Here’s how Singapore’s central bank is bringing fintech to the real world

Photo credit: Drumah.

Singapore’s central bank is serious about fintech and it’s throwing a week-long party this week to show it.

The inaugural Fintech Festival features innovation lab crawls throughout the city-state, a spotlight on fintech startups, and a sprawling two-day event bringing attendees together with speakers and companies from all over the world.

Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), said that a total of 11,000 people from 50 countries are attending the festival week’s various events. That’s a whole lot of people interested in what happens next with financial technology.

High praise

Anyone who has an interest in startup ecosystems globally knows that fintech has been a big deal for a while. What’s changed in the past year or so? Large banks and financial institutions have started paying attention. And in Singapore, a lifelong financial and trading hub for Asia, it doesn’t get much larger than MAS.

Big institutions like MAS have been criticized for being slow-moving and resistant to change. Through this festival, MAS wants to show it’s anything but: it’s embracing new technology, taking advantage of its potential, and reaching out to tech startups.

During his speech, the director straight up compared smartphones to Pokemon. “[They are] pocket-sized monsters that pack more data and more processing power than super computers just a couple of decades ago.” That’s how hip MAS is these days.

Image credit: Pexels.

Opening up the sandbox

The central bank has already announced a series of forward-facing initiatives.

It wants to set up a regulatory sandbox for fintech startups to play in without risking customers’ data (and money). In fact, it released guidelines for this sandbox just today, outlining the project’s objectives and criteria for participating.

It announced guidelines for companies using the cloud to offer financial services. “There used to be a view within some quarters that ‘MAS does not like the cloud,’” the director said. “Lest there be any lingering doubt, let me reiterate: MAS has no objections to [financial institutions] using the cloud.”

MAS wants to show it’s embracing new technology and taking advantage of fintech’s potential.

It launched its own innovation lab, called Looking Glass, to experiment with fintech solutions and provide consultation to startups.

Going forward