Singapore, 15 September 2022
Mr Lawrence Wong, Deputy Prime Minister and Minster for Finance, and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Deputy Chairman, launched the Financial Services Industry Transformation Map (ITM) 2025 today.
- The ITM 2025 lays out the growth strategies to further develop Singapore as a leading international financial centre in Asia – to connect global markets, support Asia’s development, and serve Singapore’s economy
- MAS projects the financial sector to grow by an average 4% to 5% per annum during 2021 – 2025 and create 3,000 – 4,000 net jobs on average each year.
- The ITM comprises five key strategies:
- Enhance Asset Class Strengths;
- Digitalise Financial Infrastructure;
- Catalyse Asia’s Net-Zero Transition;
- Shape the Future of Financial Networks; and
- Foster a Skilled and Adaptable Workforce.
Enhance Asset Class Strengths
- MAS will work with the financial industry to deepen capabilities in asset classes in which Singapore plays a key regional or global role.
- Foreign exchange– Broaden and deepen the electronic foreign exchange (FX) trading ecosystem by anchoring more FX platforms and liquidity takers.
- Insurance – Catalyse insurance risk advisory and alternative risk transfer solutions for Asia, to address pandemic, climate, and cyber risks, and facilitate the participation of capital markets in risk financing.
- Wealth management– Become Asia’s centre for philanthropy through building impact monitoring solutions, philanthropy advisory competencies, and innovative philanthropy models.
- Asset management– Enhance the Variable Capital Company regime and other fund structures to cater to broader industry needs.
- Private capital markets– Develop private credit to complement private equity and venture capital funding.
- FinTech – Anchor promising FinTech start-ups in areas like Web 3.0, artificial intelligence, and green FinTech.
Digitalise Financial Infrastructure
- MAS will promote the development of digital infrastructure and platforms.
- Bond market infrastructure– Improve end-to-end efficiency in primary bond issuances, listing and settlement processes, and strengthen Singapore’s proposition as a bond issuance and listing venue of choice.
- Funds settlement utility– Develop an industry funds settlement utility to centralise subscription, redemption, record-keeping workflows, and facilitate reconciliation of fund data flows, thereby reducing settlement time and improving efficiency.
- SME trade discovery platform (Business-sans-Borders) – Launch a digital platform to connect small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across growth regions. This facilitates trade discovery and enables easier access to trade financing for participating SMEs.
Catalyse Asia’s Net-Zero Transition
- To catalyse Asia’s transition towards net-zero, MAS is working with the industry to develop innovative solutions to scale up sustainable and transition financing.
- Provide greater clarity on transition activities including through the development of an industry-led taxonomy for eight priority sectors.
- Facilitate the decarbonisation of real economy sectors through appropriate financing solutions for corporates.
- Enhance sustainability disclosures and build data utilities, such as Project GreenPrint, to facilitate companies’ sustainability disclosures and investors’ access to companies’ ESG data.
- Provide S$100 million grant funding over 2021 – 2025 for capability building, green FinTech, climate risk and reinsurance, and solutions for sustainable and transition finance.
Shape the Future of Financial Networks
- MAS aims to enhance payments connectivity and build an innovative and responsible digital asset ecosystem.
- Expand cross-border payment linkages with regional economies (e.g. real-time payment linkages, Project Nexus [1] ).
- Explore potential of distributed ledger technology in promising use cases (e.g. cross-border payments, trade finance, and capital markets).
- Support tokenisation of financial and real economy assets (e.g. Project Guardian [2] ).
- Enable digital currency connectivity (e.g. Project Orchid [3] ).
Foster a Skilled and Adaptable Workforce
- MAS and the Institute of Banking & Finance (IBF) will work closely with the financial industry and tripartite partners to foster a strong workforce.
- The Financial Sector Development Fund will provide S$400 million grant funding to the Talent and Leaders in Financeprogramme over 2021 – 2025 to enable industry professionals to take up good jobs and advance in their careers.
- Build workforce competencies in growth areas and provide training support for finance professionals at different stages of their careers.
- Develop specialist talent in areas such as sustainability and technology.
- Develop leaders through opportunities to acquire expertise, international exposure, and networks to help them succeed in their leadership roles.
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Additional Information
ITM 2016 – 2020
As one of the 23 sectors identified by the Committee of the Future Economy, the Financial Services ITM was first launched in 2017 with a strong focus on innovation and technology adoption and developing a world-class workforce. From 2016 to 2020, the financial services sector grew by an average of 5.7% per annum, exceeding the target of 4.3% per annum. The sector created an average of 4,100 net jobs each year, higher than the target of 3,000 net jobs per annum.
- [1] Project Nexus is a blueprint that outlines how countries can fully integrate their retail payment systems onto a single cross-border network.
- [2] Project Guardian is a collaborative initiative with the financial services sector that seeks to explore the economic potential and value-adding use cases of asset tokenisation.
- [3] Project Orchid aims to build the technology infrastructure and capabilities necessary to issue a digital Singapore dollar, should MAS decide to do so in the future.
Source: Monetary Authority of Singapore