Singapore and Dubai strengthen fintech ties, to collaborate on blockchain and big data

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has signed a FinTech Agreement with the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA).

The MAS has been strengthening its fintech ties with regulatory authorities in other countries in the past couple of years. This includes agreements with the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), the Association of Supervisors of Banks of the Americas (ASBA), and others, as well as distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based projects with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the Bank of Canada.

The agreement will allow referrals of innovative businesses between the MAS and the DFSA and sharing of information on financial sector innovation in their respective markets. The authorities aim to foster the continuous development of fintech to deliver new and enhanced financial services for better management of risks, reducing costs, and improving efficiency.

The authorities have also agreed to work on joint innovation projects on the application of cutting-edge technologies such as digital and mobile payments, blockchain and distributed ledgers, big data, and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).

“The rising FinTech boom in the Middle East creates new opportunities for the region and beyond. Through this FinTech cooperation with DFSA, we look forward to closer interactions between our markets, and for FinTech firms in Singapore to capture these new opportunities and grow the FinTech landscape,” Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief FinTech Officer at MAS, said.

Last week, the MAS and Singapore Exchange (SGX) announced that they are partnering with Anquan, Deloitte and Nasdaq for the settlement of tokenized assets using blockchain technology.

The third edition of the Singapore FinTech Festival will be held from 12 to 16 November 2018 in Singapore.