The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) recently announced a S$125 million support package for the financial and FinTech sectors.  The financial support will help companies in those sectors better manage immediate challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic and ensure the strong recovery and future growth of the sectors when the pandemic subsides.

The package provides support in three areas: manpower costs, operations costs and access to business opportunities.

Manpower Costs

MAS’s initiative for helping financial institutions (FIs) and FinTech companies manage their manpower costs includes:

1. a training allowance grant of up to S$15 per hour for local employees taking courses from the Institute of Banking & Finance (IBF);
2. a salary subsidy of up to S$12,000 for new and existing polytechnic graduate hires offered by Startup Talent Factory; and
3. wage subsidies of 75% of the first S$4,600 of April salary of local employees (and 25% for later months) through the Jobs Support Scheme.

Operations Costs

MAS’s Digital Acceleration Grant scheme offers up to 80% funding support for FIs and FinTechs to adopt digital solutions to improve their service offerings, operational resilience and risk management procedures.  The funding cap is S$120,000 per entity for one year from 1 February 2020.  Participation is limited to Singapore-based FIs and FinTechs with no more than 200 employees, and FinTechs must be certified by the Singapore FinTech Association (SFA).

MAS also offers a 90% course fee subsidy for local employees attending courses under the IBF-Standards Scheme and Financial Training Scheme.  IBF will also provide an additional 5% in the form of IBF credit.

FinTechs can qualify for a 50% discount on new office leases at Bridge+.  Existing tenants at 80RR may, on a case-by-case basis, qualify for temporary rent relief.

Access to Future Business Opportunities

The ASEAN Financial Innovation Network, of which MAS is a founding member, will provide six months’ free access to its APIX service, which is a digital platform for FinTechs to engage with financial institutions globally.

MAS, together with SFA, will create a new digital self-assessment framework for MAS’s Outsourcing and Technology Risk Management Guidelines hosted on APIX.  The self-assessment tool is intended to assist FinTech firms in providing first-level assurance to financial institutions of the quality of their solutions.

For More Information

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Disclaimer: This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice.

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