The ninth edition of the Singapore Fintech Festival (SFF) wrapped up on 8th November, concluding a dynamic week-long of celebration of fintech that brought together tens of thousands of participants from around the world.
The year’s conference featured an impressive lineup of over 900 speakers across more than 400 sessions. These experts covered some of the industry’s hottest trends and most urging issues, including artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, digital assets, next-generation transactions, and financial inclusion.
The exhibition area hosted over 600 exhibitors and 41 international pavilions across five thematic zones. These zones spotlighted cutting-edge innovations and offered key discussions, providing attendees with a glimpse into the future of financial services.
Like previous editions, SFF 2024 saw several corporations, startups and public agencies announce their latest initiatives, leveraging the visibility, audience and media coverage of this large-scale gathering to gain maximum exposure and garner interest from key stakeholders.
After sifting through the flurry of announcements and speeches, here are 10 key highlights from SFF 2024.
MAS New Managing Director shares key updates in his first SFF speech
Chia Der Jiun, Managing Director of MAS, addressed SFF 2024, outlining the central bank’s long-term efforts to enhance capabilities, such as developing a national digital identity and fast payment rails.
These efforts have resulted in remarkable penetration rates, with over 90% of users signed up and near 100% adoption of QR codes among merchants.
However, challenges remain, particularly regarding interoperability. To address this, stakeholders including NETS Group and Liquid Group are working on interoperable QR payment solutions that are designed to simplify processes for merchants, Chia said.
On the international front, cross-border payments have presented a different set of challenges. While Singapore has established bilateral linkages with countries including Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia and India, these arrangements are time-consuming and resource-intensive.
To address these issues, countries part of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) joined hand with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub to collaborate on Project Nexus. This initiative aims to create a multilateral framework, enabling a country’s instant payment system to seamlessly connect with those of other nations through a single, streamlined integration.
On asset tokenisation, Chia highlighted the introduction of a stablecoin regulatory framework. The regulatory attributes are finalized, and the central bank is now working on legislation, he said.
Chia also emphasized the importance of community, collaboration, and capabilities in shaping the future of fintech, highlighting initiatives such as the Global Finance and Technology Network (GFTN), an organization established by MAS that aims to strengthen international collaboration.
Former MAS Managing Director to chair GFTN
Launched in October, GFTN was introduced in detail by Ravi Menon, the organization’s chairman and the former Managing Director of MAS.
GFTN represents the next phase of Singapore’s fintech journey, Menon said, and aims to harness technology and foster innovation through global partnerships.
The organization has four strategic businesses:
- GFTN Forums: a global conference convener, dedicated to finance and technology;
- GFTN Advisory: a knowledge centre, offering practitioner-led advisory services and research on innovation policies and ecosystems;
- GFTN Platforms: a platform service provider for businesses, especially small and medium enterprises and FinTech firms; and
- GFTN Capital: an investment fund for technology start-ups that have the potential for sustained growth and positive social impact.
Singapore advances tokenisation ambitions
The Insights Forum, an exclusive event held from 4th November and 5th November prior to the main SFF, featured the inaugural Layer One Summit.
In his opening keynote address at the summit, Leong Sing Chiong, Deputy Managing Director, Markets and Development, MAS, shared insights into the pathways for scaling tokenisation in financial services.
He explained how tokenisation enables real-time, simultaneous exchange of assets and information through programmable platforms, and emphasized that stakeholders are accelerating their efforts to deploy the technology.
But despite these advancements, Leong noted that tokenization has not yet achieved widespread industry adoption.
He outlined four essential components required to enable this transition: first, deep liquidity to prevent market fragmentation; second, the development of foundational digital infrastructure; third, standardized frameworks and taxonomies to lower adoption costs and foster interoperability; and fourth, the need for common settlement assets like wholesale central bank digital currencies (wCBDCs) to ensure seamless settlement of tokenized transactions.
To address these issues, MAS has supported and initiated a number of initiatives, including:
- The Guardian Wholesale Network Industry Group, a commercial network supporting the scaling of asset tokenization trials;
- The Global Layer One (GL1) initiative, which aims to foster the development of a public permissioned foundational digital infrastructure, upon which commercial networks could be deployed;
- The Guardian Fixed Income Framework, which integrates the bond data taxonomy, token standards and design principles for tokenized securities, allowing for a standardized approach towards tokenization in the fixed income market;
- The Guardian Funds Framework, which provides recommendations for establishing a framework for the tokenization of the fund lifecycle and activities; and
- The Singapore Dollar (SGD) Testnet, which enables financial institutions’ access to common settlement assets for market testing purposes.
Winners of the 2024 Global Fintech Hackcelerator and SFF Fintech Excellence Awards unveiled
The winners of the 2024 Global Fintech Hackcelerator were announced on November 07. The annual competition, which seeks innovative and market-ready solutions to address problem statements, saw 18 finalists pitched their solutions to a panel comprising industry experts across multiple domains.
Three teams were selected as this year’s winners, receiving S$50,000 each in prize money. These teams are KaiOS Enable Tomorrow from China, WeGro from Bangladesh and Your Financial Wellness from Australia.
The event also saw the announcement of the winners of this year’s SFF Fintech Excellence Awards. The awards, jointly organized with Singapore Fintech Association (SFA) and supported by PwC Singapore, attracted over 200 submissions, with eight winners selected across six categories by an international panel of industry experts.
