Singapore Fintech Festival (SFF), the largest annual fintech festival in the world, is coming back in December 2020 for the second edition of its SFF x SWITCH event in collaboration with Singapore Week of Innovation and TeCHnology.
Set against a backdrop of global challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s SFF x SWITCH event will take place between December 7 and 11, 2020, and will be articulated around the theme “People and Talent.” The event will celebrate the people who are creating new opportunities and showcase the role models of today who show resilience during challenging times, as well as the rising stars and pioneers that will transform global industries in the future.
Singapore Fintech Festival 2020 via Fintechfestival.sg
A hybrid digital and physical experience
With the COVID-19 pandemic still raging, this year’s SFF x SWITCH 2020 will provide participants with a hybrid digital and physical experience that will allow people to attend sessions and activities in-person at key physical locations around the world, as well as engage virtually with leaders and other participants in a so-called “online city.”
The online city is a digital location where organizations will be able to share and engage with participants, as well as schedule 1-1 meetings. Participants will be provided with networking opportunities throughout the day covering all time zones, and exhibitors will be able to showcase their technologies.
At the same time, curated physical events will be hosted by in-country partners and will provide exclusive access to industry leaders and sponsors in selected countries around the world. Participants will be able to access physical events hosted in their cities to network with local government and industry leaders, learn about their country’s key initiatives, and access closed-door roundtables.
Singapore Fintech Festival 2020 Global Satellite Events, Illustration via Fintechfestival.sg
On top of that, curated sessions featuring leading speakers will be live-streamed across the five days, in addition to selected sessions taking place in physical cities. During “Golden Hours” – the overlap in business hours across different time zones –, participants worldwide will be able to see keynote speakers from different regions come together to share their perspectives on topics such as financial inclusion, green technologies and sustainability.
Key themes and line-up
SFF 2020 will focus on five main topics which will each have their own dedicated summit.
The Economic Summit, on December 7, will discuss how we can recover from the pandemic and explore how a post-COVID-19 world could look like. The summit will also address the long term societal and cultural transformation caused by COVID-19, and how the public health crisis has accelerated digital transformation in the financial services sector and beyond.
The Infrastructure Summit, on December 8, will focus on creating the infrastructure for a digital economy, delving into topics such as digital identity, trusted data exchange, interoperable payments, open ecosystems, and more. The summit will also discuss the emergence of central bank digital currencies, the revolutionary impact of AI and 5G on financial services, regtech and suptech trends, as well as the changing cybersecurity landscape.
The Impact Summit, on December 9, will tackle sustainable finance and financial inclusion, covering topics such as green finance, impact investing, micro-pension and micro-insurance, as well as supply chain digitalization.
The Investor Summit, on December 10, will discuss the impact of COVID-19 on fintech investments and valuations, fundraising and exit strategies, as well as investors’ focus for 2021. The summit will also feature the grand finale for SFF’s annual Global Hackcelerator program, as well as the reveal of this year’s Fintech Awards winners.
Finally, the Talent Summit, on December 11, will focus on building skills for the future and will explore what the public and private sectors have put in place so far to upskill and reskill the financial services workforce. Participants will also get to hear founders on their entrepreneurial journey as well as their strategies for growth and survival.
Confirmed speakers this year include top executives from Microsoft, Citi, Mastercard, Blackrock, Accenture, Standard Chartered, Bank of International Settlements, HSBC, Nasdaq, Paypal and Visa, as well as government officials from Singapore, Australia, Cambodia, and more.
Other events to look forward to this year include Deal Fridays, curated deal-matching sessions for investors and startups; Slingshot 2020, Asia’s biggest deep tech startup competition; and TechInnovation, a brokerage event that will bring together tech providers and seekers to explore tech and business collaboration opportunities through open innovation.
