The Monetary Authority of Singapore and India’s International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) has signed a FinTech cooperation agreement to facilitate regulatory collaboration and partnership in FinTech.
IFSCA is headquartered at Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City), Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India. The “city” is seen to be a newly-built business and IT hub.
Under terms of the cooperation agreement, both parties will tap existing regulatory sandboxes in their respective jurisdictions to support the experimentation of technology innovations.
“This includes referral of companies to each other’s regulatory sandboxes and enable innovative cross-border experiments in both jurisdictions,” says MAS.
Both parties can also evaluate the suitability of use cases which could benefit from collaboration across multiple jurisdictions, and invite relevant jurisdictions to participate in a Global Regulatory Sandbox.
In addition, both parties will share non-supervisory related information and developments on innovation in financial products and services, facilitate discussions on emerging FinTech issues and participate in joint innovation projects.
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According to Sopnendu Mohanty, chief fintech officer of MAS, the co-operation agreement builds on the Memorandum of Understanding on supervisory co-operation signed between MAS and IFSCA in July 20222.
“The cross-border testing of use cases between Singapore and India will pave the way for operationalising a broader collaboration framework for FinTech use cases involving multiple jurisdictions,” he adds.
Joseph Joshy, IFSCA’s chief technology officer describes this agreement with MAS as a “watershed moment” that ushers in a FinTech Bridge to serve as a launch pad for Indian FinTechs to Singapore and landing pad for Singapore FinTechs to India, leveraging the Regulatory Sandboxes.
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“The possibility of global collaboration on suitable use cases through a Global Regulatory Sandbox is an exciting opportunity for the FinTech Ecosystem,” he adds.
The co-operation agreement was signed on Sept 18 at Gujarat and witnessed by Singapore’s deputy prime minister Lawrence Wong and finance minister of Gujarat, Kanubhai Desai, as well as Injeti Srinivas, chairperson of IFSCA; Sudhir Mankad, chairman of GIFT Company; Tapan Ray, managing director and CEO of GIFT Company.
