Singapore central bank sets up new fintech innovation lab
Oleh GovInsider
Creates role for Chief FinTech Officer to oversee innovation in financial services.
Singapore’s central bank has set up a lab to find and test new technologies for financial services. The new Technology Innovation Lab scans the horizon for cutting-edge technologies with potential in the financial sector and works with the industry to test-bed new solutions.
The lab is led by Roy Teo and sits within the newly formed FinTech and Innovation Group in the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), which began work on 1 August 2015.
The fintech group will develop policies and strategies to better manage risks, increase efficiency and improve competitiveness of financial services with technology, the bank said. It has appointed Sopnendu Mohanty (pictured above) as its Chief FinTech Officer to head the group.
Apart from the lab, the group includes two other teams. The Payments and Technology Solutions Office creates policies for secure payments and other technologies. The Technology Infrastructure Office makes policies for cloud computing, big data, distributed ledger – a technology used for Bitcoin mining – and other infrastructure for the financial sector.
The setup of the FinTech and Innovation Group is “a serious commitment by MAS towards our vision of a Smart Financial Centre, where technology is applied pervasively to create new opportunities and improve people’s lives”, said Ravi Menon, Managing Director of MAS.