The Monetary Authority of Singapore said on Thursday that it will commit $250 million over the next three years to accelerate innovation and technology adoption in the financial sector.

The funds, which will be disbursed under the enhanced Financial Sector Technology and Innovation Scheme (FSTI 2.0), aims to strengthen support for large-scale innovation projects, and build a stronger pipeline of Singaporean talents in fintech.

«FSTI 2.0 aims to invigorate the culture of innovation in Singapore, catalyze the implementation of innovative solutions, and deepen the cybersecurity capabilities in the financial sector,» MAS said in an announcement.

Stronger Support

Under FSTI 2.0, there will be more funding for financial institutions and fintech firms to undertake larger-scale POC projects to experiment, develop and deploy innovative solutions, empowered by emerging technologies, and a merit-based tiered funding mechanism will be introduced to replace the existing flat 50 percent funding support of qualifying project cost.

It will also strengthen the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) within the financial industry by raising the maximum funding quantum for all qualifying AI projects under the Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics (AIDA) Grant from S$1 million to S$1.5 million, and will introduce an AIDA-Lite track for institutions to adopt proven AI solutions.

Finally, MAS said it will co-fund existing innovation labs for new Singaporean hires to encourage the expansion of existing labs and groom Singaporean talent.