The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) have signed an agreement to strengthen co-operation on FinTech between the two cities and foster FinTech development within the region. The Co-operation Agreement (“Agreement”) was exchanged on 25 October 2017, at the FinTech Day organised by the HKMA.
As part of the Agreement, MAS and HKMA have committed to work on a strategic project on trade finance cross-border infrastructure, based on distributed ledger technology, as their first collaborative initiative. More details will be announced by the two authorities next month. Besides joint innovation projects, the two monetary authorities will collaborate on other FinTech initiatives, facilitate referrals of innovative businesses, share information, and exchange expertise, to facilitate financial innovation in Singapore and Hong Kong.
Mr Norman Chan, Chief Executive of the HKMA, said:
Hong Kong and Singapore are the two leading international financial centres in the region and are actively deploying FinTech. Collaboration between the HKMA and MAS will create significant synergy for the development of fintech and more efficient fund flows between the two markets.
Mr Ravi Menon, Managing Director of MAS, added:
MAS is delighted to embark on this FinTech partnership with Hong Kong. This is one of our more significant FinTech co-operation agreements, given the extensive financial and trade linkages between Singapore and Hong Kong. We are especially pleased that we have a live project to enhance the trade finance corridor between the two financial centres.