September 21, 2021

Subscribe
Linkedin-in Twitter Facebook-f Youtube Instagram

Join our PHYSICAL Singapore OpenGov Leadership Forum 2021 - Click here for more details

We are creating some awesome events for you. Kindly bear with us.

Singapore and Cambodia to strengthen ties in Fintech Innovation

Share via

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to strengthen cooperation in FinTech innovation between both countries in Chiang Rai, Thailand, yesterday – 4 April 2019.

Information sharing on trends and developments in FinTech

Under the MOU, both countries will share information on emerging market trends and developments in FinTech, as well as regulatory issues pertaining to innovation in financial services. The two authorities will work together to conduct joint training sessions to share expertise to foster cross-border cooperation.

H.E. Neav Chanthana, Deputy Governor, NBC, said, “The NBC and MAS have reached a new step of financial cooperation in the area of financial innovation through this MOU. This will also allow us to share experiences and information related to FinTech to better manage and reap the benefit from the new innovation in financial technology in order to enhance payment system and promote financial inclusion.”

Countries share common focus to harness FinTech to create opportunities

Ms Jacqueline Loh, Deputy Managing Director, MAS, said, “This MOU builds upon the long-standing relationship between the NBC and MAS, as well as our common focus to harness FinTech to create new opportunities that will benefit both individuals and businesses. This collaboration also provides a framework for promoting financial innovation not only in our two countries, but also in the broader ASEAN region.”

The signing of the MOU took place on the side-lines of the 5th ASEAN Finance Ministers’ and Central Bank Governors’ Meeting.

The Philippines to Adopt Designated Payment Systems

Share via

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has introduced a revised circular requiring designated payment systems (DPS) to embrace the Principles for Financial Market Infrastructure (PFMI) to ensure the country’s national payment system’s continued safety, the efficiency of the flow of funds, and reliability (NPS).

The BSP Governor, who signed Circular No. 1126, asserted in the memo that the mandatory adoption of the PFMI will necessitate the adoption of its principles by all DPS participants. As of July, of this year, the BSP’s Peso Real-time Gross Settlement System (PhP-RTGS) is the country’s first DPS.

The Governor stated that the BSP will use PFMI assessment methodology to determine the DPS’s adherence to relevant principles, as well as identify potential risks and induce changes in the NPS. In terms of non-designated payment systems, he stated that the BSP could evaluate DPS participants’ practises and operations using key considerations under relevant principles such as credit and liquidity risk management and settlement.

The adoption of the standard is very timely given the surge of digital payments in the country, as it ensures payment systems to have safeguards in place which are at par with global practices.

– Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas

The deployment of PFMI is in accordance with the Payment System Oversight Framework (PSOF) of the BSP and the National Payment Systems Act (NPSA). Implementation of the PFMI may be subject to cooperative arrangements with other regulatory authorities in cases involving non-payment system financial market infrastructures (FMI) and cross-border payment systems, according to the governor. The circular also established expectations for critical service providers (CSPs) as defined by the PSOF. It provides guidance and assistance in ensuring that a CSP’s operations are held to the same standards as the DPS’s.

The Bank for International Settlement and the International Organisation of Securities Commissions formed the PFMI. PFMI is essentially a collection of international standards for financial market infrastructures such as payment systems, central securities depositories, securities settlement systems, central counterparties, and trade repositories. Adoption of the PFMI will ensure that the payment system operates in accordance with global best practices in terms of safety, efficiency, and reliability. With the DPS conforming to the PFMI to be more resilient to financial crises and participant defaults, the public interest is better protected, promoting trust in payment systems.

All DPS, whether a systemically important payment system or a prominently important payment system, will use PFMI to design and conduct its operations. “Each DPS is expected to demonstrate adequate governance and risk management arrangements covering areas including access of participants to the system, management of liquidity, credit, operational, settlement and general business risks, efficiency, and transparency,” said the BSP.

