Information giant Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI) and the Singapore FinTech Association (SFA) have announced that they have committed to join forces on projects and initiatives contributing to the development of the FinTech industry in Singapore. The collaboration will involve working closely with financial institutions, local universities and startups, focusing on leveraging emerging technologies to solve issues around financial crime.
Financial crime is a growing problem, and organisations are seeking innovative solutions to reduce its impact. According to a recent Thomson Reuters True Cost of Financial Crime report, it is estimated that companies lose USD$1.45 trillion in turnover globally from this issue, with estimated losses in Asia-Pacific amounting to approximately USD$166 billion.
The collaboration joins the technical expertise based in the Singapore unit of Thomson Reuters Labs with the network of the Singapore FinTech Association. Launched in early 2017, Thomson Reuters Labs in Singapore leverages Asia’s vibrant innovation and FinTech ecosystem to drive experimentation and fuel collaborative projects.
Globally, Thomson Reuters Labs is a team of data scientists, UX designers and engineers that drives experimentation with advanced data analytics and machine intelligence to solve challenges for Thomson Reuters customers. Thomson Reuters Labs provide capabilities across the disciplines of data science, artificial intelligence, blockchain engineering and data visualisation.
Chia Hock Lai, President of the Singapore FinTech Association said:
Financial crime is a serious and growing issue for businesses in every industry. The Singapore FinTech Association is delighted to partner with a world-class organisation such as Thomson Reuters to find ways to tackle it together.
Sanjna Parasrampuria, Head of Thomson Reuters Labs, Asia Region added:
Thomson Reuters new collaboration with the Singapore FinTech Association supports our focus on fostering open innovation and we are excited to be solving real-world problems as a part of the regional ecosystem. Financial crime remains a huge issue globally as well as in APAC, however we believe emerging technologies will help to find new solutions to combat this widespread problem.