Singapore's Smart Financial Centre Vision
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SINGAPORE SOPNENDU MOHANTY Monetary Authority of Singapore Singapore’s Smart Financial Centre Vision echnology is transforming the way farious: and in modern times, the vibrancy of Hol- we live, work, play, and interact. At lywood and Silicon Valley. On the flip side, 1. To provide a conducive environ- the national level, Singapore has the ideas of Gregor Mendel, widely credit- T ment for innovation acceleration set its sights on becoming a Smart Nation ed as the founder of genetics, remained in 2. To provide regulation that is condu- – one that embraces innovation and har- obscurity until many years after his death cive to innovation while fostering nesses technology to enhance productivity principally because he spent most of his safety and security and improve the welfare of Singaporeans. life in relative isolation at a monastery in 3. To make Singapore more attractive A Smart Nation needs a Smart Financial remote Silesia. Time and place are clearly for FinTech investment Centre. Indeed, the financial sector offers important for innovation. 4. To build up skills and competencies fertile ground for innovation and the ap- MAS’ strategy is therefore not to in technology plication of technology. choose between financial institutions In 2015, the Monetary Authority of and FinTech players but to provide the Singapore (MAS) laid out its vision of a optimal environment for both to inno- Smart Financial Centre, where innovation vate, compete, and collaborate. MAS’ is pervasive and technology is used widely aim is to create a FinTech ecosystem where to increase efficiency, better manage risks, To Provide a Conductive innovation thrives. This is an ecosystem create new opportunities, and improve comprising financial institutions, innova- people’s lives. Much of this will take place Environment for tion labs, institutes of research and higher against the backdrop of several big trends/ learning, the investor community, and con- enablers that are likely to transform fi- Innovation Acceleration nectivity to regional markets. nance in some shape or form: When the term ‘FinTech’ first crept into popular discourse, many observers • Digital and mobile payments framed this as a contest between nimble • Authentication and biometrics FinTech is fundamentally about ideas and ‘Davids’ against lumbering ‘Goliaths’. The • Blockchains and distributed ledgers enterprise flowing between cities, and a reality is more nuanced, mainly because • Cloud computing network of connections between players the incumbents have not been sitting still. • Big data everywhere. It requires bringing a whole Several financial institutions have set up • Learning machines range of stakeholders together across mul- in-house FinTech units to replicate the • Application Programming Interfaces tiple fields: technology, finance, venture startup culture, and are collaborating with (APIs) capital (VC), and startups. In short, it needs FinTech companies. In fact, there is a nat- • Advanced sensors a strong ecosystem. Etymologically speak- ural synergy – FinTech solutions present • Cybersecurity ing, the term ecosystem is derived from the financial institutions with opportunities Since then, MAS has been working Greek root of ‘Oikos’, which means home. to enhance their product offerings, while closely with the financial industry, FinTech Just as no man is an island, ideas, too, de- collaboration with financial institutions companies, institutes of higher learning, pend on serendipitous interactions within enables FinTech players to broaden their and other stakeholders towards the vision an environment (or home) to evolve and reach. of a Smart Financial Centre. MAS’ role in flourish. Observe the intellectual and cul- Initiatives introduced by MAS to grow supporting this FinTech journey is multi- tural fecundity of Renaissance Europe, the Singapore FinTech ecosystem include Singapore’s Smart Financial Centre Vision | 19 SINGAPORE • Introducing the SGD 225 million the development of open APIs among services value chain. This runs the Financial Sector Technology Inno- financial institutions to enable ef- gamut from payments services to au- vation (FSTI) scheme to support ficient data sharing. In November tomated fraud monitoring. innovation. The scheme supports 2016, the API Playbook co-created by the setting up of innovation labs, ABS and MAS was launched at the institutional/industry-wide projects, FinTech Festival to guide industry and proofs of concepts. For exam- stakeholders in their implementation To Provide Regulation ple, more than 20 global banks and of APIs. The Playbook features a list insurance companies have set up of over 400 APIs that the financial Conductive to Innovation innovation labs in Singapore; some