problem to solve, but we have made some progress. last year, phase 1 demonstrated that banks could conduct inter - bank payments without going through mas, using a blockchain - based digital representation of the singapore dollar. phase 2, just recently concluded, successfully produced three software prototypes that 7 / 9 bis central bankers'speeches achieved decentralised netting of payments, in a manner that preserved transactional privacy. mas has received keen interest on project ubin from many parties, including academia and other central banks. we are committed to share what we have learnt, to encourage others to take a crack at solving this problem. we have just published the report on phase 2. more significantly, mas will release publicly, free - of - charge, the source codes for all three successful prototypes from project ubin phase 2. please take a look at the prototypes, study them, build upon them. what ’ s next? we are now preparing to extend project ubin beyond singapore. we are pleased to announce a collaboration on cross - border payments with the bank of canada using blockchain technology. deepening financial inclusion : asean financial innovation network finally, we want to use fintech to deepen financial inclusion across asean. mas and the world bank ’ s international finance corporation have teamed up to establish the asean financial innovation network ( or “ afin ” ). the goal of afin is to help banks and fintechs in asean collaborate, so as to broaden and deepen access to digital financial services across asean. afin is working on a cloud - based industry platform which will do three things : it will allow banks to search for and connect to innovative fintech offerings. it will give fintech firms an opportunity to scale up their business across borders. it will provide an industry sandbox to test out cross - border solutions. regional regulators will be invited as observers of the sandbox. most of all, afin will provide a powerful platform to extend financial services to the millions of under - banked people in asean. conclusion singapore is on the fintech journey because we want to make pervasive a culture of innovation in our financial sector. we must have a restlessness to make things better, a spirit of enterprise to try new ways, a willingness to take manageable risks, and the resilience to bounce back from failure to try again … and again. but fintech must safeguard trust and confidence. trust is the foundation for a market economy. in financial services and in the

50 successful collaborations. customers looking for properties on the propertyguru platform can instantly find out if they are eligible for a property loan and even apply for the loan online. uob has also recently put in place its regional open banking api platform. customers can submit and read restaurant reviews, place reservations, and pay for their food, all within uob ’ s mobile app. to - date, over 270 open apis have been made available by the singapore financial industry. network of international links by the end of this week, mas will have signed 16 fintech cooperation agreements with governments and authorities around the world1 these agreements facilitate information sharing on fintech trends and regulatory issues. they also have a referral mechanism that support singapore fintech start - ups in overseas markets, and facilitate overseas start - ups to set up in singapore as a gateway to asia. some of our co - operation agreements also include joint innovation projects. let me give a tangible example. singapore and thailand have each developed their own systems for making payments from one bank account to another – in real - time, 24 / 7. we call our system paynow ; thailand calls theirs promptpay. mas and the bank of thailand have agreed to work together to link paynow and promptpay. the aim is to enable someone in singapore to send money to someone in thailand, and vice versa, using just their mobile phone numbers – instantly, securely, and at any time of the day. talent and research to sustain our fintech efforts, we need a strong pipeline of talent and research capabilities. we are pleased to announce that mas and the massachusetts institute of technology ( mit ) have agreed to enter an r & d collaboration in fintech. this will enable our local fintech talents to work alongside world - class researchers at the mit media lab to come up with technology solutions to real - world use cases. they will run pilots using distributed ledger technology, cryptography, quantum computing and big data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. one area where we want to make a concerted effort is data analytics and artificial intelligence. mas is launching a s $ 27 million artificial intelligence & data analytics grant. this is part of the s $ 225 million financial sector technology & innovation scheme. the new grant will support the adoption and integration of ai and data analytics in financial institutions. 3 / 9 bis central bankers'speeches just as important, it will be used to help professionals in the financial sector to up - skill and adapt to the use of