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Singapore Fintech Festival: World’s Largest Fintech Festival Happening This Week

Organised by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), in partnership with The Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) and in collaboration with SingEx Holdings, the second edition of the Singapore FinTech Festival kicked off today. The week-long event promises to provide a platform for connection, collaboration and co-creation for the FinTech community around the world.

More than 25,000 participants from over 100 countries will be attending this year’s Singapore Fintech Festival. A new feature this year is the Investor Summit or “Deal Day”, which will provide an opportunity for Singapore-based FinTech start-ups to access funding from a variety of local and global investors.

The highlights of last year’s Festival, including the FinTech Conference, the Global FinTech Hackcelerator, the FinTech Awards, visits to innovation labs, as well as community and networking events, will take place again this year. The Festival has received strong support from key players in the FinTech ecosystem globally.

Mr Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief FinTech Officer, MAS, said,

Sopnendu Mohanty

“We are pleased that the Singapore FinTech Festival has grown this year, to become the world’s largest FinTech Festival. It is a synergistic platform for the global FinTech community to spark new ideas and gain valuable insights. There will be many opportunities for financial institutions and FinTech companies to come together and collaborate on value-adding partnerships.

We are excited to build on the success of the inaugural Festival last year, and continue in our efforts to foster a thriving global FinTech ecosystem. It is a key thrust of our efforts to establish Singapore as a Smart Financial Centre and a transformational FinTech hub.”

Mrs Ong-Ang Ai Boon, ABS Director, said,

Ong-Ang Ai Boon

“ABS is proud to partner MAS for the second Singapore FinTech Festival. This year, we saw not only more participants overall but also an increase in the number of countries represented. For ASEAN especially, we are pleased that registrations have doubled from last year.

We are encouraged by the continued support and enthusiasm shown by the FinTech community as they join us in what will be a robust exchange of ideas and exhibition of innovative solutions at the Festival. We look forward to yet another exciting and memorable event.”

Mr Aloysius Arlando, Chief Executive Officer, SingEx Holdings, added,

Aloysius Arlando

“We are delighted to have co-curated and designed this prestigious event for the global FinTech community together with our partners MAS and ABS. We embodied the spirit of “Festivalisation” where delegates to the FinTech Conference and Exhibition will find themselves immersed in a multi-sensory and digital experience.

They will journey through 10 theme-based zones which feature more than 300 exhibitors, starts-up and country pavilions showcasing their innovative solutions; four stages of topical conferences with a stellar line-up of international and authoritative speakers; and an eclectic array of culinary delights from Singapore’s leading chefs and F&B rising stars.”

Festival Highlights

The Festival begins with the island-wide Innovation Lab Crawl (13 November). Twenty-four FinTech innovation labs across Singapore will showcase their solutions and offer tours and exhibitions to demonstrate their latest solutions. There will also be an Open Banking Masterclass, where participants will get an in-depth understanding about the architecture and design of an open banking system and how collaboration between financial institutions and FinTech companies can enable innovative solutions for better customer experience.

The highlight of the Festival is the three-day FinTech Conference (14-16 November). More than 160 leaders from central banks and regulatory agencies, financial institutions, venture capital firms, and FinTech companies will be speaking at the conference. Queen Maxima of the Netherlands will be speaking on using inclusive technology to build a better future, in her capacity as UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development. Mr Arun Jaitley, India’s Finance Minister and Minister of Corporate will give the opening address on the second day of the FinTech Conference.

The Conference will focus on nine key themes, including global market insights; data analytics; tech risk; sustainable FinTech; and the future of FinTech. Participants will also be able to visit the complementary FinTech Exhibition at the Singapore Expo. More than 300 exhibitors from financial institutions, technology, and FinTech companies, will showcase their respective innovative technological solutions.

There will also be a Talent Pavilion that will showcase the exciting roles in FinTech and available FinTech courses for individuals interested to pursue a career in FinTech or pick up new skills in this area. Participants can also seek personal advice from career coaches present and attend specially curated panels on talent and skills development.

The Global FinTech Hackcelerator (16 November) will showcase 20 market-ready FinTech solutionsthat were shortlisted from amongst 580 global submissions. These solutions are intended to solve real-life industry problems in four areas, including customer-facing solutions, regulatory technology (RegTech), and financial inclusion.

The FinTech Awards (16 November) will recognise the most outstanding innovative FinTech solutions that have been implemented by FinTech companies, financial institutions, and technology companies. Deputy Prime Minister, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, will grace the occasion.

This year, an Investor Summit or “Deal Day” (17 November) has been introduced to the programme line-up. “Deal Day” will showcase investment-worthy start-ups and disruptive technologies to local and global investors. Some key features include demonstrations by start- ups and tech exhibitions.

For a quick cheat sheet of all you need to know about the festival click here