. • we have learnt much from these interactions. the response from the industry has been encouraging. • insurers such as aon and metlife as well as banks such as citibank, credit suisse, dbs, hsbc, and ubs have already set up innovation labs in singapore. • aviva has announced plans for a “ digital garage ” and axa for a “ data innovation lab ” here. • mas is working with several other banks and insurers on their plans to establish and expand their analytics and innovation teams in singapore. at the heart of a smart financial centre must be a progressive information technology architecture. two key characteristics of such an architecture are : • common standards ; and • seamless data sharing. common standards let me begin with common standards. they are key to making systems interoperable and harnessing fully the benefits of new payments technologies. lack of standardisation leads to fragmentation, inefficiency, and inconvenience. • take for example electronic funds transfer. • without a common standard, an application written to effect funds transfer for one group of financial service providers may need to be rewritten to work with another group of financial service providers that operate on different interface standards. common standards allow systems and applications to operate efficiently and seamlessly when different financial service operators and solution providers come together. • the emv chip is one of the most impactful examples of a common standard. it is all the more impressive as it was an industry initiative without any government involvement. • nfc, or near - field communications, represents the next big thing in common standards. it is enabling contactless payments on mobile devices like smart phones. yet another good example of a common standard is iso 20022. this is the international standard for electronic data exchange among financial institutions. • its growing adoption has helped to make payments platforms interoperable and reduce inefficiency. fast and secure transfers a successful example of iso 20022 adoption in singapore is “ fast and secure transfers ” or “ fast ”. this is a secure electronic funds transfer service that is available 24 / 7. bis central bankers ’ speeches • we started with 14 participating banks in march 2014, we now have 19. • fast usage has risen steadily, clocking 18 million transactions since its launch. fast offers several advantages for bank customers in singapore. • you can pay someone almost instantaneously from your computer or mobile device at any time of the day. • you can receive confirmation of payment within

seconds. • if you are a company, whether big or small, near - instant payment and confirmation round - the - clock makes a huge difference if you rely on cashflow to pay suppliers frequently. with the whole transaction going electronic, you can look forward to more efficient reconciliation of your payments with your financial accounts. • in short, fast is almost as convenient as cash, yet potentially safer and cheaper. while the take - up of fast has been encouraging for person - to - person payments, it has some ways more to go for merchant payments. on the payee side, a barrier to adoption by merchants is the challenge of integrating electronic payments with the existing work flow of confirming and reconciling receipt of payment, which is currently done at the cash register. two of our banks have come up with solutions for this. • standard chartered bank has had some success with helping food courts, fast food joints, convenience stores and taxi companies accept electronic payments by dash. • dbs has just announced a new product called fastrack, which lets you order and pay for coffee before you even arrive at the counter. it is good that there is a proliferation of innovative e - wallets, payment apps and mobile payment solutions in singapore. • but just as man is not an island, neither should payment solutions be limited to themselves. • for widespread take - up and usage of any digital payments solution, interoperability is critical. • and this is where fast comes in. with the common standard provided by fast, banks can more readily collaborate on innovative payment products that are interoperable, without having to worry about incompatibility. on the payer side, a barrier to adopting digital payments is the hassle involved in on - boarding payees. • people should be able to pay each other electronically as simply as writing a cheque or handing over some cash. • it should not matter which bank that i bank with nor should a payee be identifiable only by his bank account number. • few of us can readily recall our own bank account numbers, let alone be familiar with those of our friends and family. i am pleased to note that the participating banks are studying a mobile addressing system for fast. • this means that you will be able to make payments through fast as long as you know the payee ’ s mobile number. bis central bankers ’ speeches • may i suggest to the industry to go one step further and explore an “ all - in - one ” addressing system?