The Monetary Authority of Singapore has put together a S$125 million Covid-19 support package to help fintech firms and financial institutions ride out the current slump in economic activity.

The package, funded by the Financial Sector Development Fund, will be used to support workforce training and manpower costs, strengthen operational resilience and extend access to the central bank's innovation sandbox.

Ninety million dollars will be ploughed into a new Training Allowance Grant (TAG) to encourage FIs and fintech firms to make use of the downtime in business activity to reskill their employees and take on new talent.

MAS will also set up a new Digital Acceleration Grant (DAG) to support digitalisation in smaller financial institutions and fintech firms with fewer than 200 employees.. The accelerator programme will support the the adoption of digital tools and upgrading of systems that facilitate business continuity.

The central bank will additionally provide all Singapore-based fintech firms with six months’ free access to API Exchange (Apix), an online global marketplace and sandbox for collaboration and sales. Through Apix, fintech firms and FIs can integrate and test solutions via a cloud-based architecture.

As part of this, MAS will work with the Singapore FinTech Association to set up a new digital self-assessment framework for MAS’ Outsourcing and TRM Guidelines hosted on Apix.

Jacqueline Loh, deputy managing director, MAS, says: “We have significantly enhanced existing initiatives and introduced new schemes to help our FIs and fintech firms not only navigate the current headwinds but at the same time build deeper competencies, skills, and networks, so that we can emerge stronger for the longer term. We encourage FIs, fintech firms and financial sector professionals to actively tap on these opportunities.”