The NPSA empowers the BSP, as payment system regulator, to designate a payment system if it determines that the payment system poses or has the potential to pose systemic risk, or if the designation is required to protect the public interest. The PhP-RTGS is the Philippines’ only payment system that allows for settlement with central bank money.

In an article, OpenGov Asia reported that the government of the Philippines has made e-commerce and electronic payment methods a priority in efforts to boost both financial and digital inclusion throughout the country. In line with this, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) recently reaffirmed that they will continue to promote the digitalisation of financial products and services in the country even after the restrictions forced by the pandemic are lifted.

Last year, the central bank released the Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap (DPTR) for 2020-2023. Under the DPTR, the BSP aims to increase customer preference for digital payments by converting 50% of total retail payments to digital form and increasing the number of financially included Filipino adults to 70% by onboarding them to the formal financial system via payment or transaction accounts.

The BSP’s open market operations, issuance of its securities, the Philippine Peso leg of the PhP-US Dollar transaction, and domestic securities transactions are all settled via the PhP-RTGS. It also provides deferred net settlement for retail payment systems such as checks, ATMs, and E-payments.

Enhancing Indonesia’s Islamic Fintech with Digital Technologies

Share via

Indonesia’s fintech industry is one of the most competitive and dynamic in ASEAN, as evidenced by the emergence of four unicorns and one decacorn. Despite its infancy, the country is home to 20% of all Southeast Asian fintech companies, which are expected to generate US$8.6 billion in revenue over the next five years. In Indonesia, fintech is classified as either conventional or sharia fintech. Islamic fintech growth in Indonesia is continuing, albeit at a slower pace than conventional fintech.

A banking and financial services platform has launched a research series to understand what people think about the key trends driving the development of financial services. In the third edition of the platform, the firm conducted a global survey of 2,000 members of the younger Muslim community, primarily Gen Z and millennials, to better understand what Islamic finance means to them and their expectations of this sector.

Moreover, Islamic finance, one of the fastest-growing financial industries, continues to expand in size and influence far beyond the Middle East, into Muslim-majority countries in Asia and Africa, as well as parts of Europe and beyond. Total assets have surpassed US$2 trillion as a sector and are expected to reach US$3.8 trillion by 2023.

Greater awareness of Islamic finance, combined with improved legal and regulatory structures in many markets, is assisting the sector’s growth. To date, the Indonesian Islamic finance market has struggled to compete with the country’s conventional financial services industry. The good news is that, according to the survey, embracing digital technologies can help to improve financial inclusion across Indonesia while also boosting the country’s Islamic finance market.

OpenGov Asia in an article reported that the chairman of the Indonesian Joint Funding Fintech Association (AFPI) said that sharia fintech services are growing rapidly and Indonesia is a market with significant growth. He feels that the large potential of the sharia fintech market in Indonesia is because of the large Muslim population and its attractive values. Data shows that Muslims in the country increased from 209.12 million in 2010 to 229.62 million last year.

In addition, the growth of sharia fintech in the country is driven by millennials. The share of borrowers aged 21-30 years reaches 47% of the total. The next age interval of 31-40 reached 36% and the remaining 12% were in the age bracket of 41-50 years or generation X. In addition, the association considers that there is quite a lot of interest in Islamic financing schemes in Indonesia. Consumption and exports of Indonesian halal products increased respectively by 3.6% and 19.2% in 2017 according to the State of The Global Islamic Economic Report.

Sharia fintech, with technological capabilities, can contribute to the growth of Islamic-based financial services, said the Lead Research Economist of the Islamic Development Bank. Digitisation has also become more massive during the COVID-19 pandemic, including financial services. Islamic finance contributed 8.69% of the total financial industry in 2019.

Compliance with Islamic law remains a challenge for Indonesia’s Sharia fintech companies. Despite the exponential growth of the Sharia fintech scene in Indonesia, only nine of the 165 fintech companies registered with the government through the Financial Services Authority (OJK) are Sharia-compliant. The Indonesian government has attempted to address this by establishing the National Committee of Islamic Finance (Komite Nasional Keuangan Syariah, KNKS), which is chaired by the president and vice president of Indonesia. The primary responsibility of KNKS is to invest in Sharia-compliant fintech companies and increase their compliance rate.

