Financial Sector Development Fund Annual Report
 Published Date: 18 July 2024

FSDF Annual Report 2023/2024

As part of MAS’ efforts to foster a sound and dynamic international financial centre, the Financial Sector Development Fund (FSDF) offers grants to incentivise financial sector players in talent development, technology and innovation, and financial sector activities. Learn more about FSDF.

Financial Statement Highlights

$1,107 million

Total net assets of the fund

$156 million

Grant disbursements

Grant expenditure has decreased 34% (or $79m) from FY22, due partly to progressive normalisation in training schemes’ subsidy rates.

$184 million

Total investment income

Mainly from interest and dividend income, gains from financial instruments measured at fair value, and foreign exchange gains.


As announced in Budget 2024, the FSDF will receive a $2 billion top-up in FY24, to anchor additional capabilities across banking, capital markets, asset management and insurance, as well as capture new opportunities in emerging areas, such as sustainability, AI, and technology and innovation.

The top-up will also enable MAS to step up its talent development initiatives, to upskill financial sector professionals and equip the workforce with skills to capture new opportunities and meet changing job needs.

Key Initiatives

Talent Development

To foster a skilled and adaptable workforce, $400 million in grant funding from FSDF has been set aside for the Talent and Leaders in Finance Programme over 2021 – 2025 to develop early career and mid-career professionals, as well as specialists and leaders for the financial sector.
  • Build New Capabilities in Emerging Areas

Training support is provided to financial institutions and individuals to spur continuous upskilling and reskilling, to ensure that our workforce is equipped with skills in emerging areas and remains relevant to industry needs.

In particular, to enable Singapore to serve the growing sustainable finance market in ASEAN, $35 million in grant funding from FSDF has been set aside to upskill the workforce in sustainable finance capabilities over the next three years. The Institute of Banking & Finance (IBF), as the appointed Jobs Development Partner for the financial services sector, is working with training providers and financial institutions to accredit new training courses and expand training capacity, and scale up upskilling across the workforce in this area. 

  • Expand Opportunities for Young Talent

FSDF supported the development of young talent for the financial sector through the Polytechnic Talent for Finance Scheme (PTFS) . Under the PTFS, $8 million was set aside to encourage financial institutions to train and hire polytechnic students and graduates from 2023 to 2026. Many financial institutions have scaled up internship opportunities and developed new apprenticeship programmes targeted at polytechnic talent. These cut across a variety of job roles, including in tech, compliance, relationship management and operations.

  • Develop Local Talent & Leadership Pipeline

FSDF continued to support local talent and leadership development in the financial sector.

Since the last enhancement of the International Postings Programme (iPOST) in 2021, more than 110 postings have been committed, about 60% of which were in Asia. At the senior level, the Asian Financial Leaders Scheme (AFLS) continued to support the development of leaders, currently one or two levels below C-suite, to take on future senior leadership roles.

In 2023, the Finance Associate Management Scheme (FAMS) was reviewed to ensure more meaningful training outcomes for young Singaporean fresh graduates in the financial sector. Changes include a new requirement for financial institutions to ensure that trainees complete at least 90% of the programme duration to qualify for funding, and the setting of a minimum duration of three months for overseas job rotations to qualify for additional funding.

 

Technology and Innovation

FSDF supports the development of a vibrant ecosystem for innovation through the Financial Sector Technology and Innovation (FSTI) Scheme, which was extended in 2023 for a further three years.

Significant projects supported by the FSTI last year include:

  • Industry-wide technological or utility infrastructure projects, such as cross-border payment linkages with neighbouring countries, which offer greater convenience for cross-border fund transfers, and Gprnt, an integrated digital platform to simplify businesses’ collection and reporting of environmental, social and governance (ESG) data to support their sustainability initiatives;
  • Set-up of Centres of Excellence to test-bed innovative ideas and roll out market solutions;
  • Innovation Acceleration projects to experiment, develop and deploy innovative solutions using nascent technologies;
  • Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics (AIDA) projects to promote AIDA adoption amongst financial institutions and FinTech firms; and
  • Regulatory Technology projects to enhance financial institutions’ risk management and compliance functions.

Financial Sector Activities

FSDF continued to support a wide range of initiatives across key areas of the financial sector over the past year.  

Consumer Education

FSDF continued to support MoneySENSE’s consumer education initiatives. In the past year, 21 financial literacy workshops in primary and secondary schools, campus events and public seminars were organised to equip Singaporeans with financial knowledge and capabilities to make informed financial decisions in their daily lives.