Institutional investors have been leveraging on Singapore’s strong connectivity and vibrant fund management ecosystem to access regional markets. There are currently some 220 VC and PE managers located in Singapore. VC and PE assets under management in Singapore has grown at an average 28% p.a. over the last 5 years. More than 75% of their investments are across ASEAN, South and North Asia. Third, the Singapore FinTech Festival. This is the largest financial technology event in the world. It drew more than 30,000 participants from more than 100 countries last year. There were 300 FinTech exhibition booths from 30 countries. The FinTech Festival is a platform for the global and Asian FinTech community – to learn new developments, exchange ideas, network and collaborate. The third edition of the Festival will be held in two weeks’ time, 12-16 Nov. A key component of the Festival is the Global Investor Summit, which brings together FinTech start-ups and investors and facilitates deal-making. This year, we have a new deal-making platform - called MATCH – to curate and showcase promising ASEAN start-ups and enterprises to local and global investors. Do check out the Global Investor Summit. To sum up, Asia is undergoing a digital transformation. The Asian FinTech scene in particular is blooming. Opportunities abound for long term investors. And Singapore sits at the centre of this exciting ecosystem of innovation and growth, from which to tap these opportunities. Thank you, and I hope to see you in two weeks’ time at the Singapore FinTech Festival.
Third, traditional financial institutions in Asia have embarked on a digitalisation journey, enabled by core technologies such as cloud computing. Almost every major financial institution has an active innovation agenda to strengthen its business by harnessing technology. In just the last three years, more than 30 global financial institutions have set up innovation labs in Singapore, testing new technologies and collaborating with FinTech start-ups to develop solutions. Let me give some examples of collaboration from the Singapore FinTech ecosystem: 2/4  BIS central bankers' speeches  Hedge fund managers are using a solution deployed by SQREEM to provide them behavioural insights related to equities, foreign exchange markets or political events like Brexit. Relationship managers are using a solution by AIDA, to predict whether their clients are likely to increase their assets under management or make a withdrawal. FINQUEST is using big data analytics to connect small to mid-sized companies globally to growth capital and potential acquirers. APVERA is helping enterprises detect anomalies in the behaviour of their employees and flag data leakage risks. These three driving forces – FinTech start-ups, e-commerce platforms, and financial institutions harnessing technology in a big way – are creating the synergies that power Asia’s digital transformation. Initiatives to Foster the FinTech Ecosystem MAS has an active and wide-ranging FinTech agenda. In the interest of time, let me highlight three key initiatives we have taken in recent years to nurture the FinTech ecosystem in Singapore and integrate it across ASEAN. First, the ASEAN Financial Innovation Network, or AFIN for short.