on singapore ’ s role as a regional infrastructure - financing hub in asean to jointly access infrastructure opportunities in the region. additionally, both financial centres can work together to develop innovative capital market solutions for infrastructure projects in china, asean and in third countries. key financial institutions in china are already working closely with singapore on this front. 4 / 7 bis central bankers'speeches they have significantly scaled up their bri - related activities in singapore over the past two years. china and singapore financial institutions are tapping on each other ’ s strengths to help chinese firms “ go out ”. for example : in june 2015, bank of china ( boc ) issued four currency “ silk road ” bonds in singapore, which included a sgd 500 million tranche and a rmb 5 billion tranche. in august 2016, china construction bank ( ccb ) listed its first rmb 1 billion bri infrastructure bond on the singapore exchange ( sgx ). in september 2016, industrial and commercial bank of china ( icbc ) signed an agreement with the singapore exchange ( sgx ) to support chinese companies looking to list equities or bonds on sgx. both parties will also explore collaboration in derivatives trading, bond trading and market making of rmb - denominated contracts listed on sgx. since november 2015, three of china ’ s top four banks ( icbc, ccb and boc ) have signed mous with international enterprise singapore to deepen bri partnerships in asean. these mous brought in more than sgd 90 billion worth of financing for brirelated projects and to support chinese and singapore firms investing into bri countries. i am confident that opportunities abound for shanghai and singapore to deepen collaboration on this front. i believe that bri - related cooperation between both financial centres will become a distinguishing mark of the new asian financial landscape ahead. ( iii ) working together on future - ready initiatives in the area of financial technology ( fintech ) : both shanghai and singapore recognise the vital importance of harnessing new financial technologies for sustainable growth of their financial sectors. this is a critical ingredient for future - ready international financial centres in asia. shanghai is already home to some of the largest fintech firms in the world 21. it is proactively taking measures to achieve its vision of becoming a global centre of innovation, science and technology ( ist ), which will also bring synergies between the financial and ist sectors. singapore, meanwhile, is committed to building a smart financial centre where technology

lee hsien loong : separation of financial and non - financial activities in singapore speech by dpm lee hsien loong, chairman of the board of directors of the monetary authority of singapore and deputy prime minister, at the association of banks in singapore ( abs ) dinner, held in singapore on 21 june 2000. * * * introduction i last attended the abs annual dinner two years ago. i spoke then on the need to free up our banking sector, and to allow competition a greater role in shaping the industry. last year, mas announced measures to improve corporate governance and institutionalise the management of the local banks, and the first phase of a five - year programme to liberalise the banking sector. we sought to strengthen singapore ’ s banking system, provide singaporeans with quality banking services, and further enhance singapore ’ s position as an international financial centre. these reforms have brought about visible changes. the next step in strengthening the local banks is now to separate financial and non - financial businesses within the banking groups, and to further improve corporate governance through a clearer and more transparent ownership and control structure. separation of financial and non - financial activities what ought to constitute the permissible activities for a banking group is an issue which all financial regulators have to consider carefully. if we took a purely laissez faire approach, we could leave banks to structure themselves as their owners and management saw fit. what businesses banks chose to be involved in, and what business entities chose to own a bank, would be matters for themselves to decide. over time, banks with the right configuration and mix of activities would succeed, while those without would fail or be eliminated by the competition. but regulators cannot leave it entirely to the market to sort out such matters, especially where the banks involved are not peripheral players but perform key roles in deposit taking and the payments system. strong banks are important to the health of the financial system and to the entire process of credit intermediation. regulators cannot guarantee that individual banks will never fail, but they have a duty to minimise the chances of a mishap and to maintain the integrity and overall stability of the financial system. a clear source of potential problems in this regard is the commingling of financial and non - financial activities within the same corporate group. many regulators regard it as good banking and sound supervisory practice to require clear separation of the two. firstly, separation will limit the risk of contagion from non - banking businesses to the bank. banks with significant interests in non