A very large base of the pyramid, so to speak, that’s not well served by the financial sector in Asia. So there’s tremendous scope for innovation in finance as a way of reaching out to far more people and meeting their needs. And there’s a new generation of tech-savvy individuals in Asia like elsewhere. They are also averse to paying fees. They too are a prime market for FinTech in Asia. We are promoting innovation in finance in a comprehensive way in Singapore. It requires a whole ecosystem. It requires bringing a whole range of players together – the technology players, finance players, start-ups, and both global and local Singapore players. We are also looking at every segment of the financial business. There is scope for innovation across the business – in credit, savings, investing, payments and so on. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  But importantly too, we intend to be right there at the frontier with regard to the common technology platforms, or the utilities that can be a very important enabler for innovation in finance – the common platforms that help individual players, produce network effects as more players come on board, and help the market work better. We are looking at each of the industry verticals to see what common platforms might be needed. Ravi will talk more about this. In trade finance, for example, where we are making good progress. There are also the horizontal infrastructures that can underpin innovation in a range of industry verticals.
2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  Most FinTech ventures, globally, have indeed not succeeded to date. The real stress test of any new idea in finance is the economic and credit cycle. But even where new players fail, they usually leave behind an idea – an idea to be modified, taken over or improved. We must allow for this experimentation, but we must do it in a way that preserves trust and credibility in our financial system. That is foremost in our minds. So regulators are watching this carefully. We have to allow for innovation. But any player that acquires a meaningful scale in finance should expect to be regulated like any other financial institution in their business. There must be a level playing field, and there are to begin with good reasons for why regulations exist. We cannot stifle innovation. We must let people come up with new ideas, and let them run with it. But once they acquire meaningful scale in the financial sector, they should expect regulation. Ten years from now, finance will be very different. We can’t say exactly how. But we in Singapore intend to be a key player in innovation in finance. A key player in advancing ways to help consumers with their needs as lenders, borrowers, as makers of payments. In Singapore and the Asia-Pacific. We will go about this very energetically in Singapore, especially in developing common infrastructure or utilities, as I just mentioned. Ravi will be going through some of our strategies.