Nevertheless, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, KNKS’s budget was reduced by nearly 60%. This significantly hampered the government’s efforts to expand the country’s Sharia fintech scene. Nonetheless, the future of Sharia fintech firms in Indonesia remains bright. Indonesia’s massive market size, growing conservative Muslim population, low Sharia banking penetration, and government investment will almost certainly see the sector through this pandemic.

E-Payments Continue to Drive the Philippine Economy Post-pandemic

Image credit: Pixabay
Share via

The government of the Philippines has made e-commerce and electronic payment methods a priority in efforts to boost both financial and digital inclusion throughout the country. In line with this, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) recently reaffirmed that they will continue to promote the digitalisation of financial products and services in the country even after the restrictions forced by the pandemic are lifted.

Last year, the central bank released the Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap (DPTR) for 2020-2023. Under the DPTR, the BSP aims to increase customer preference for digital payments by converting 50% of total retail payments to digital form and increasing the number of financially included Filipino adults to 70% by onboarding them to the formal financial system via payment or transaction accounts.

In an article, OpenGov Asia stated that fintech applications and technologies are constantly evolving, allowing more Filipinos to conduct financial transactions without the need for a bank account. Fintech products, such as e-wallets, allow users to transfer money digitally and build credit, making it easier for them to borrow funds in the future.

Moreover, the proposed framework for open banking by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) aims to benefit MSMEs by encouraging financial inclusion and making the deployment of innovative financial services faster and easier. With the right infrastructure, banks and fintech companies can create more cost-effective, personalised, and seamless solutions for MSMEs, facilitating distribution, data sharing, and payment enablement.

All these initiatives strive to assist BSP-supervised financial institutions’ digital transformation programmes, including fintech players, while also promoting sound risk technology and cyber risk management.

Earlier this year, the central bank and the country’s other financial regulators agreed to develop a unified monitoring and supervision scheme for the local fintech industry that does not stifle these firms’ innovative and creative ideas. To that end, a memorandum of understanding on the establishment of a cooperative oversight framework on fintech innovation was signed under the auspices of the multiagency Financial Sector Forum.

The BSP asserted that the roadmap intends to transform the country into a cash-lite society. During the pandemic, the use of digital payments reduced the need for mobility and helped to avoid health risks associated with face-to-face and over-the-counter financial transactions. The BSP stated that in the first seven months of 2021, the value of transactions made through its local E-wallets increased by more than 180%, and another by more than 80%.

Both Philippines’ leading E-wallets are automated clearing houses under the National Retail Payment System. One of the leading E-wallet platforms is a batch electronic fund transfer (EFT) that can be thought of as an electronic alternative to the paper-based check system, whereas the other leading E-wallet is a real-time, low-value EFT for transactions up to P50,000 that is useful for e-commerce.

With the rate of digitisation increasing in the Philippines, e-commerce merchants must capitalise on this shift in consumer attitudes by offering a variety of payment options along with appealing offers to attract the attention of a wide range of users. Offering multiple payment methods, including cash, and collaborating with local partners who have a thorough understanding of the Philippine market (not just retail and payments, but also logistics fulfilment and last-mile deliveries), could assist in transforming the Philippines into an e-commerce territory, opening more opportunities in the rest of Southeast Asia.

Singapore Government Deploys Fully Integrated Authoritative National Map

Share via

Singapore Land Authority (SLA) has released a fully integrated 3D version of OneMap, Singapore’s authoritative national map. The tool is the certified national map of Singapore which contains the latest and most comprehensive information on Singapore’s landscape. A product of a collaboration between several government agencies, the map’s services are free to access.

The application, OneMap3D, was unveiled at the Singapore Geospatial Festival 2021, where SLA also signed separate memorandums of understanding (MOU) with the country’s logistics and real estate agencies to expand the industry’s use of OneMap.

