Singapore’s central bank and financial regulator is setting up a “national innovation centre” to help financial institutions accelerate adoption of artificial intelligence and new technologies, underscoring the city state’s ambition to become a global launchpad for AI.
Officially called Future of Finance Institute or FFI, the centre will pool resources for targeted AI and tokenisation capabilities, implementation toolkits, and will also be sandbox to test emerging technologies, according to Gan Kim Yong, deputy prime minister and chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
“To scale AI responsibly, the industry needs shared infrastructure, shared learning, practical toolkits, and safe testing environments,” he said, explaining the rationale for establishing the FFI.
“We want Singapore to be a global launchpad for AI in financial services: to anchor strong AI capabilities within financial institutions here, and to broaden adoption across the sector,” Gan said in a speech at the Association of Banks in Singapore’s annual dinner on June 25.
He said Singapore has made “meaningful progress” in AI adoption, with over 30 financial institutions having established AI competency centres in the city state, and more than 200 financial institutions participating in PathFin.ai, a MAS-initiated platform of industry-validated solutions. Institutions can use the platform to find and implement the most effective solution, saving them time and effort of having to start from scratch.
Gan said the next challenge is whether the financial sector can move from experimentation to deployment, and this is where the FFI comes in.
Singapore ranks fourth in theGlobal Financial Centres Indexpublished byLondon-based Z/Yen Partners in March, and tops both the index’s financial technology sector and financial services sector subgroups.
Non-traditional funds
Meanwhile, Gan said the MAS will soon start consultations on faster approvals for a new categoryof non-traditional funds so that managers can bring them to market quickly.
He said the regulator will determine the necessary guardrails for issuance of most of these fund types in about three months, and thereafter, similar funds can be approved in around three weeks.
Gan didn’t give specific details about the funds, saying only that they will still need to meet core requirements in governance and asset safekeeping, and that the underlying assets should be based on publicly traded securities and financial derivatives. “Our objective is not innovation at all costs — it is trusted innovation at greater speed.”
He said that over the past three years, assets managed in Singapore grew at a 11% compound annual rate to reach S$6.7 trillion (US$5.16 billion) as of end-2025.
