhanced with Insurance Data on SGFinDex

What this is about:

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Smart Nation and Digital Government Group (SNDGG) announced that individuals will now be able to digitally access and aggregate information on their life, accident and health insurance policies held across different participating insurers.

The inclusion of information on insurance policies to the Singapore Financial Data Exchange (SGFinDex) enables individuals to access this information through financial planning applications or websites of participating insurers, banks, as well as through MyMoneySense, a free government financial planning digital service. SGFinDex is the world’s first public digital infrastructure that enables individuals to securely access their financial information held across government agencies, banks, insurers, and the central securities depository.

Read the full Financial Planning for Singaporeans Enhanced with Insurance Data on SGFinDex media release here.

MAS Launches Expanded Initiative to Advance Cross-Border Connectivity in Wholesale CBDCs

What this is about:

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) launched Ubin+, an expanded collaboration with international partners on cross-border foreign exchange (FX) settlement using wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC).

Ubin+ will strengthen Singapore’s capabilities to use digital currency-based infrastructure for cross-border transactions. The initiative builds on the foundation started with Project Ubin (2016-2020) and learnings from MAS’ participation in Project Dunbar.

Read the full MAS Launches Expanded Initiative to Advance Cross-Border Connectivity in Wholesale CBDCs media relesae here.

MOF and MAS Launch Process to Digitalise Banker’s Guarantees and Insurance Bonds

What this is about:

The Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) launched eGuarantee@Gov, a simple and secure digital process for businesses and individuals to provide a banker’s guarantee or insurance bond to government agencies within a day. It was jointly developed with the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) and in consultation with the General Insurance Association of Singapore (GIA).

With eGuarantee@Gov, businesses and individuals will no longer need to apply for a paper guarantee from a financial institution (FI), collect it when it is ready, and deliver the guarantee to the government agency, to discharge their contractual or licensing obligations.

Read the full MOF and MAS Launch Process to Digitalise Banker’s Guarantees and Insurance Bonds here.

First Industry Pilot for Digital Asset and Decentralised Finance Goes Live

What this is about:

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced that the first industry pilot under MAS’ Project Guardian that explores potential decentralised finance (DeFi) applications in wholesale funding markets has completed its first live trades. More industry pilots have been launched to test the application of asset tokenisation and DeFi across a broader range of use cases in the financial sector.

DeFi enables financial transactions to be performed by entities directly with one another using smart contracts, without financial intermediaries. The live transactions executed under the first pilot demonstrate that cross currency transactions of tokenised assets can be traded, cleared and settled instantaneously among direct participants. This frees up costs involved in executing trades through clearing and settlement intermediaries, and the management of bilateral counterparty trading relationships as required in today’s over-the-counter (OTC) markets.

Read the full First Industry Pilot for Digital Asset and Decentralised Finance Goes Live media release here.

* Main picture: Mr Lawrence Wong, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, and Deputy Chairman, MAS at the Singapore FinTech Festival (Credit: Singapore FinTech Festival 2022)

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