7th Singapore FinTech Festival: Highlights in 2022
The Singapore FinTech Festival returned for its 7th edition on 31 October to 4 November 2022, bringing together more than 850 expert speakers and over 250 hours of content across the week-long programme.
Organized by Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), SFF 2022’s theme ‘Building Resilient Business Models amid Volatility and Change’ attracted participants from more than 110 countries and 2,000 organisations. It also housed more than 450 exhibitors and 25 international pavilions across the exhibition hall.
Singapore plays a huge role in the global fintech industry as a reliable hub for high growth and rapid digitization of Asian markets.
In accordance KPMG, as of June 2022, there are 1,007 operating fintech firms in Singapore. The number of fintech firms in Singapore remains the highest among SEA countries, representing 67 percent of the total in the entire region, which stood at 1,482.
SFF 2022 Exhibition
For the first time, the exhibition featured an ‘ESG FinTech zone‘. Designed in collaboration with MAS’ green fintech office, it hosted ESG fintechs, financial institutions and real economy players to showcase solutions that address key ESG data and disclosure challenges facing companies.
The SFF 2022 conference
The conference – opened by Lawrence Wong, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance – took place from 2 to 4 November. It hosted over 400 sessions with government leaders, policy makers, innovators, economists, business leaders and fintech entrepreneurs.
SFF 2022 Innovation Lab Crawl
Between 31 October and 1 November, 26 organisations, including Asia FinTech Center, Capgemini, NEC Laboratories, BNY Mellon, DBS and HSBCshowcased its latest fintech innovations across alternative investments, decentralized investments and insurance.
Sopnendu MohantyChief Fintech Officer at MAS, said: “The industry is moving into three areas – Web3, digital assets and an ESG-focused economy. We designed SFF to reflect this shift in an open, engaging and bold way , with a focus on finding solutions to today’s challenges and taking definitive steps towards implementation across the financial sector.”
Highlights from SFF 2022
Coinbase’s former CTO Balaji Srinivasan, discussed the concept of new digital states emerging from collectives of digital economy users. He highlighted decentralized financial products and their potential impact on the market.
Nikhil Rathi, UK CEO Financial Conduct Authority went on stage with Injeti Srinivasleader of International Financial Services Center Authority to debate ESG governance for the financial industry.
Ravi MenonMD of MAS, gave a keynote speech outlining the five main goals for Singapore, including instant remittance, sustainability data, programmable money, nuclear settlement and tokenized assets.
Standard Chartered announced at the Singapore Fintech Festival its investment in Partition, the global network for value exchange. As an active participant in the Singapore fintech ecosystem, this investment will make Standard Chartered a founding shareholder of Portior.
MAS and Singapore FinTech Association (SFA) announced the award winners by Global FinTech Hackcelerator and SFF Global FinTech Awards, at the Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF). The winners, consisting of financial institutions, fintechs and solution providers, were recognized for their innovative solutions that can help accelerate the pace of digitalisation, innovation and sustainability.
More SFF 2022 announcements
Google Cloud announced three key updates under its Point Carbon Zero program, launched jointly with MAS in July, to catalyze the incubation and deployment of climate fintech solutions in Asia over the next three years.
These updates included the appointment of an advisory board to guide the Point Carbon Zero program’s strategy and ecosystem engagement initiatives, as well as the launch of the first Climate Finance Accelerator to provide climate fintech firms and startups with guidance and funding opportunities. It also included the introduction of several high-growth technology companies to the program.
Angel Zhaopresident of international operations at ant group, shared the vision of Alipay+ and the latest developments at the Singapore Fintech Festival. The global merchant coverage of Alipay+ by sector includes over 1,000 online platforms, more than 10 major airports, over 90,000 convenience stores, over 360,000 restaurants, nearly 200,000 taxis and major hotel brands, department stores, duty-free shops and tourist facilities in Asia and Europe.
Over the past six months, Alipay+ has gained ground in markets including Southeast Asia, South Korea and Japan, connecting local and regional merchants with various digital payment methods.