The latest was created by converting the original format to 3D using open-source 3D geospatial technology and 3D city modelling. Initially, OneMap was first released in 2010, followed by an improved version in 2017 in 2D that included features such as real-time traffic data and an Application Programming Interface (API) for app developers.

It is built on our commitment to enhance our country’s geospatial capabilities and to provide new geospatial solutions for businesses, government and the wider public.

– Singapore’s culture, community and youth minister

OneMap is the country’s digital map service, and it is constantly updated with information from government agencies, such as where citizens can pick up a free face mask. Singapore’s Civil Defence Force also used OneMap to create MyResponder, an app that alerts all trained first responders to cardiac arrests in the area. The new OneMap3D upgrade will allow citizens to navigate through a neighbourhood in the first-person view, simulating what a route would look like in person.

As reported by OpenGov Asia, Geospatial Technology involves the use of technology for collecting and utilising geographic information. Some of these technologies include Geographic Information System (GIS), GPS, remote sensing, and geofencing.

On the prevalence of the use of geospatial information in Singapore, organisations such as Grab manipulate this data to be able to match drivers with passengers, in real-time. There is already an everyday use of geospatial technology with the likes of GPS for navigating around. It provides location-based services such as:

  • Bus explorer: for information on bus routes and arrival timing
  • Landquery: Finding out land ownership and land lot information
  • Schoolquery: Searching for primary schools which are located within a 1-2 km radius from a location
  • Trafficquery: Live traffic information, cameras, ERP gantries and availability of parking lots

SLA Chief Executive says the MOUs with the logistics and real estate agencies are part of SLA’s efforts to collaborate with industry leaders to promote growth and opportunities through geospatial solutions.

SLA’s MOU with the property or real estate company in the real estate space will result in the development of new feature data collection and customised Application Programming Interface (API) to improve the property company’s applications and OneMap geospatial information. As per the company’s CEO, the collaboration has the potential to be a “game-changer” in the real estate industry.

In contrast, the parties will collaborate on geospatial co-innovations to improve hyperlocal and granular data at the street level for last-mile delivery under SLA’s MOU with Singapore’s logistics company. “We are delighted to be SLA’s first express logistics partner for GeoWorks,” says the CEO of the logistics firm.

He went on to say that by having the company’s drivers contribute pictorial information to enable OneMap’s accuracy and data volume, the company could potentially set a new industry operational standard by improving the entire last-mile delivery process.

The SLA and homegrown robotics and automation solution company MOU will see the trial of automated data capture with robots, limiting the time and effort from manual data capture, to develop geospatial innovation in the area of robotics and automation solutions. This collaboration will also allow SLA and the company to develop standards for robotics-ready maps and map information interoperability for compatibility across multiple platforms.

The Development of AI-Enabled Smart Machines in Singapore

Share via

Most aspects of everyday lives as consumers or employees have been embedded by Artificial Intelligence (AI) based systems. The further advancement and increased diffusion of AI capabilities pose risks of job replacement and even concerns of what this all means in terms of being human. Singapore Management University’s (SMU)Business Partnerships unit and International Trading Institute delved into the issue of “Working with AI-Enabled Smart Machines”.

University professors and thought leaders documented 30 examples of people doing their everyday work in real-world business settings in partnership with AI-enabled smart machines. These case studies will be used in their co-authored book The Future of Work Now: People Collaborating with Smart Machines.

The case studies covered a range of industry settings including insurance and financial services, knowledge work across other service sector industries, healthcare, factory floor production, and field operations across multiple industries.

One example cited was from one of Singapore’s banks who had massive migration to data analytics starting in 2010 and their follow-on progression into using machine learning. The system was able to draw on the bank’s existing data sources and external data to evaluate the probability of fraud or financial crime.

Before using this new system, the majority of the time spent by the bank employees who were doing transaction surveillance was on data amalgamation and sorting through the alerts generated by the prior generation of rule-based systems. The latter is an earlier type of AI application, with most of these alerts being false alarms.

With the new machine-learning-based system analysing and evaluating the rule-based alerts, the transaction surveillance employees can now focus directly on the alerts identified by the system as having a high or medium probability of being an actual problem.

