• Enhance Employability and Maximise Opportunities of Local Workforce

The S$125m support package allowed the Institute of Banking and Finance (IBF) to increase training subsidies, introduce a training allowance grant and provide training support to FinTech firms. With these enhancements, training participation has increased by at least 60% on a year-on-year basis. This represents an increase from about 75,000 courses taken up in 2019 to about 120,000 in 2020.

The Finance Associate Management Scheme (FAMS) was also enhanced. FAMS aims to train Singaporeans for future specialist and management roles in the financial sector through structured programmes offered by FIs. With changes to the assessment criteria to facilitate participation by smaller firms, and increased monthly salary funding, close to 400 Singaporeans benefitted from FAMS in 2020.

• Strengthening Digitalisation and Operational Resilience

The support package also included a new Digital Acceleration Grant (DAG) scheme to help smaller financial and fintech firms adopt and collaborate on digital solutions, in order to strengthen the firms’ operational resilience amid the pandemic as well as enhance their process efficiency, risk management and customer service. More than 500 DAG projects were supported during the year.

• Talent and Specialist Pipeline Building

In 2020, FSDF enhanced funding support under the International Postings Programme (iPOST) to encourage financial institutions to send more Singaporeans on overseas postings to build regional and leadership capabilities. 

Both the Asian Financial Leaders Scheme  and Financial Specialist Scholarship  also continued to support the development of Singaporean leaders in the financial sector in 2020.

FSDF also launched the Work-Study Support Programme to encourage FIs to develop job-ready graduates through integrating classroom learning and on-the-job training for undergraduates. 

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and attendant travel restrictions, fewer overseas postings were supported compared to the previous year.

Significant projects supported by the FSTI last year include:

• Set-up of a centralised payments infrastructure enabling real-time transfers between bank accounts to e-wallets and vice versa;
• Development of an ESG data exchange platform to encourage capital investments into sustainable initiatives;
• Establishment of the Singapore Cyber Technology Operations Centre to anchor advanced cybersecurity functions in Singapore;
• Set-up of innovation labs by financial institutions, FinTechs and technology companies, as well as regional cybersecurity hubs; and
• Proof-of-Concept projects to experiment, develop and deploy innovative solutions empowered by emerging technologies.

• Debt capital market: MAS supported new bond and insurance-linked securities issuances through the Global-Asia Bond Grant Scheme In January 2020, MAS announced the expansion of the Asian Bond Grant Scheme to cover all issuers with an Asian nexus, and renamed the scheme as the Global-Asia Bond Grant scheme. , Sustainable Bond Grant Scheme , SGD Credit Rating Grant Scheme , and the Insurance-Linked Securities (ILS) Grant Scheme . The ILS grant scheme has been extended for two years until 31 December 2022, given strong interest from industry players.
• Equity capital market: The Grant for Equity Market Singapore (GEMS) was launched in February 2019 to enhance Singapore’s role as an enterprise financing hub by supporting listings on the Singapore Exchange. GEMS also supports training and research initiatives to strengthen Singapore’s equity research ecosystem.
• Foreign exchange market: The Foreign Exchange E-Trading Ecosystem Grant Scheme aims to build an FX e-trading ecosystem in Singapore through the setting up of matching engines by banks, inter-dealer and multi-dealer platforms.
• Fund Domiciliation: The Variable Capital Companies (VCC) Grant Scheme was launched in January 2020 to promote the incorporation or re-domiciliation of investment funds in Singapore. There has been strong take-up of the VCC grant scheme during the course of the year.
• Green Finance: The Green and Sustainability-linked Loan Grant Scheme , the world’s first grant scheme to support such loans, was launched in January 2021. The scheme also aims to make green financing more accessible to small and medium-sized enterprises. FSDF also supported the establishment of the SMU-Imperial Singapore Green Finance Centre, the first research institute dedicated to green finance research and talent development in Southeast Asia.