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4 Key Announcements from Singapore Fintech Festival 2019 (Day 2)

SFF x SWITCH 2019 kicked off on Monday at the Singapore EXPO for a week-long event dedicated to fintech.

This year, the Singapore Fintech Festival is all about reimagining fintech for the future, with a main focus being put on green finance and sustainability.

Singapore aims to become a leading center for green finance in Asia and globally, and the city state’s commitment in this regard was showcased throughout the numerous initiatives unveiled on Monday.

On the second day of SFF x SWITCH, a panel discussion featuring speakers representing the likes of BBVA and Microsoft addressed why sustainability will be the biggest opportunity in banking in the next few years and why technology will be key in building sustaining financial services.

In a separate panel, US tech giants Intel, Microsoft and Nasdaq addressed the impending economic slowdown and global uncertainties, spoke about global approaches to data access, sharing and portability. They zoomed into the regional context and discussed their strategies for success in Asia’s evolving financial landscape.

A panel discussion featuring speakers from the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), Calibra (Facebook), and JP Morgan explored the future of digital currency. With Facebook pursuing its Libra stablecoin project and the PBoC about to launch its own digital currency, speakers discussed how blockchain is moving beyond technical experimentation and into the realm of live applications.

Besides the main conference and panel discussions, several key announcements were made on Tuesday. The following are four key news unveiled on November 12, at SFF x SWITCH 2019.

New Fintech Research Platform intends to boost fintech investments

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Deloitte and S&P Global Market Intelligence are collaborating on the development of the Fintech Research Platform, an industry-wide platform where investors and financial institutions can connect with fintech startups they can to partner with or invest in.

The new platform aims to increase transparency by providing a comprehensive new of fintech companies, including their attributes on business models, use cases, funding and technology stack.

A prototype of the platform has been built and the three partners are continuing to explore opportunities to develop the platform further.

Banque de France and MAS strengthens cooperation

MAS and Banque de France (BDF) have announced that they will deepen financial linkages and collaboration on key areas including cybersecurity.

BDF will be opening its second overseas office in Singapore in early 2020 in response to the growing importance of the region on the global economy and financial markets. It will also set up a dealing room to strengthen its operational capacity to better serve international official sector entities in the Asian time zones.

Additionally, MAS, BDF and Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution (ACPR) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance cooperation in cybersecurity through regular information sharing and staff exchanges.

MAS announces fintech cooperation with Canadian Securities Regulators

MAS and eight members of the Canada Securities Administrators (CSA) have signed a cooperation agreement to strengthen collaboration in fintech. The eight members are the securities regulatory authorities in Alberta, British Colombia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan.

The collaboration will see the establishment of a referral and support mechanism to make it easier for fintech firms to access each other’s markets. The CSA and MAS have also committed to regularly exchange views and best practices in terms of regulation, and share information on the latest fintech trends.

APIX builds digital bank

The API Exchange Platform (APIX) has announced that it was able to build a digital bank in just five days. This was done by bringing together 10 fintech APIs available on the platform and showcases the power and speed of collaboration when industry participants come together.

APIX is a global, open-architecture platform that allows market players to connect with one another, design experiments collaboratively and deploy new digital solutions.

APIX is an initiative of the ASEAN Financial Innovation Network (AFIN), a non-profit entity jointly formed by MAS, the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the ASEAN Bankers Association.