Fintech to be a key differentiator for Singapore: Iswaran

FINTECH, or financial technology, will be a key differentiator for Singapore's economy and its financial sector, said Minister for Trade and Industry (Industry) S Iswaran on Thursday.

In fact, the government wants Singapore to evolve into a leading global fintech hub, and has been taking steps to establish positions of leadership in this space.

This includes thought leadership on fintech regulation - ensuring a calibrated approach that balances the need for innovation with the need for a safe and stable financial system - and the development of fintech talent and capabilities.

To this end, he highlighted how the Monetary Authority of Singapore recently announced a regulatory sandbox, to allow companies to safely testbed and experiment with innovative solutions.

Said Mr Iswaran: "While such a sandbox would not prevent product failures, it would contain the consequential impact on customers and allow us to learn, experiment, and iterate our solutions.

"In doing so, the sandbox will reduce regulatory friction and give innovations a better chance to take root in Singapore, and clearly, to go beyond."

Mr Iswaran was speaking at a conference on "FinTech and Financial Inclusion", co-organised by the Singapore Management University's Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics and the International Monetary Fund.