ravi menon : singapore's fintech journey - where we are, what is next speech by mr ravi menon, managing director of the monetary authority of singapore, at the singapore fintech festival - fintech conference, singapore, 16 november 2016. * * * ladies and gentlemen, good morning and welcome to the inaugural singapore fintech festival. we have more than 11, 000 participants from more than 50 countries, attending one or more of the many events lined up over these five days. technologies transforming finance financial technology or fintech is transforming financial services, in a way not seen before. we have unprecedented mobility. the smartphone is becoming our bank. people can consume financial services on the go. we have unprecedented connectivity. the internet has compressed time and space. interaction is real - time and unconstrained by physical boundaries. we have unprecedented computing power. the devices in our hands or on our wrists are literally pokemons – pocket - sized monsters that pack more data and more processing power than super computers just a couple of decades ago. digital payments are becoming more widespread, propelled by advances in near - field communications, identity authentication, digital ids, and biometrics. blockchains or distributed ledgers are being tested for a wide variety of financial operations, to make them faster, more robust, more efficient : to settle interbank payments ; to verify and reconcile trade finance invoices ; to execute, enforce, and verify the performance of contracts ; to keep an audit trail and deter money laundering. perhaps the biggest potential is in what is called big data. we are beginning to aggregate and analyse large data sets to : gain richer insights into customer behaviour and needs ; detect fraud or anomalies in financial transactions ; sharpen surveillance of market trends and emerging risks. big data is in turn being driven by advances in : sensor networks and natural language processing to gather information from a wide universe of sources ; cloud technologies to store and retrieve large volumes of information at low cost and ondemand ; learning machines and smart algorithms that can continuously adapt and improve on their decision making with every iteration. 1 / 9 bis central bankers'speeches smart financial centre vision be it countries, businesses, or people – those who are alert to technology trends, understand their implications, and harness their potential will gain a competitive edge. to be sure, many of these technologies are disruptive to existing jobs and existing business models. but if we do not disrupt ourselves – in a manner we choose – somebody else will

that encompasses green and transition activities. it adopts a “ traffic light ” system that helps market participants identify activities that are “ green ”, “ yellow ” ( or transition ) and “ red ”, with the intent of reaching net 1 / 2 bis central bankers'speeches zero as soon as possible. the calibration of thresholds is important, considering the feasibility and availability of alternative technologies in singapore and the region. the thresholds will need to be recalibrated at regular intervals to keep pace with technological innovations. second, innovative financing solutions. to meet asia ’ s green financing needs, it is not enough to rely on just the public sector or the banking sector. we need innovative platforms to catalyse capital flows to marginally bankable but worthy green projects. in singapore, one of our sovereign wealth funds, temasek, has partnered hsbc to set up a debt financing platform to invest in marginally bankable sustainable infrastructure projects in asia. we need new instruments such as blended finance to draw in different types of financers. government agencies and multilateral development banks can potentially help to derisk sustainability projects by taking on first loss equity or providing a guarantee, to help crowd - in more private sector financing. this includes not just commercial banks but also capital providers such as foundations and family offices. we need to deploy technical assistance alongside financing. this is to support a range of activities such as project preparation, project implementation, and even training and capacity building to achieve maximum development impact. third, financial supervision. regulators are in a strong position to steward the financial system towards net zero through supervising financial institutions ’ management of climate related risks. the network for greening the financial system, or ngfs, plays a key role in helping to mainstream climate - related risk management. the ngfs has just issued a report highlighting the different paths that supervisors can take towards a set of internationally aligned supervisory practices. we strongly support the ngfs declaration1 to green the financial system. the mas is progressively embedding climate risk considerations in its supervisory framework. we are setting out a roadmap for mandatory climate - related financial disclosures for all our financial institutions. next year, we will conduct stress tests for the financial industry under a range of climate scenarios. we are supporting capacity - building among central banks and supervisors in addressing environmental risks, such as through the cop26 climate training alliance initiative. a successful transition to net zero will require collective efforts across governments, businesses, and industry leaders globally.