The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) shared in an email with QA Financial that the financial services regulator plans to commit S$100 million, or close to $75m, to support the island-state’s banks and other financial services firms to design, test and build capabilities in quantum and artificial intelligence technologies.
The capital is also meant to speed up the advancement of quantum and AI related innovation and adoption in financial services, MAS said.
“While financial institutions have been progressively adopting AI, recent technological advancements have made such tools more widely accessible and increased the pace of adoption,” the body explained in an email.
With the advent of Generative AI, financial institutions have embarked on initiatives to map the technology’s opportunities and risks, and have begun piloting it across a range of use cases, it stressed.
“Nevertheless, the level of AI-readiness and adoption varies hugely across financial institutions in Singapore,” the regulator warned.
“MAS will therefore bolster financial institutions’ development and deployment of AI technologies in Singapore,” it said.
“The level of AI-readiness and adoption varies hugely across financial institutions in Singapore.”
– MAS
The watchdog stressed it firmly believes that Singapore has “the potential to become a centre of excellence for anchoring AI capabilities, such as in the development of applications, as well as testing and deployment of AI solutions for the financial sector.”
MAS will support financial institutions in establishing AI innovation centres in Singapore for a range of functions including AI model building and training, deployment of AI models for high-impact use cases, governance and risk management, as well as testing and monitoring.
It also plans to develop AI platforms to address industry wide use cases.
“There are strong prospects for the financial industry to apply AI to solve industry-wide problems beyond what each financial institution can do individually,” MAS clarified.
This involves the development of frameworks and platforms for policies and protocols that enable secure and privacy protected data exchange where financial institutions can collaborate on industry-wide use cases, it added.
Quantum tech testing
Interestingly, MAS stressed parts of the funds will be used to speed up the rollout, testing and adoption of quantum technology.
“It is a rapidly advancing field that holds significant potential to transform the financial industry and broader economy,” the body wrote.
It will support the establishment of quantum computing and security innovation functions in Singapore, to enable financial institutions and global technology companies to explore and unlock new opportunities arising from quantum technologies.
MAS will also hand out grants, which will provide funding support of up to 50% on manpower and other qualifying expenses such as hard/software infrastructure, subscriptions and licenses, for a period of 24 months.
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