The People's Bank of China (PBC) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) signed a fintech cooperation agreement on 14 November. They said that the agreement will enable joint innovation and research projects in digital and mobile payments; blockchain and distributed ledgers; big data; flexible platforms through application programming interfaces (API), and other new technologies.
The agreement was announced at the ASEAN Summit in Singapore last week.
Payment provider Network for Electronic Transfers of Singapore (Nets) and China's UnionPay International also signed an agreement to support cross border connections between their mobile wallets.
MAS said that the mobile wallet agreement will support further collaboration on technology know-how between UnionPay and NETS, and will help the companies establish a research and development centre in Singapore.
PBC also launched an innovation lab in Singapore. It said the lab would conduct research & development and enable fintech collaborations.
Nathanael Lim of Pinsent Masons MPillay, the Singapore joint venture partner of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said, "China’s adoption of digital and mobile payments in particular is impressive. China's financial industry has some unique characteristics but there will nonetheless be lessons which Singapore can draw on to promote adoption."
Singapore launched a fintech regulatory sandbox early in 2016, to support the development of fintech companies domestically.
