Singapore's central bank is to commit up to $150 million to support startups developing innovative financial technologies over the next three years.
The funding is granted under the Financial Sector Technology and Innovation Scheme, an initiative to promote Singapore as a financial centre.
Prrevious iterations of the programme have led to the development of innovative projects such as the Singapore Financial Data Exchange, a cross-border payment linkage with Thailand, and initiatives to promote responsible AI, and sustainable finance.
The new funds will be allocated along three tracks, including: up to $2 million for corporate venture capital entities that are helping fintech startups to deveop viable business models; grants to help scale emerging technology projects such as Web 3.0; investment to support the development and deployment of projects that address ESG data, reporting, and analytics, with funding of up to $0.5 million per project.
Across tracks, applicants will also be required to devote resources to talent development, in order to strengthen the Singaporean fintech talent pool.
Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, says: “The Financial Sector Development Fund provides funding to support: skills development and upgrading; research and development programmes; and industry projects and infrastructure, for the Singapore financial services sector. Notably, FSTI 1.0 and 2.0 helped strengthen the digital capabilities of financial institutions which served them and their customers through the COVID pandemic. With FSTI 3.0, we look forward to continued collaboration with the industry to advance purposeful financial innovation.”