India and Singapore sign an agreement for fintech cooperation

Overseeing the financial sector in India’s international finance service centres, the IFSCA is headquartered at Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (Gift City). The Monetary Authority of Singapore is Singapore’s central bank and integrated financial regulator. MAS works with the financial industry to develop Singapore as a dynamic international financial centre. 

Under the FinTech Cooperation Agreement, both countries will operate a regulatory sandbox, which aims to ensure better cooperation between Indian and Singaporean fintech companies. 

Present at the signing event was Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, who highlighted that this is the first agreement of its kind for both countries. He also revealed that Gujarat accounts for close to 30 percent of India’s exports to Singapore.

According to an official press release by MAS and IFSCA, the two regulators will leverage existing regulatory sandboxes in Singapore and Gujarat in order to improve innovation for cross-border experiments in both regions. 

Fintech growth and predictions in Singapore 

According to a report by fintechnews.sg, 20% of Singapore’s fintech landscape is focused on blockchain and cryptocurrency, while 17% of fintechs operate in payments. Investments and wealthtech occupy 13% of the fintech market, while regtech sits at 10%. 

As far as payment methods in Singapore are concerned, digital wallets are set to overtake credit cards as the preferred online payment method over the next four years and buy now pay later (BNPL) options will grow the fastest, according to the 2021 Global Payments Report by FIS.  

Credit cards were the most popular online payment method in 2020, but by 2024, this is expected to change with digital wallets such as GrabPay and DBS PayLah! taking the lead and accounting for 27% of online purchase transactions.

A quick look at the fintech landscape in India 

According to ey.com, the fintech sector in India is home to more than 20 fintech unicorns already. By 2030, India’s fintech sector is expected to reach USD 1 tln in throughput and USD 200 bln in revenue. The same source reveals that fintech funding in India has seen a significant jump in 2021.  

Moreover, Buy Now Pay Later has become mainstream and is on a clear growth trajectory, emerging strong not only in B2C but also B2B payments space. The surge in digital financial services in India has attracted global neo-banking entities such as Revolut and Tide.