. the fintech sector has been a powerful creator of jobs. we estimate there are nearly 10, 000 people employed by fintech firms, many of which are also classified as part of the financial services sector. we have seen many examples of innovative solutions that use technology to meet the daily needs of consumers of financial services. the proof of concept ( or poc ) grant, under fsti, provided funding support for experimentation, development, and dissemination of such solutions. one example of successful commercialisation is socash, who partnered with standard chartered bank to pioneer micro cash distribution in singapore, by turning any retail shop into an atm alternative and allowing users to withdraw cash at the checkout. socash subsequently raised s $ 8. 2m in series b funding to expand its distribution network into overseas markets such as indonesia, malaysia and hong kong. the financial industry has begun to make progress in frontier technologies like ai. the ai and data analytics ( or aida ) grant, under fsti, has helped to promote the adoption and integration of ai and data analytics in financial institutions. mas has funded 23 aida projects and published 5 requests - for - proposals on topics such as quantum computing and explainable ai. to promote the responsible use of ai and data analytics, mas and the industry cocreated the feat principles – for fairness, ethics, accountability, and transparency. perhaps the most visible payoff for the investment in technology is in how well the industry has responded the covid - 19 crisis and been able to continue serving customers. imagine if there was no retail electronic payment system or infrastructure for digital banking or buying insurance online or trading from home …. how would we have coped with circuit breakers and lockdowns? if the financial industry had not built up its digital capabilities, it would not have been able to continue operating without disruption, let alone grow by more than 5 % during the first half of this year when the overall economy contracted by 6. 7 %. but we are still only about half - way along our journey to becoming a smart financial centre. covid - 19 has shown that the world is changing in ways we may have never 3 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches imagined. the pace of digital transformation will only accelerate. our work is not done yet. we will announce at the singapore fintech festival in december more of our plans and initiatives for the next stage of our journey. but let me share with you here what we are willing to commit by way of funding. of

algor bank was successfully resolved with minimal disruption. thanks to efforts by the fsb after the global financial crisis, the major jurisdictions that algor bank operated in had robust resolution regimes. with a clear resolution plan formulated, tested and discussed at the bank ’ s annual resolution college prior to the crisis, home and host regulators were able to resolve algor bank in a smooth and timely manner. but the fact that a cyber attack could bring down the 20th largest bank in the world with a tier 1 capital adequacy ratio of 16 % revealed significant gaps in the global regulatory regime for technology risk. it was ironic that in an industry where there were detailed internationally accepted standards for capital, liquidity, and a range of prudential norms, there were no standards for cyber risk management. the fsb and standard - setting bodies swung into action and in 2025 produced a two - track set of reforms to deal with cyber risk, which is essentially borderless. 7 / 9 bis central bankers'speeches first, the fsb ’ s cyber security standards, building on its cyber lexicon of 2018, established a minimum level of cyber hygiene for internationally active financial institutions. they set out harmonised standards for authentication, implementation of cryptography, intrusion detection, and incident reporting. higher standards were set for g - sifis. g - sifis were required to put in place 24 / 7 cyber surveillance of all internet - facing systems, undergo annual cyber vulnerability assessments by internationally certified cyber specialists, and carry out military - grade penetration tests. second, the basel committee and iosco developed core principles and practice guides for prompt information sharing on cyber incidents and cyber threat intelligence among banks and securities firms respectively. national laws were amended, where necessary, to facilitate information sharing across these financial institutions without incurring legal liability. global platforms were put in place to facilitate information sharing among central banks and regulators to counter cross - border cyber threats of the kind that triggered the global cyber crisis. through these platforms, financial regulators are able to quickly disseminate useful cyber threat information to banks and securities firms so that they can take pre - emptive measures. these platforms built on the success of the earlier central banks, regulators and supervisory entities or ceres platform of 2018 which enabled effective sharing of actionable cyber threat information. but the enemy has not been lying still. hackers are now employing more advanced quantum computing technologies, and a number of weaker encryption solutions used by financial institutions have been compromised. cybersecu