MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Singapore Offers $1.8m Global FinTech Innovation Challenge for Responses to COVID-19, Climate Change

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Singapore’s central bank, is hosting a competition to encourage financial technology (fintech) firms to address the changes in the business world caused by COVID-19 as well as to promote innovation relating to climate change, including in “green finance.” The competition, which is named the Global FinTech Innovation Challenge, is composed of the MAS Global FinTech Hackcelerator and the MAS FinTech Awards. The finalists for both competitions will be selected in September, and the winners will be announced in November at the Singapore Fintech Festival. Both elements of the competition are being hosted on the collaborative financial services and technology platform API Exchange (APIX).

Registration for the FinTech Hackcelerator is open until June 30, 2020, with entries divided into the following categories: Responding to a Global Pandemic, Green Finance Solutions, Green Finance Enablers and Sustainability. Up to 20 finalists of the FinTech Hackcelerator will win USD 20,000 each to help them improve their proposals and prototypes. Three winners will be selected from the finalist pool and awarded an additional USD 50,000 each.

Registration for the FinTech Awards is open until August 7, 2020, with contestants divided as follows: individuals from Singapore, domestic financial institutions, entries from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and global entries. The competitors will be judged on how they “enable the financial sector to respond better to the pandemic and climate change, and achieve a more sustainable outcome.” Twelve winners will share a total of USD 1.2 million in cash prizes.

APIX was created in 2018 by the ASEAN Financial Innovation Network, which was established the same year by the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation, MAS and the ASEAN Bankers Association. US-based Virtusa leads the operation of the platform, with participation from UK-based Deloitte, Germany-based Fidor Solutions and Canada-based Percipient.

By Andrew Janni, Research Associate

Sources and Additional Resources

MAS Fintech Awards webpage
https://hackathon.apixplatform.com/masfintechawards

MAS Global FinTech Hackcelerator webpage
https://www.fintechfestival.sg/global-fintech-hackcelerator

MAS homepage
https://www.mas.gov.sg/

APIX webpage
https://www.virtusa.com/lp/apix/

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