The employee’s work time is allocated more efficiently, as they no longer need to look at large numbers of false alarms. Additionally, they no longer need to manually amalgamate all the supporting information use to evaluate each alarm as that background data access and integration work was automated as part of the machine learning application.

Another case study was on Southeast Asia’s largest e-commerce platform.  They are a digital-native born company whose business is based on AI-enabled data analytics. The case study highlighted the role of their product managers. These are the people who orchestrate the complex process of developing, phasing in and scaling new Shopee e-commerce platform capabilities and feature enhancements.

The product manager’s challenge is to do this in a way that meets business goals, satisfies customer needs, deals with the constraints and problems faced by the technology teams developing the new AI-enabled capabilities and features, and addresses the many conflicting requirements and trade-offs that arise.

The case study highlighted that while product managers are overseeing the processes of bringing AI-enabled capabilities and features of the platform to market, the nature of their role is so multi-faceted and complex that very few of their engagement management, negotiation, coordination, and decision-making tasks can be automated by these same type of AI capabilities. This product manager example illustrates one of the important ways in which human roles are required to manage the implementation of AI-based change efforts within a complex company setting.

The threat is not about AI taking away human jobs. The real threat is when people choose not to team with AI. Organisations need to learn how to capitalise on what AI can do, go beyond just thinking about simple labour displacement and manpower cost savings, and find ways to use the technology to create value in ways that lead to new demand and correspondingly to new employment opportunities.

As reported by OpenGov Asia, AI is becoming more sophisticated at doing what humans do, but more efficiently, quickly, and cheaply. Scientists from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and clinicians from Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) have used artificial intelligence to create a new method of screening for glaucoma.

India, Singapore to Link Digital Payment Systems

Share via

The central banks of India and Singapore plan to link their digital payments systems to enable instant, low-cost fund transfers. The two sides will connect India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and Singapore’s PayNow in a major push to disrupt the cross-border transactions between the two nations that amount to over US$1 billion each year.

The move is targeted for operationalisation by July 2022, both nation’s central banks said earlier this week. Users on either of the systems will be able to make transactions with one another without having to sign up to the second platform. When implemented, fund transfers can be made from India to Singapore using mobile phone numbers, and from Singapore to India using UPI virtual payment addresses (VPA). The experience of making a PayNow transfer to a UPI VPA will be similar to that of a domestic transfer to a PayNow VPA, noted the Monetary Authority of Singapore in a press statement.

UPI is an instant real-time payment system that facilitates inter-bank transactions developed by the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI). It has become the most popular way users in India transfer money to one another and to businesses, a news report stated. The system, adopted by scores of local and global firms, is now processing over 3 billion transactions each month. Singapore’s PayNow also enables peer-to-peer funds transfer service, available to retail customers through participating banks and non-bank financial institutions (NFIs). It allows users to send and receive instant funds from one bank or e-wallet account to another in Singapore by using just their mobile number, Singapore NRIC/FIN, or VPA.

The Reserve Bank of India, the country’s central bank, described the project as a significant milestone in the development of infrastructure for cross-border payments between India and Singapore. It noted that the linkage closely aligns with the G20’s financial inclusion priorities of driving faster, cheaper, and more transparent cross-border payments.  The linkage builds upon the earlier efforts of NPCI International Private Limited (NIPL) and the Network for Electronic Transfers (NETS) to foster the cross-border interoperability of payments using cards and QR codes, between India and Singapore. It will further anchor trade, travel, and remittance flow between the two countries.

Earlier in August, India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, launched a new digital payment system called e-RUPI. It is a QR code or SMS string-based e-voucher, which is delivered to the mobile of the beneficiaries. The users of this seamless one-time payment mechanism will be able to redeem the voucher without a card, digital payments app, or Internet banking access at the service provider. Any government agency and corporation can generate e-RUPI vouchers via their partner banks.