The winners for the Corporate categories for the SFF Fintech Excellence Awards 2024 are:
- Emerging Fintech Award: Walee Financial Services
- Financial Inclusivity Award: PolicyStreet
- Regulatory Leader Award: Napier AI
- Sustainable Innovator Award: Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation
- Thematic–Artificial Intelligence, Quantum Champion: Tencent
The winners for the Individual category (in recognition of fintech mentors) under the SFF Fintech Excellence Awards 2024 are:
- Fintech Mentor Award: Andrea Baronchelli; Aspire, CEO and Co-founder; Dr Dorian Selz, Squirro AG, CEO and Co-founder; and Frans Wiwanto, Flywire (Singapore), CEO – APAC.
Cross-Border Payments take centre stage at SFF 2024
Project Nexus Managing Entity: MAS and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub announced the establishment of the Nexus Scheme Organisation (NSO) to be based out of Singapore.
The NSO will oversee the implementation of Project Nexus’ live implementation inking various domestic instant payment systems on a global scale.
Ant International and Standard Chartered Partnership: Ant International partnered with Standard Chartered to enable the first-ever SGD-based transactions on Ant’s blockchain-powered digital ledger.
This collaboration underscores the push to streamline cross-border payments through tokenized assets, allowing for efficient and transparent transactions across borders while fostering stronger Singapore-dollar-based digital asset frameworks.
Nium becomes the first fintech to join Partior Network: Nium announced a partnership with blockchain-based Partior to enable financial institutions to access real-time, cross-border payments. By leveraging Partior’s blockchain technology,
Nium now gets to offer 24/7 instant payments, clearing, and settlement to over 100 markets, enhancing service efficiency and reducing delays.
Visa unveils suite of new products and services
Visa announced a suite of new products and services aimed at transforming the future of payments in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region:
- Visa Flexible Credential allows a single card to switch between various payment options, such as debit, credit, installment payments, or rewards redemption. The solution is available in several markets, including Hong Kong, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
- The Visa Payment Passkey leverages biometrics for online payment authentication.
- Click to Pay simplifies checkout, requiring only a registered email or phone number.
- Visa Protect for Account-to-Account Payments is an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven fraud detection tool designed to reduce fraud in real-time, covering digital wallets and QR code payments.
- Visa also introduced data tokens to enable merchants’ AI models to offer tailored shopping recommendations while giving consumers control over shared data through their banking apps.
- The company launched a new wallet payment experience that enables cross-border payments through QR codes. Initially piloted in Singapore, the initiative, developed with regional wallet providers, will expand across the region to facilitate QR-enabled payments globally.
- Finally, Visa has partnered with QR payment providers across Asia, including Lakala in China, Touch ‘n Go Digital in Malaysia, Fomo Pay in Singapore, Line Pay in Taiwan, and VNPay and Zalopay in Vietnam, to enable seamless cross-border QR payments.
NETS Rolls Out SGQR+
Network for Electronic Transfers (NETS) has announced the islandwide rollout of SGQR+, an enhanced version of Singapore’s national QR code standard.
SGQR+ simplifies digital payments by enabling businesses to accept multiple payment schemes through a single QR code.
SGQR+ will initially be deployed at 24,000 acceptance points across retail and F&B sectors, with plans to expand to over 35,000 locations, including hawker centers.
Tencent and Visa launch palm recognition payments
Tencent, in partnership with Visa, announced a pilot palm recognition payment system for Visa cardholders in Singapore, starting with DBS, OCBC, and UOB bank customers. The solution is designed to offer greater security and simplicity.
Pilot users will get to pay with their palms at Alchemist, a café in Singapore, with expansion plans to be announced in the near future.
Users will have to do a one-time enrollment at the merchant point-of-sale (POS), where they will be invited to tap their Visa card, scan their palm and complete a one-time authentication to enroll.
Once they have enrolled, a Visa payment token will be bound to their palm biometric template, allowing them to make future payments at participating merchants by simply waving their palm.
Mastercard unveils OTP-free authentication solution
Mastercard unveiled its latest innovation, the Mastercard Payment Passkey Service. The solution enables secure, on-device biometric authentication through facial recognition or fingerprint scans.
The Mastercard Payment Passkey Service combines tokenization, passkeys, and a streamlined guest checkout experience through Click to Pay, allowing consumers to enjoy seamless, one-click checkout, and enhancing convenience.
The launch aligns with Mastercard’s commitment to improving the checkout experience.
OCBC Becomes First Singapore Bank to Use Blockchain for Intraday Lending
OCBC announced that it is the first bank in Singapore to offer intraday institutional lending using blockchain technology.
By utilising blockchain technology, the exchange of cash and securities becomes near-instantaneous, a significant improvement over traditional repo markets where the process can take at least one business day.
State Bank of India launches SBI Innovation Hub
The State Bank of India (SBI), in partnership with APIX, launched the SBI Innovation Hub, a platform for fintech companies, startups and innovators to create new financial solutions for SBI’s customer base.
The SBI Innovation Hub provides access to over 250 of SBI’s financial service APIs, a secure sandbox environment for testing, and opportunities to participate in challenges and hackathons. It aims to accelerate digital transformation and advance financial inclusion.
