ravi menon : powering the next stage of singapore fintech speech by mr ravi menon, managing director of the monetary authority of singapore, at the singapore fintech festival “ the green shoots series – leading through a crisis : up close and personal with mr ravi menon ”, singapore, 13 august 2020. * * * five years ago, we had a vision – to make singapore a smart financial centre. a financial centre where innovation is pervasive and technology is used widely – to increase efficiency ; to create new opportunities ; to manage risks better ; and most importantly to improve people ’ s lives. a new buzzword was emerging on the scene – “ fintech ”. we set our goal to become a leading global fintech hub. at the core of our drive was a conviction that technology will fundamentally transform financial services … … that if our financial sector stood still, we would be swept away by the tides of technological changes. and the tides were coming in fast : digital and mobile payments ; block chains ; cloud computing ; big data and analytics ; ai and learning machines. together with the industry, mas set about creating a fintech ecosystem that embraced both incumbents and insurgents. we wanted to facilitate the digital transformation of established financial institutions so that they can innovate and compete with the best. we also wanted to support fintech firms outside the financial sector who were innovating new ways to provide financial services. the relationship between the incumbents and insurgents has been sometimes competitive but often collaborative – and both have been good for the ecosystem. we adopted a multi - pronged strategy to build what is now regarded by many as one of the most vibrant fintech ecosystems in the world. first, a conducive regulatory approach that facilitates innovation while managing risks : simplifying rules ; selectively easing licensing criteria ; providing guidance on new areas like cloud computing, robo - advisers, and digital tokens ; adopting activity - based regulation right - sized to the risks posed, as in our payment 1 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches services act ; and allowing experimentation through regulatory sandboxes. second, the digital infrastructure necessary for the adoption and proliferation of new technologies : a 24 / 7, real - time electronic payment system ; a national digital identity and trusted data architecture that allows seamless online authentication and financial transactions ; digital platforms to connect businesses, financial institutions, and fintech firms : matching buyers and sellers through, for example, business sans borders ; and matching problem statements and solutions through,

these markets : but there is no corresponding data matrix at the global level. it will be important that the emir dataset can be linked to other datasets to understand the total balance sheet exposures. the adoption of common identifiers, such as the legal entity identifier ( lei ), across the various granular data initiatives is critical to facilitate these linkages. another challenge posed by globalisation is the dual roles played by multinational firms in production and in the international financial system. 1 it is increasingly difficult to interpret national economic and financial accounts, given the mis - match between the global - level integrated 1 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches activities of international firms and the residency - based concepts that underpin national accounting. in particular, the scale of cross - border intra - firm transactions is a severe challenge in working out the implications of observed balance of payments flows. the wide spread use of special purpose entities in the financial transactions of multinational firms further adds to the difficulty in accurately capturing the underlying trends. at european and global levels, developing a shared understanding among statisticians of the international activities of multinational firms is a high priority due to the threat to the relevance of statistics. the statistical system will also need to become more agile, as the activities of multinational firms evolve at a rapid pace and the underlying rules and manuals can take several years to catch up. so, from a financial stability perspective, in identifying next steps for escb statistics, an important priority is to continue the painstaking work to develop sufficient momentum and trust across jurisdictions to enable more data sharing at a global level across these various dimensions. let me turn to the data requirements for effective macroprudential policymaking. in particular, let me focus on borrower - based measures such as loan - to - value ( ltv ) or debt - to - income ( dti ) ceilings that can help improve the stability of mortgage markets. since risks are concentrated in the higher - risk tail of the distribution of mortgage loans, it is very helpful to have granular, loan - byloan data in calibrating borrower - based measures. in particular, a full risk assessment requires a capacity to match loan data with borrower characteristics such as income level, employment status, household composition, non - mortgage debts and other financial assets and liabilities. in relation to gaining an overview of the aggregate debts of a household, it is important to highlight the value of a comprehensive consumer credit register. since loan balances and