Now in its eighth year, Singapore’s Fintech Festival (SFF) is the world’s largest gathering of the global fintech community, attracting 62,000 visitors this year including several of the world’s central bankers and policy makers. 

A video that played at the beginning of each day asked attendees to consider, “What are the most consequential conversations we need to have?” In an extremely volatile year, both economically and geopolitically, SFF 2023 had a lot of consequential topics to address.

Kristalina Georgieva, Manager Director of the International Monetary Fund opened this year’s event. Her message was clear. Governments need to be doing more to roll out Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). She noted that although 60 percent of countries are now exploring CBDCs in some form, the rapid speed with which new technologies such as ChatGPT have been adopted should prompt governments to act with greater urgency in developing regulations that guide digital money developments. 

“This is not the time to turn back,” she said. “The public sector should keep preparing to deploy CBDCs and related payment platforms in the future. These platforms should be designed from the start to facilitate cross border payments.” Georgieva announced the launch of The IMF’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Virtual Handbook, a reference guide for policymakers and experts at central banks and ministries of finance. 

“We have left port and are now in high seas. We must ensure that countries don’t get stuck on the wrong side of the digital divide ”

— Kristalina Georgieva, International Monetary Fund

Maireed McGuinness, the European Commissioner responsible for financial services, financial stability and the capital markets union, did not necessarily agree that a sense of urgency was critical. While she was not willing to put a timeline on the roll out of a digital Euro, (“certainly not next year”) she felt that strong public debate is critical to ensure that member states understand how a European CBDC would function. She also said addressing obvious concerns within the European Union for privacy is important. 

“The evolution of money is extraordinary. And it's about trust,” she said in an interview with Timothy Adams, president & CEO of the Institute of International Finance. “Because if you don't trust the digital form, or the cash form, you know, it's over. Trust is fundamental in the financial system.” 

In a first for SFF, the president of the World Bank, Ajay Banga, attended. In conversation with Managing Director of Monetary Authority Singapore, Ravi Menon, Banga also raised privacy as a critical concern of further monetary digitization. He said the idea of creating a digital stack that respects citizens’ privacy is eminently doable with blockchain technology. 

“The Western World's hang up on privacy is actually a hang up we all should have,” he said. “Because as citizens, your human right is your right to privacy. And I think that the blockchain is a unique way to enable the issuing of identities by governments, while enabling no other player to get undue advantage to the knowledge of you as a citizen. I think that is where the exploration of our innovation must go. Because we must give people the convenience and the ease of digital.”

“Be a key part of creating accessibility and affordability. Your task is to break through the arbitrage advantage of incumbents. And break through in a way that enables access to women and young people, and changes their lives. Because young people and women are our future ”

— Ajay Banga, President World Bank

Each year since its inception, Ravi Menon’s keynote address on the opening day of the Singapore Fintech Festival packs the auditorium. This year was no exception. His address was filled with developments and announcements that revealed just how quickly Singapore has forged ahead since last year’s address. 

In 2022, Ravi Menon emphatically stated that cryptocurrencies were a complete non-starter, their volatility proving they could not be relied upon as a digital currency. He said then that the regulator was more open to stablecoins, experimenting with tokenized bank deposits and exploring uses for central bank digital currencies. 

In the 12 months since, the Singapore Government has embarked on a series of pilots under Projects Guardian and Orchid to test a Singapore CBDC (eSGD), test regulated stablecoins and asset tokenization across varied use cases and asset classes. A number of pilots proved successful and since moved to implementation, in collaboration with a range of institutional partners. 

“A larger vision that is emerging is of a network of interoperable systems that allows payment, clearing and settlement to take place instantaneously and seamlessly,” he said this week. “The key components to realize this vision are: digital assets, digital money, and digital infrastructure.” 

Menon announced that “MAS has granted in-principle approval under the Payment Services Act to three entities, who will issue stablecoins that substantially comply with MAS’ upcoming stablecoin regulatory framework - StraitsX SGD Issuance that will house the XSGD pegged stablecoin that is already on the market; StraitsX USD Issuance; and Paxos Digital Singapore that will issue new USD-pegged stablecoins.”

Menon also announced that the International Monetary Fund would be joining the Project Guardian Policymaker Group. 

On the final day of the event Menon announced his retirement as Managing Director of MAS, stating that “I may pop in from time to time. I’m not disappearing completely.” As a champion for digital innovation and financial inclusion, he is credited with steering Singapore towards its status as a highly respected global Fintech hub.

Lead image: Ajay Banga, President World Bank in conversation with Ravi Menon, Managing Director, Monetary Authority Singapore.