Major cities in Europe may not be the only ones after London’s FinTech crown.
A new reported from the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) stated that Singapore’s fast-growing and lucrative FinTech sector is standing out as many larger rivals around the world are impacted by regulatory challenges and political turmoil.
The report explained that regulatory issues in the U.S. and Europe, including the fall out of Britain’s decision to leave the EU earlier this year, has helped Singapore to attain significant global growth.
“While Silicon Valley offers the U.S. banking industry a significant head-start in adopting new technologies, progress has been slowed through legislative and licensing hold-ups. Meanwhile, the potential for U.K. banks to lose their pass-porting rights following the vote to leave the European Union poses real uncertainty about the future of FinTech in London,” Joseph Alfred, head of policy and technical at ACCA Singapore, told Finextra.
“Singapore, on the other hand, is benefitting from a supportive regulatory framework and extremely high digital capacity, which means there is a potential for her to become the regional hub for Asia-Pacific and beyond.”
Alfred noted that Singapore’s flourishing FinTech space can stand to benefit from the challenges being faced in other global markets.
Last month, Singapore took a big step in preparation for its own FinTech revolution.
The small nation made a push in support of FinTech innovation by reforming its payment laws. Singapore’s financial authority said it will look to consolidate existing legislation related to payment systems, stored value facilities and remittance businesses in order to create a new combined regulatory framework.
“A more calibrated regulatory regime, applied on an activity basis to payment service providers, rather than specific payment systems, would allow the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to better address specific issues, such as consumer protection, access and corporate governance,” the agency stated. “It would also give MAS the flexibility to address emerging risks, such as cybersecurity, interoperability, technology and money laundering and terrorism financing. It is envisioned that activity-based regulation of payment service providers would build public confidence and encourage the use of electronic payments.”
It was reported that the new changes will bring about a “blurring of the lines” between payments and remittance through advances in financial technology.
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