Singapore FinTech Festival is off to a great start with the announcement by Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat at the Singapore Fintech Festival x Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology 2021 to set aside an additional SGD 180 million for AI research – which could not be more timely.

The launch of two national AI programmes targeted at the financial services industry and the government sector is also very exciting.

This year, we have seen Singapore, consistent with its strategy to be a global leader in AI take steps to support AI and innovation, including updating data protection laws to facilitate use of data for business improvement and research purposes, and enter into Digital Economy Agreements with various countries to facilitate co-operation and collaboration at an international level. On a domestic level – we see the government take a sector to sector approach with its national AI programmes – encouraging industry players to collaborate for the sake of innovation. This is critical for data innovation – where large data sets are key to be effective.

Also with COP 26 taking place in Glasgow and corporates and investors alike looking for solutions to report on ESG targets – NovA! is an exciting stepping stone on the journey of assessing environmental impact and risks, a key issue we have been discussing with many of our financial institution and investment fund clients. NovA! is a platform for financial risk insights generation across the financial industry. It is a collaboration between Singapore banks and Fintechs, and the initial phase will help assess companies’ environmental impact and identify emerging environmental risks for financial institutions.

Continue reading: Day 2 – Themes of the Singapore FinTech Festival