As OpenGov Asia reported, the e-RUPI initiative will be one of the programmes launched over the next few years to limit touchpoints between the government and the beneficiary and ensure that the benefits reach their intended beneficiaries in a targeted and leak-proof manner. The vouchers are person- and purpose-specific, which means that if they are released by the government COVID-19 vaccinations, for instance, then they can be redeemed only for that. It also ensures that the payment to the service provider is made only after the transaction is completed. Being pre-paid in nature, it assures timely payment to the service provider without the involvement of any intermediary. E-RUPI is expected to be a revolutionary initiative for ensuring a leak-proof delivery of welfare services.

Singapore Government Initiatives Help Growth of Medical Devices

Share via

By increasing government expenditure on healthcare and rapidly increasing demand for innovative medical technologies, Singapore medical devices market is expected to grow quickly, according to a leading analytic company.

Singapore aims to provide smart healthcare to people with the help of novel technologies, which is helping the country to withstand the impact of COVID-19 on its healthcare system. This report reveals that the Singapore healthcare market is a strongly growing market in the Asia-Pacific region, with a focus on health technology and research and development.

Telemedicine, electronic health records, patient solutions, medical diagnostics, health management solutions, personal health and fitness, and medical education are some of the areas where technology plays a major role.

The report reveals that government initiatives such as Diagnostics Development (DxD) Initiative and the Smart Nation initiative will support the increased demand for medical devices by the rapidly ageing population to drive the market in Singapore.

Singapore’s public and private healthcare expenditure, which accounts for about 5.3% of GDP in 2020, is expected to exceed 8.5% in 2030. This increase can be attributed to the Singapore government’s focus on raising the healthcare expenditure driven by the growing consumption of healthcare services by the general population.

Medical Devices Analyst stated that the Research, Innovation and Enterprise Plan (RIE2025), launched by the Singaporean government, holds a budget of around US$19bn with ‘Human Health and Potential’ as one of the major areas of focus. The plan is expected to strengthen the medical devices industry in the country.

To keep up with advances in biomedical science and encourage the development of new clinical treatments, The Ministry of Health, in partnership with Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and other governmental bodies, have increased their focus on investing in clinical and translational research.

Singapore provides universal health coverage to citizens and permanent residents. Almost 80% of the healthcare cost is subsidised by the government. Polyclinics in Singapore are also adopting new technologies such as virtual systems, and this is making healthcare delivery more accessible and affordable, especially during the pandemic.

Using a virtual system, the attending nurse enters the details of the patient’s medical condition, and the computer algorithm in the device will recommend required tests and consultation with specialists at the National Heart Centre, Singapore. This will provide faster service to patients while eliminating incidental costs that accompany hospital visits, and help the physician attend to more patients each day.

Adherence to the ASEAN Medical Device Directive’s (AMDD) basic policies is expected to be followed by all ASEAN countries in the next few years. The AMDD system for registering and assessing medical devices requires ASEAN countries to follow uniform classification criteria for medical devices. This will provide medical device companies with a common market of more than 600 million people.

There has been an obvious and significant rise in the development and deployment of transformational technologies in the healthcare system during the pandemic in Singapore, and this demonstrates the commitment of the country in achieving its aim of providing technology-driven healthcare solutions to its citizens

As reported by OpenGov Asia, Digital Monitoring Solution is one of the examples of Singapore’s innovation in medical devices. The Digital Monitoring Solution is an affordable and fully integrated smart health platform comprising a tamper-proof smart wearable, mobile app, geofence locator, remote monitoring dashboard and automatic alerts.

The solution provides a holistic 360-degree view for round-the-clock monitoring and detailed record logs of a seafarer’s well-being, combining key vitals tracking (temperature, heart rate, SPO2, activity level and sleep patterns), highly accurate indoor geofencing with automated geofence quarantine monitoring and health symptoms monitoring. It analyses and triangulates information collected and can detect abnormalities and assess risks.

Recommended Stories

Linkedin-in Twitter Facebook-f Youtube Instagram
© 2021 OpenGov Asia – CIO Network Pte Ltd.
Send this to a friend