Ravi Menon: Asia's digital transformation Remarks by Mr Ravi Menon, Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, at the GIC Institutional Investors Roundtable, Singapore, 31 October 2018. * * * Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. I thank GIC for the invitation and am pleased to meet all of you. Why FinTech? About three-and-a-half years ago, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) made a momentous decision - to promote an innovative and dynamic financial sector by working with the industry to harness the power of technology. We saw that technology was transforming the way people live their lives, the way companies deliver products and services, and the way cities work and connect. Meanwhile, the financial industry globally was facing the headwinds of slower economic growth, tighter regulation, and keen competition from non-financial technology players. Technology presented an opportunity to inject new dynamism and new growth in financial services. It was an opportunity to increase efficiency in an industry that had some of the most archaic practices around – just think of interbank payments and settlements. It was an opportunity to manage risks better: financial institutions were pouring ever more resources into compliance and risk management – and still getting into trouble. Most of all, it was an opportunity to improve people’s lives to bring financial services to the unbanked and uninsured in Asia; to help a growing middle class plan its finances more holistically and efficiently; to help enterprises raise money, make payments, and tap new markets.

Third, traditional financial institutions in Asia have embarked on a digitalisation journey, enabled by core technologies such as cloud computing. Almost every major financial institution has an active innovation agenda to strengthen its business by harnessing technology. In just the last three years, more than 30 global financial institutions have set up innovation labs in Singapore, testing new technologies and collaborating with FinTech start-ups to develop solutions. Let me give some examples of collaboration from the Singapore FinTech ecosystem: 2/4  BIS central bankers' speeches  Hedge fund managers are using a solution deployed by SQREEM to provide them behavioural insights related to equities, foreign exchange markets or political events like Brexit. Relationship managers are using a solution by AIDA, to predict whether their clients are likely to increase their assets under management or make a withdrawal. FINQUEST is using big data analytics to connect small to mid-sized companies globally to growth capital and potential acquirers. APVERA is helping enterprises detect anomalies in the behaviour of their employees and flag data leakage risks. These three driving forces – FinTech start-ups, e-commerce platforms, and financial institutions harnessing technology in a big way – are creating the synergies that power Asia’s digital transformation. Initiatives to Foster the FinTech Ecosystem MAS has an active and wide-ranging FinTech agenda. In the interest of time, let me highlight three key initiatives we have taken in recent years to nurture the FinTech ecosystem in Singapore and integrate it across ASEAN. First, the ASEAN Financial Innovation Network, or AFIN for short.