services industry can consider pub- of these have tapped on FSTI fund- lishing. To support efficient data while Fostering Safety ing. These labs are important touch sharing and interoperability, the points between the financial institu- Playbook recommends standards and Security tions and FinTech players. Financial for data exchange, information secu- institutions work with FinTech play- rity and high-level key technical re- ers in the labs to pilot new and inno- quirements for each of the APIs. The MAS believes that regulation must not vative solutions for their customers Playbook also sets expectations on front-run innovation – introducing regu- and abroad. API governance structure and risk lation prematurely may stifle innovation management practices that should and derail the adoption of useful technol- • Creating platforms for idea-gener- underpin an API-based financial eco- ogy. However, regulators must run along- ation, knowledge-sharing, and net- system. side innovation and stay abreast of new working. In November 2016, MAS, in developments and risks. partnership with The Association of Singapore’s FinTech landscape is fast MAS applies a materiality and pro- Banks in Singapore (ABS), organised evolving, with a proliferation of technolog- portionality test, which means that regu- the inaugural Singapore FinTech Fes- ical innovations and solutions. lation will only kick in when the risk posed tival, which brought together 13,000 by new technology becomes material or participants from over 60 countries. • A Deloitte Report published in April crosses a threshold. Further, the weight In 2017, we look forward to welcom- 2017 noted that Singapore was ‘a se- of the regulation has to be commensurate ing the global FinTech community to rious contender for the global num- with the risk posed. Here are a few con- Singapore once again, for the second ber one spot in FinTech’.*1 Deloitte crete initiatives that illustrate MAS’ ap- edition of the FinTech Festival which analysed 44 FinTech hubs around proach towards the regulation of FinTech: will be held from 13 - 17 November. the world through quantitative re- search and interviews with local Fin- • Streamlined regulation to keep • Enhancing connectivity with oth- Tech subject matter experts in each pace with payments innovations. er FinTech hubs. As of July 2017, hub. Singapore (along with London, MAS will streamline the licensing MAS has signed FinTech cooperation New York, Silicon Valley, and Hong of payments services under a single, agreements with 12 counterparties, Kong) was amongst the top five hubs activity-based modular framework. including entities in London, Austra- in terms of its Index Performance This could mean holding just one lia, India, Japan, France, Switzerland, Score. licence to conduct different kinds and South Korea. These agreements of payment activities, meeting only create frameworks for information • An Ernst & Young (E&Y) Report pub- regulations pertinent to the specific sharing on FinTech trends and reg- lished in February 2016 ranked Sin- payments activities they undertake, ulatory issues, and potential joint gapore as the fourth leading global and adhering to common standards innovation projects. They also help FinTech ecosystem in the world, for consumer protection and cyber to create greater understanding be- behind the UK, California, and New security. Streamlined regulation, in- tween FinTech players in different York. E&Y benchmarked the ecosys- clusive governance, interoperable markets, with the ultimate goal of tems according to talent, capital, pol- infrastructure, and pervasive digiti- benefiting consumers and business- icy, and demand.*2 sation will contribute to Singapore’s es. vision of an e-payments society. • David Shrier, the New Ventures Of- • Facilitating industry experiments ficer at Massachusetts Institute of • Specific guidelines to promote se- in new technologies. MAS, the Sin- Technology, picked Singapore as its cure cloud computing. MAS set out gapore Exchange and eight banks number one contender to displace specific guidelines on the use of cloud embarked on a proof-of-concept London as the FinTech capital of the services by financial institutions. Fi- project to use blockchain technology world. He cited Singapore’s signifi- nancial institutions are free to adopt for inter-bank payments. This proj- cant government effort to support private clouds, public clouds, or a ect has allowed us to better under- FinTech innovators, its proximity combination of these to create hybrid stand blockchain technology and the to ASEAN, and dynamic incumbent clouds, so long as they conduct the potential that it has for the financial banks as factors for his pick. necessary due diligence and apply sector. sound governance and risk manage- • Singapore is home to more than ment practices