On 8 April 2020, the Singapore government announced another package as an aid for local businesses and specifically, the financial & FinTech sectors. This is to help reduce the impact of COVID-19. This S$125 million support package by the government aims to enable companies to reduce operational and manpower costs, increase sales capabilities, and promote usage of digital platforms, consequently positioning the economy for a more immediate recovery.
Support measures include:
- a $15 allowance per hour of training for local employees attending IBF courses
- wages subsidies and up to $12,000 worth of salary subsidy grants for new and existing poly grad hires offered by Startup Talent Factory.
- Discounts on rental cost up to 50% off new leases will also be given to FinTechs located at certain places, such as Bridge+.
Furthermore, MAS also has announced a Digital Acceleration Grant offering funding support for digital projects which aimed to improve productivity and operational efficiency. MAS will co-fund 80% of the qualified expenses and capped at $120,000 per entity at 1 year. The categories of supported solutions include:
- Cloud services;
- Communication and collaboration tools;
- Compliance & KYC tools (including transaction monitoring tools);
- Customer relationship and engagement tools (including digital customer onboarding);
- Data-related services (including data warehousing, data automation, data analytics);
- Enterprise services (including HR and accounting systems);
- Marketing productivity tools (including customer sensing tools, insights generation);
- Office productivity tools;
- Project management, software development, and testing tools;
- Security-related solutions; and
- Solutions to support alternative working arrangements, operational resilience, and BCP.
The grant isn’t just limited to members of the FinTech sector, however, and can also be applied to smaller Financial Institutions to help fund the adoption of FinTech solutions through the Institution Projects Track and Industry Pilots Track. Please visit the MAS website for further details and for the online application form.
Other measures in the package include temporary free access to API Exchange (APIX), a cross-border API marketplace and sandbox platform, along with the FinTech Self-Assessment Tool, a collaborative project between the MAS and SFA, a digital self-assessment framework for MAS’ Outsourcing and TRM Guidelines, also hosted on APIX.
In conclusion, the Government Support Package by the MAS will help the financial sectors be better prepared for the upcoming hauls with a variety of solutions. This government support will definitely be beneficial for all.
