Wednesday, November 15, 2017

News from the Singapore Fintech Festival

We have previously noted here that Singapore desires to be a global leader in pushing forward new Fintech technologies. This week the MAS (central bank of Singapore) made some announcements in regards to some things we have talked about here that could lead to the first central bank digital currency by next year. Here is a link to the article and below is an excerpt from it (bold underline emphasis is mine).

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"SINGAPORE plans to work with partners in Hong Kong and Canada in developing the use of blockchain technology, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced on Tuesday.
The MAS will set up a cross-border platform with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority to boost trade finance using distributed ledger technology. This will enable the seamless transfer of digital documents and data across the Singapore-Hong Kong trade corridor. This is expected to go live in early 2019.
Speaking to participants of the Singapore Fintech Festival 2017, MAS managing director Ravi Menon said that blockchain technology offers good promise to make trade finance safer and more efficient. He said that today, trade finance is largely paper-based. This is not only inefficient, but increases risks such as fraud and duplicate invoicing, he added.
The MAS also plans to collaborate with the Bank of Canada to link both of their payments system that test the use of distributed ledger technology for cross-border payments."
Please click here to read the full article

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Added notes: Later this month I will try to provide a bit of an update of where things seem to stand in regards to the potential for monetary system change from the new Fintech technologies that continue to move forward around the world. Some things that will or could happen on the near horizon include:

- the launch of GlintPay based in London (I plan to cover that launch)
- perhaps some further news later this year from Singapore on progress towards a central bank digital currency
- the Cato Institute conference/discussion on the need for a rules based monetary system
- an interesting video interview from 2014 that readers may enjoy

No comments:

Post a Comment