. we need common standards and inter - operable systems so that innovations can be scaled up quickly and their potential benefits fully realised. w want a hundred flowers of innovation to bloom but also want to ensure they make a garden. to facilitate such an ecosystem, mas started with itself : last year, we formed within mas a new fintech & innovation group under a chief fintech officer – probably the first regulator in the world to do so. the group ’ s task is to work with the financial industry and fintech players and help foster a conducive ecosystem for innovation. mas has committed s $ 225 million ( or us $ 160 million ) over five years to support the development of a vibrant fintech ecosystem. earlier this year, mas and the national research foundation ( nrf ) set up a fintech office to provide a one - stop point - of - contact for all fintech matters. – if you are a fintech company interested in finding out what are the grants and assistance schemes available in singapore or connecting with relevant government agencies to expedite approvals – this is the office to go to. creating the infrastructure for an innovation ecosystem is a shared responsibility and joint effort. mas plays the role of a facilitator, the real work is done by the financial industry and the fintech community coming together to collaborate and create. let me highlight the exciting infrastructure initiatives underway : physical spaces for collaboration and experimentation. infrastructure for electronic payments. a national “ know - your - customer ” utility. a blockchain infrastructure for cross - border inter - bank payments. an open api architecture. physical spaces for collaboration and experimentation a basic element of the fintech infrastructure is having physical spaces that facilitate collaboration and partnerships among different players. 5 / 9 bis central bankers'speeches just last week, we saw the launch of lattice80, singapore ’ s first fintech innovation village. lattice80 offers dedicated physical space in the heart of singapore financial district for fintech start - ups to work, connect, and co - create with the financial industry and vc investors. more than 20 global fis have set up innovation centres here. you would have seen during the innovation lab crawl earlier this week some of the exciting things they are experimenting with : digital health solutions tapping on wearable devices ; telematics for motor insurance ; blockchains to streamline payments ; big data to produce customised service offerings. mas itself has set up an innovation lab – called looking glass. it aims to : spur collaboration

among mas, fis, start - ups, and technologists ; and facilitate consultations for start - ups by industry experts on legal, regulatory, and businessrelated matters. infrastructure for electronic payments : upos, cas we have a world - class infrastructure for electronic payments. it is a 24 / 7, real - time inter - bank fund transfer system. we call it fast ; short for fast and secure transfers. but fast is grossly under - utilised and singapore is still heavily dependent on cash and cheques as means of payments. the association of banks in singapore is working on two key initiatives to make electronic payments seamless and convenient for everyone. first, a central addressing scheme ( cas ) that will allow you to pay anyone using that person ’ s mobile number, national id number, email address, or any other social media address, without the need to know the recipient ’ s bank or bank account number. second, a unified point - of - sale ( upos ) terminal that will allow a merchant to accept all major card brands, including those that are contactless or embedded in smartphones. a national kyc utility knowing the identity of a customer – or kyc – is one of the biggest pain points in the financial industry. the process is costly and laborious, and hugely duplicative. the pain is pervasive because kyc and identity authentication are involved in so many financial services, from opening a bank account to making a payment to making an insurance claim. we need an infrastructure solution to this problem. singapore is in the process of creating a national kyc utility. now, obviously this involves several layers of identity verification depending on the purpose of the transaction, the extent of information involved, and the degree of rigour required. 6 / 9 bis central bankers'speeches the basic building block is the myinfo service, jointly developed by the ministry of finance and govtech, the lead agency for digital and data strategy in singapore. myinfo is a personal data platform, containing government - verified personal details, e. g. the national id number, residential address, and so on. myinfo enables residents to provide their personal data just once to the government, and retrieve their personal details for all subsequent online transactions with the government. mas is partnering mof and govtech to embark on a pilot that will expand the myinfo service to the financial industry for more efficient kyc using trusted government collected personal data. no more tedious form -