Closed doors, open dialogues: Global leaders gather to tackle fintech challenges at Insights Forum

About 3,000 global industry leaders, regulators and policymakers will gather at the Insights Forum to discuss pressing issues like the responsible development and usage of artificial intelligence.

First launched in 2022, Insights Forum is an invitation-only event organised by the Global Finance & Technology Network (GFTN). GFTN was established by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) last week to harness technology and foster innovation through global partnerships. GFTN replaces and builds upon Elevandi, a not-for-profit organisation set up by the MAS in 2021.

The forum will be held from Nov 4 to 5 at Sands Expo and Convention Centre. Beyond AI, it will also focus on key issues such as policies and regulation surrounding tokenised assets and money, the risks and usage of quantum computing, and progressing digital inclusion for underserved and unserved communities.

Fostering collaboration

While the forum features various workshops and co-located summits, its cornerstone remains its public-private roundtable discussions. The forum’s goal is to foster deeper collaboration between the public and private sectors to drive tangible, actionable outcomes, said Jael Tan, head of Strategic Projects, GFTN.

It is a space “for senior executives to engage in deeper, more focused discussions at the intersection of policy, finance and technology,” said Tan. These conversations will also help shape the discussions that unfold at the Singapore FinTech Festival later in the week. SFF will be held at Singapore Expo.

Forum attendees include the Bank of Japan and the World Bank Group, alongside private players like Google and Amazon. Attendance is limited to senior leaders, with limited representation per organisation to ensure diverse perspectives.

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The forum operates under Chatham House rules. While participants can discuss and share the knowledge gleaned in these forums with the broader financial community, these must not be attributed and the sources must remain anonymous.

This allows participants to speak openly about sensitive issues so others can benefit from their experience and avoid potentially costly experimentation, said Insights Forum’s sherpa Tamara Singh.

The forum’s sessions are structured for expert-level engagements, with participants receiving detailed reference materials to facilitate advanced discussions. The sessions are documented to ensure continuity and development of initiatives, added Singh.

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Driving outcomes

Previous editions of the Insights Forum have focused on driving open and interoperable digital infrastructure and sustainable financial systems. It has catalysed several initiatives, including:

Project Nexus: A Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub initiative that seeks to enhance cross-border payments by connecting multiple domestic instant payment systems (IPS) globally. BIS will facilitate central banks and IPS operators in India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand as they work towards live implementation, with Bank of Indonesia as special observer.

Project Guardian: A collaborative initiative between policymakers and the financial industry to enhance liquidity and efficiency of financial markets through asset tokenisation. Participants include institutional financial giants such as HSBC, JPMorgan Chase and Moody’s.

Project Greenprint: A collection of initiatives led by the MAS to harness technology and create a data-centric ecosystem, supporting the financial sector’s sustainability goals. Digital platform Gprint (pronounced greenprint) was launched by the MAS in November 2023 to partner the industry in streamlining the collection, access, and use of climate and sustainability data.

Reports from Insights Forum’s open-door sessions are also published on GFTN’s knowledge hub, making key insights accessible to the broader financial community.

This was produced in partnership with the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Global Finance & Technology Network.

For more stories, go to https://bt.sg/sff2024